Books in the Latin American Societies series

This book frames a series of protests occurred in Brazil from 2013 to 2016 as exemplary cases of global trends in contentious politics to analyze the tension between two forms of collective action: the militant (militante) and the prefigurative activist (ativista). Building on sociology, political science, and psychology, it explores the relationship between protestors' activities and conceptions of political participation with their subjectivity and agency. The protest cycle triggered by the June 2013 events in Brazil gave strength and popularity to repertoires and strategies of collective action uncommon and innovative. Those praxes defied political parties' conventions, highlighted the limitations of militant unionist tradition, and brought prefigurative activism to the Brazilian left-wing agenda. In this book, Andre Luis Leite de Figueirêdo Sales combines theoretical tools and traditions from South and North America to build an interdisciplinary approach to Political Psychology and answer the question: what psycho-political differences lie behind the disparate forms of political action adopted by militantes (militants) and ativistas (prefigurative activists) in Brazil? Inspired by books of short stories, the chapters discuss different aspects of the distinction between militancy and prefigurative activism. On them, the author deals with problems such as: how are the ongoing changes in Brazilian protest culture connected with the rising popularity of autonomist movements across the globe? What differences does it make rooting protest strategies in principles like resistance or refusal? How does the culture informing militants and prefigurative activists' conduct affect their political goals and horizons? How does militant and prefigurative activist culture relate to militants and prefigurative activists' forms of political consciousness? A Political Psychology Approach to Militancy and Prefigurative Activism: The Case of Brazil will be a valuable tool for social movement researchers from different disciplines interested in understanding how can subjectivity be, at the same time, a determiner of activities performed in collective action, and determined by these same transformative deeds.

This book analyzes how the past and its representation in the public space have been a source of conflict in Chile since the end of the Pinochet regime. From a multi-disciplinary perspective (sociology, anthropology and history), it studies the work of seven organizations of memory and human rights in Santiago, Chile, the struggles in which they are engaged, and the main debates that have arisen in the country around the themes of impunity, truth and memory.Covering the period from 1998 to 2018, this book begins its analysis with the detention of Augusto Pinochet in London and concludes with the end of the second term of Michelle Bachelet. The seven organizations studied range from family groups and survivors to sites of memory and consciousness. Through analyses of the discourses produced by these organizations, it examines particular historical periods(1998-2000, 2001-2008, 2009-2010, 2011-2013 and 2014-2018) by focusing on strong debates and events of these conjunctures in order to highlight the struggles of meaning and the conflicts of legitimacy relating to these times. In concrete terms, particular attention is paid to the analysis of the main themes of litigation, the way in which the actors are mobilized, their objectives and how the past is evoked in the public space.Battles for Memory and Justice in Chile: Struggles for Remembrance, Legitimacy and Accountability will be of interest to researchers from different disciplines and fields of study within the human and social sciences, such as sociologists, historians and anthropologists working in fields such as Latin American studies, sociology of memory, sociology of social movements and human rights studies.

This book analyzes how COVID-19 impacted politics and how politics shaped the response to the pandemic in Latin America, the region which has become the epicenter of the global health crisis started in China. The volume brings together studies carried out in eight countries of the region - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay - and show how the impacts and outcomes varied a lot across the region depending on the political processes under way in each country in the years preceding the pandemic and on the political responses adopted by each government to deal with the health crisis.   The volume is divided into four parts, each one dedicated to a specific dimension of the relation between politics and COVID-19 in Latin America. The first part is dedicated to denialism, and presents three case studies of governments that denied the importance of the health crisis: Brazil, Mexico and Nicaragua. The second part takes Uruguay and Colombia as two opposite examples of successful and failed state action against COVID-19. The third part analyzes how social movements faced the pandemic in Brazil and Chile. Finally, the fourth part analyzes how public opinion reacted to political responses to COVID-19 in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.COVID-19's Political Challenges in Latin America will be a valuable resource for political scientists, sociologists and other social scientists interested in understanding how the pandemic affected politics and how politics affected the fight against the biggest health crisis faced by humanity in the last hundred years.  

This book analyzes how COVID-19 impacted politics and how politics shaped the response to the pandemic in Latin America, the region which has become the epicenter of the global health crisis started in China. The volume brings together studies carried out in eight countries of the region ¿ Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay ¿ and show how the impacts and outcomes varied a lot across the region depending on the political processes under way in each country in the years preceding the pandemic and on the political responses adopted by each government to deal with the health crisis. The volume is divided into four parts, each one dedicated to a specific dimension of the relation between politics and COVID-19 in Latin America. The first part is dedicated to denialism, and presents three case studies of governments that denied the importance of the health crisis: Brazil, Mexico and Nicaragua. The second part takes Uruguay and Colombia as two opposite examples of successful and failed state action against COVID-19. The third part analyzes how social movements faced the pandemic in Brazil and Chile. Finally, the fourth part analyzes how public opinion reacted to political responses to COVID-19 in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.COVID-19's Political Challenges in Latin America will be a valuable resource for political scientists, sociologists and other social scientists interested in understanding how the pandemic affected politics and how politics affected the fight against the biggest health crisis faced by humanity in the last hundred years.

Part I Democracy and Institutions 1.PELA-USAL: A Methodological Tool for the Study of Elites2.Political Ambition in Latin America3.Political Trust of Parliamentary Elites in Latin AmericaCristina Rivas P├⌐rez and Manuel Alc├íntara S├íez4.Satisfaction with Democracy in Latin America: Perspectives from Political Elites and Citizens 5.Appendix Shopping for Votes in Latin America: When Do Legislators Engage in Vote-Buying Practices?6.Political Elites and Democratic Fatigue in Latin America7.Executive-Legislative Relations: When do Legislators Trust the President?  8.Political paths and gender in Latin America. An analysis of the trajectories of legislative elites9.Co-variance of Latin American Elite Attitudes towards the U.S. and China Part II Case Studies 10.What Can Ideology Tell Us? An analysis of deputies and parties in the Brazilian, Chilean, and Uruguayan legislatures11.Democracy and Political Institutions in Mexico from the Perspective of Parliamentary Elites12.Parliamentary Opposition: an explanatory analysis of ideological and evaluative elements in the Congress of Colombia (2006-2022)13.Parliamentary Elites in Uruguay14.Two Cases from Central America:Attitudes of political elites in Panama and Guatemala