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Audacious Reforms examines the creation of new political institutions in three Latin American countries: direct elections for governors and mayors in Venezuela, radical municipalization in Bolivia, and direct election of the mayor of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Diverging from the usual incremental processes of political change, these cases marked a significant departure from traditional centralized governments. Such \"audacious reforms, \" explains Merilee S. Grindle, reinvent the ways in which public problems are manifested and resolved, the ways in which political actors calculate the costs and benefits of their activities, and the ways in which social groups relate to the political process. Grindle considers three central questions: Why would rational politicians choose to give up power? What accounts for the selection of some institutions rather than others? And how does the introduction of new institutions alter the nature of political actions? The case studies of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Argentina demonstrate that institutional invention must be understood from theoretical perspectives that stretch beyond immediate concerns about electoral gains and political support building. Broader theoretical perspectives on the definition of nation and state, the nature of political contests, the legitimacy of political systems, and the role of elites all must be considered. While past conflicts are not erased by reforms, in the new order there is often greater potential for more responsible, accountable, and democratic government.

The resurgence of the Left in Latin America over the past decade has been so notable that it has been called “the Pink Tide.” In recent years, regimes with leftist leaders have risen to power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela. What does this trend portend for the deepening of democracy in the region? Benjamin Goldfrank has been studying the development of participatory democracy in Latin America for many years, and this book represents the culmination of his empirical investigations in Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In order to understand why participatory democracy has succeeded better in some countries than in others, he examines the efforts in urban areas that have been undertaken in the cities of Porto Alegre, Montevideo, and Caracas. His findings suggest that success is related, most crucially, to how nationally centralized political authority is and how strongly institutionalized the opposition parties are in the local arenas.

People are increasingly unhappy with their governments in democracies around the world. In countries as diverse as India, Ecuador, and Uganda, governments are responding to frustrations by mandating greater citizen participation at the local and state level. Officials embrace participatory reforms, believing that citizen councils and committees lead to improved accountability and more informed communities. Yet there's been little research on the efficacy of these efforts to improve democracy, despite an explosion in their popularity since the mid-1980s. Democracy from Above? tests the hypothesis that top-down reforms strengthen democracies and evaluates the conditions that affect their success.S tephanie L. McNulty addresses the global context of participatory reforms in developing nations. She observes and interprets what happens after greater citizen involvement is mandated in seventeen countries, with close case studies of Guatemala, Bolivia, and Peru. The first cross-national comparison on this issue, Democracy from Above? explores whether the reforms effectively redress the persistent problems of discrimination, elite capture, clientelism, and corruption in the countries that adopt them. As officials and reformers around the world and at every level of government look to strengthen citizen involvement and confidence in the political process, McNulty provides a clear understanding of the possibilities and limitations of nationally mandated participatory reforms.

The 2003 electoral victory of Lucio Gutiérrez in Ecuador was met with the same sense of optimism that greeted the election of Ignacio 'Lula' da Silva in Brazil, and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Gutierrez's victory was viewed as a major advance for the country in its 500 year-long struggle for freedom and democracy. In Bolivia, Evo Morales similarly came within an electoral whisker of achieving state power in 2002, and in 2003 Nestor Kirchner became President of Argentina. Many journalists , academics and politicians speak of a \"left-turn\" in Latin America, characterizing these regimes as \"center -left\". They came to power on the promise of delivering a fundamental change of direction that would steer their countries away from neo-liberal economic policies, and towards greater social equity. Their success awakened major hopes on the Left for a new dawn in Latin American politics. This book challenges these assumptions. It critically examines their agreements with the IMF, their social and economic policies, and the economic ties of leading policy makers, as well as the beneficiaries and losers under these regimes. Latin America is unique in that it has experienced two decades of popular resistance to neo-liberal policies: each of the four countries examined here has a rich history of diverse indigenous and working class movements coming together to promote radical political change. The authors examine the political dynamics between the state and its agenda, and the strategy of mass mobilisation taken by the mass movements. They explore the intensifying conflicts between the movements and their former allies in the state.

01 02 Parliaments around the world are still overwhelmingly populated by men, yet studies of male dominance are much rarer than are studies of female under-representation. In this book, men in politics are the subjects of a gendered analysis. How do men manage to hold on to positions of power despite societal trends in the opposite direction? And why do men seek to cooperate mainly with other men? Elin Bjarnegård studies how male networks are maintained and expanded and seeks to improve our understanding of the rationale underlying male dominance in politics. The findings build on results both from statistical analyses of parliamentary composition worldwide and from extensive field work in Thailand. A new concept, homosocial capital, is coined and developed to help us understand the persistence of male political dominance. 16 02 The readers of the book on Gender, Politics and Institutions by Krook and Mackay (2011, Palgrave Macmillan) should be interested in this book, since it speaks with the same institutional language, but delves deeper into how institutions actually work in specifically gendered ways. It adds a gendered perspective to the growing neo-institutionalist literature on informal institutions, exemplified in Informal Institutions & Democracy by Helmke and Levitsky (2006, John Hopkins University Press). Readers of The Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinity, edited by Kimmel, Hearn and Connell (2005, Sage Publications) have probably noted the absence of political studies. 13 02 ELIN BJARNEGÅRD is Assistant Professor at the Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests include Informal institutions, Gender issues and Thai Politics. 02 02 In this book, men in politics are the subjects of a gendered analysis with Elin Bjarnegård exploring how male networks are maintained and expanded, seeking to improve our understanding of the rationale underlying male dominance in politics. The role of informal institutions in unpredictable political settings are explored. 08 02 'This fascinating new book broadens our horizons in a number of ways. It firstly challenges us to think about male dominance rather than female under-representation in politics, using a range of methods and data derived from detailed empirical research. Second it develops a concept of homosocial capital and uses it in novel ways to to give us significant new insights into the gendered impact of clientelism and informal institutions on candidate selection. This book is an important addition to the gender and politics scholarship and deserves to be widely read.'   Georgina Waylen, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester, UK      'The relation between gender equality, corruption and clientelism in democratic governance is as important as it is fascinating. In this theoretically sophisticated and empirically impressive work, Elin Bjarnegård presents a novel understanding not only for why male dominance in democratic politics can be reproduced through clientelistic network, but also how the specific mechanisms between informal power and democratic representation operate'   Bo Rothstein, August Röhss Chair in Political Science, Göteborg University, Sweden. 'Throwing fresh light on the age-old puzzle of male dominance in elected office, this book provide a new theoretical framework by developing the concept of homosocial capital, often known as 'old boys networks', which are particularly useful for men seeking to get ahead in countries with clientalistic politics. Drawing upon evidence from global trends, the study also utilizes insights drawn from in-depth case-study of Thai politics. The clear, informative and illuminating study gives new insights into the challenges which need to be overcome to achieve gender equality in elected office'   Pippa Norris, Mcquire Lecturer in Comparative Politics John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA and ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, Australia 31 02 This book explains male dominance in politics by focusing on the role of informal institutions in political recruitment 04 02 Upholding Male Parliamentary Dominance Revisiting Patterns Of Gendered Representation Structure Of The Book Studying Men And Masculinities In Politics Constructing Homosocial Capital Clientelism And Unpredictability Clientelism As A Likely Producer Of Homosocial Capital Clientelism And Male Dominance Institutional Enablers Of Clientelism Combining Methods The Quantitative Approach The Qualitative Approach The Representation Of Men Worldwide Capturing Clientelism – Measuring The Immeasurable? The Models, Data And Operationalizations Clientelism And Male Parliamentary Dominance Results And Implications Of The Quantitative Study Situating The Thai Case The Thai Gender Paradox Democratic Instability In Thailand Informal Influence Assessing The Clientelist Political Logic The Thai Case: Clientelism And Male Dominance Candidate Selection In Thai Political Parties The Importance Of Candidate Selection The Rules Of The Game Who Decides? Summarizing Thai Candidate Selection Clientelist Networks And Homosocial Capital The Role And Function Of Clientelist Networks Network Maintenance And Homosocial Capital Theorizing Homosocial Capital The Gendered Consequences Of Clientelist Competition The Added Value Of Homosocial Capital Concluding Remarks A Summary Of The Findings The Contributions Of The Book Interviews References Notes 19 02 The book addresses an old topic in a new way: gender and politics here means male dominance in politics. The book explains how men have managed to hold on to political power rather than why women are stil largely absent The book combines a statistical analysis of over 400 elections worldwide, with an indepth analysis of localized political networks in Thailand (based on 150 interviews). This combination of methods in one and same book, addressing one and the same research question, is very rare The book launches a new concept: homosocial capital. This concept has a wide applicability across many fields and draws from literature on social capital and homosociality. It is used to explain and rationalize the tendency of men to interact with other men in order to preserve power It is one of few works on Thai politics that focuses on gender. It also ties gender inequalities together with the political turbulence in Thai politics The book takes a new look at democratization and shows that semi-democracies often are weak, both in terms of institutional strengths and gender equality

Almost all agree that political systems in Latin America underwent a transformation in the 1980s. The usual quick description of this change was ‘democratization’. But whether one takes an optimistic or a pessimistic view of the level of democracy that was achieved, one thing was sure—the traditional forms of participation by, and representation of, the poor, the working population, and others structurally disadvantaged had changed. The chapters examine the labour organizations, political parties, indigenous and environmental groups that have emerged, sometimes amidst new forms of violence. Others recount efforts to rebuild social–democratic projects and to create new models of participatory politics in municipalities and around social programmes. There is no consensus on whether these new forms will produce more democracy. Rather, the chapters present a variety of conceptual tools to identify trends and assess their impact.

Gender scholars show that women in situations of civil war have an impressive record of agency in the social and political spheres. Civilian women’s political mobilization during conflict includes active involvement in civil society organizations, such as nongovernmental organizations or social movements, and public articulation of grievances – in political protest, for example. Existing explanations of women’s political mobilization during conflict emphasize the role of demographic imbalances opening up spaces for women. This article proposes a complementary driving factor: women mobilize politically in response to the collective threat that conflict-related sexual violence constitutes to women as a group. Coming to understand sexual violence as a violent manifestation of a patriarchal culture and gender inequalities, women mobilize in response to this violence and around a broader range of women’s issues with the goal of transforming sociopolitical conditions. A case study of Colombia drawing on qualitative interviews illustrates the causal mechanism of collective threat framing in women’s collective mobilization around conflict-related sexual violence. Cross-national statistical analyses lend support to the macro-level implications of the theoretical framework and reveal a positive association between high prevalence of conflict-related rape on the one hand and women’s protest activity and linkages to international women’s nongovernmental organizations on the other.

This paper proposes a classification of government expropriations of foreign property based on the types of alliances sought out by governments in their quest for support for those actions. Based on a review of historical literature and social science studies of expropriations in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America in the twentieth century, we define three types of alliances: with organized labor, with domestic business owners, or with sections of the civil service or the ruling party. We posit that each sector allying itself with the government expects rewards from the expropriation. We maintain that the type of alliance is determined by several factors, in particular, the longevity and legitimacy of the nation-state of the expropriating country, the strength of organized labor, and the political participation and strength of the domestic business sector. Our framework complements existing studies explaining when and why expropriations take place.

Background In Latin America, total sales of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) continue to rise at an alarming rate. Consumption of added sugar is a leading cause of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Coalitions of stakeholders have formed in several countries in the region to address this public health challenge including participation of civil society organizations and transnational corporations. Little is currently known about these coalitions – what interests they represent, what goals they pursue and how they operate. Ensuring the primacy of public health goals is a particular governance challenge. This paper comparatively analyses governance challenges involved in the adoption of taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages in Mexico, Chile and Colombia. The three countries have similar political and economic systems, institutional arrangements and regulatory instruments but differing policy outcomes. Methods We analysed the political economy of SSB taxation based on a qualitative synthesis of existing empirical evidence. We identify the key stakeholders involved in the policy process, identified their interests, and assess how they influenced adoption and implementation of the tax. Results Coalitions for and against the SSB taxation formed the basis of policy debates in all three countries. Intergovernmental support was critical to framing the SSB tax aims, benefits and implementation; and for countries to adopt it. A major constraint to implementation was the strong influence of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the policy process. A lack of transparency during agenda setting was notably enhanced by the powerful presence of TNCs. Conclusion NCDs prevention policies need to be supported across government, alongside grassroots organizations, policy champions and civil society groups to enhance their success. However, governance arrangements involving coalitions between public and private sector actors need to recognize power asymmetries among different actors and mitigate their potentially negative consequences. Such arrangements should include clear mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability of all partners, and prevent undue influence by industry interests associated with unhealthy products.