Elections And Democracy In Central America Revisited

This volume represents a continuation and significant expansion of the study of the relationship of elections to democracy in Central America that the editors began with Elections and Democracy in Central America.

Latin American Political Culture: Public Opinion and Democracy presents a genuinely pan-Latin American examination of the region’s contemporary political culture. This is the only book to extensively investigate the attitudes and behaviors of Latin Americans based on the Latin American Public Opinion Project’s (LAPOP) AmericasBarometer surveys. The findings reveal a complex Latin America with distinct political culture. Authors John Booth and Patricia Bayer Richard join rigorous analysis with clear graphic presentation and extensive examples, and readers learn about public opinion research, engage with further questions for analysis, and have access to data, an expansive bibliography, and links to appendices.

This book summarizes the multiple origins of the crisis that Central Americans are suffering today. It focuses on an analysis of the revolutionary popular movements as a form of social movement capable of joining together a diversity of class-based groups.

Most non-Central Americans think of the narrow neck between Mexico and Colombia in terms of dramatic past revolutions and lauded peace agreements, or sensational problems of gang violence and natural disasters. In this volume, the contributors examine regional circumstances within frames of democratization and neoliberalism, as they shape lived experiences of transition. The authors--anthropologists and social scientists from the United States, Europe, and Central America--argue that the process of regions and nations "disappearing" (being erased from geopolitical notice) is integral to upholding a new, post-Cold War world order--and that a new framework for examining political processes must be accessible, socially collaborative, and in dialogue with the lived processes of suffering and struggle engaged by people in Central America and the world in the name of democracy.

Throughout the 1980s, superpower rivalry and regional conflicts decimated the economies of Central America, eroding their political systems. Recent years, however have witnessed remarkable political change. This book provides an analysis of the political party system in each state.

Ten contributors, all active political figures, provide reflections and insights on the processes by which they helped bring about political and economic change in Central America.

Seventeen first-hand accounts and essays challenge the predominant myths about this troubled region and offer an alternative to the mainstream media's interpretation of events in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Comprehensive study of the application of the Michigan model to explain voting behavior in Latin America

In considering the nature and future prospects of the current wave of democracies in Latin America, analysis has shifted from a concern with regime change, transitions, and consolidation to a focus on the quality of these democracies. To what extent, for example, do citizens participate and influence decision making? Are elections free and fair? Are there ways of ensuring government accountability? Do unelected power brokers exert undue influence?Furthering this new approach, the authors of The Quality of Democracy in Latin America provide a rich, nuanced analysis-centered on a multidimensional theoretical foundation-of democratic systems in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.