Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s victory in Brazil’s 2002 presidential election brought to power Latin America’s largest leftist party, the Workers’Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores [PT]). The PTwon because it moved to the center, and voters regarded this shift as credible. The party’s transformation is puzzling, because political scientists do not expect strategic flexibility in “mass bureaucratic” parties, which the PT resembles. Although exogenous factors are important, the key to understanding the party’s strategic adaptation lies with its internal institutions, which generate substantial leadership accountability. The weight of pragmatists in the rank and file grew in the 1990s following the party’s success in subnational executive elections and its consequent need to demonstrate results in office. These rank-and-file members could influence the party’s direction because of the party’s internally democratic institutions. The PT’s transformation reveals that strategic flexibility can emerge in mass parties ...

/pdf/from-socialism-to-social-democracy-party-organization-and-562ndfeekn.pdf

From Socialism to Social Democracy: Party Organization and the Transformation of the Workers’ Party in Brazil

This essay argues that neoliberalism has strengthened the sustainability of democracy in Latin America but limited its quality. Drastic market reform seems to have abetted the survival of competitive civilian rule through its external and internal repercussions. By opening up Latin American countries to the world economy, neoliberalism has exposed them to more of the international pressures for preserving democracy that intensified with the end of the Cold War. At the same time, the move to market economics has weakened leftist parties, trade unions, and other proponents of radical socioeconomic reform, reassuring elites and preventing them from undermining democracy. But tighter external economic constraints limit governments' latitude and thereby restrict the effective range of democratic choice; and the weakening of parties and interest associations has depressed political participation and eroded government accountability. The available evidence therefore suggests that neoliberalism has been a mixed blessing for Latin American democracies.

/pdf/neoliberalism-and-democracy-in-latin-america-a-mixed-record-40tkbdnw87.pdf

Neoliberalism and Democracy in Latin America: A Mixed Record

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/2412847.pdf

Peasants against globalization: rural social movements in Costa Rica

1. High court-elected branch institutions in Latin America 2. Setting the scene: Latin America's triple transition and the judicialization of economic governance 3. Politicization and the political court in Argentina 4. Professionalism and the statesman court in Brazil 5. The political court and high court submission and inter-branch confrontation in Argentina 6. The statesman court and inter-branch accommodation in Brazil 7. Conclusions and implications.

/pdf/high-courts-and-economic-governance-in-argentina-and-brazil-2hsi17ksuy.pdf

High Courts and Economic Governance in Argentina and Brazil

In response to the growing salience of re-centralization in several
Latin American countries that decentralized in the 1980s and 1990s,
this paper examines presidential efforts to re-centralize fiscal
power in the 1990s. In our study of re-centralization in Argentina
and Brazil, we assess the utility of four common political economy
explanations: the presence of economic crisis; the partisan powers of
the president; the division of formal powers between the branches; and
the extent of intra-bureaucratic conflict. We find that the success
of economic stabilization measures facilitated re-centralization in
both countries, though the pathways connecting the two phenomena were
partially distinct. In Argentina, key re-centralization measures were
rapidly achieved after stabilization as the result of the president's
strong partisan powers and in the form of political deals within the
Peronist party. Subsequently, the dissipation of President Carlos Menem's
powers over the course of his second term facilitated the "return of the
governors." In Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso re-centralized despite
weak partisan powers, largely by using his reputation as a successful
stabilizer to build a broad reform coalition. In Cardoso's Brazil, strong
partisan cohesion in important cabinet posts also served as a partial
substitute for the lack of partisan power in the legislature. These
findings suggest the need for a closer examination of re-centralization
efforts, particularly in the wake of macroeconomic stabilization and
economic reform.

The Politics of Re-centralization in Argentina and Brazil

Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions, and Processes

Even though the papers and speeches in this book are now almost five years old, they remain timely. Little has been done to address Latin America’s corruption problems since the 1996 signing of the Inter-American Convention. Although “Combating Corruption” was placed on the action plan at the Miami Summit, the item was barely discussed at the Santiago Summit (1998) or the Quebec City Summit (2001). What’s more, no Western Hemisphere state (not even Canada or the United States) has fully complied with the convention’s requirements. Truly to comply would mean implementing corruption reforms that would threaten the governing elite’s hold on power and sources of income. Thus, the documents in this book remain as current today as the conference was in 1996. Michael W. Collier Florida International University

Peter R. Kingstone, and Timothy J. Power, eds. Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions, and Processes. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000. Map, tables, figures, notes, bibliography, index, 330 pp.; hardcover $50, paperback $22.95.

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Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions, and Processes

Peter R. Kingstone, and Timothy J. Power, eds. Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions, and Processes. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000. Map, tables, figures, notes, bibliography, index, 330 pp.; hardcover $50, paperback $22.95.