The US.-sponsored programs of military and police collaboration with the Central American governments during the Cold War also contributed to the surveillance capacity of those states during the period when the Central American state formation process was being completed. Guatemala is used as a case study. Washington’s contribution was framed by the conventional discourse of “security against communism” but also by an underlying technocratic ethos in which “modernization” and “security” were higher priorities than democratization.

This article compares union-government relations in Mexico and Argentina when education was decentralized in the early 1990s. The Mexican union accepted decentralization after obtaining concessions from the government that placated its opposition; but the Argentine teachers’ unions militantly resisted the reforms, only to see government officials ignore their demands. These cases illustrate the significance of partisan identities, union fragmentation, and leadership competition in the interaction of public sector unions and government officials.

Recent scholarly work on Latin American religion reflects the pluralism and fragmentation of both religion and civil society. What effect will religious practice at the local, “micro” level have on institutions and structures at the “macro” level-namely, the process of democratization? A deeper, simultaneously more foundational and more encompassing definition of democratic politics might be involved. In an increasingly global context, the study of religion and social change in Latin America and among U.S. Latinos needs to take a comparative, truly interamerican approach.

Using survey data and interviews, this study examines Panamanian attitudes toward the United States and toward the central issues in US.- Panama relations. It also compares Panamanian attitudes with opinions toward the United States in the rest of Central America. The study finds that nationalism, system support, anticommunism, and, for the mass public, ideology are the most important variables in determining support for the United States. Elites are more nationalistic and less accommodationist toward the United States than the mass public. Concern about the politicization and misuse of the Panama Canal and adjacent lands has led many in the general public to support a continued US. military presence on the Isthmus of Panama.

The constraints imposed on Chile’s democratic transition by the military regime, plus the impact of structural reform and the political renovation of the dominant parties of the center and left, have made the traditional party allies of the popular sectors unable or unwiIIing to represent those constituents in the political arena. This argument is substantiated through an overview of pacted democratic transitions, an analysis of the evolution of party-base relations in Chile, and a consideration of the institutional impediments to further democratic reform.

Debates about democratization in developing countries have generally emphasized competitive elections, broad participation, and the protection of civil and political liberties. A survey of the first two years of PAN administration in the city of Puebla, Mexico, assesses government capacities and policy responses to social and economic demands. It suggests that excitement over the election of opposition party officials should be tempered pending evidence of the accommodation of such demands.

Studies of Latin American civil society tend to assume that popular organizations promote “high-intensity” forms of political participation while political parties mainly encourage voting. This study compares the influence of these two forces in the urban informal sector. Association involvement, low in both samples, is related to “higher-intensity” participation, but the differential influence of associations and parties holds only for Costa Rica; Nicaragua’s revolutionary FSLN has fostered a more politically active citizenry.

This essay argues that Manuel Castells’s explorations of networks and the emergent network society in his recent trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture may offer useful clues to recent religious developments in Latin America. In this regard, Pentecostalism, by adopting a logic of horizontal integration, rapid response, and flexible production, might be more successful than the Catholic Church in attracting followers.

The Aylwin and Frei administrations have taken a cautious approach in formulating economic policies. This article analyzes how they have maintained economic stability, fueled sustained growth, and coped with inflows of foreign capital. While achieving successes in macroeconomic policy, export development, and poverty alleviation, Chile also faces challenges, including high social inequality and the increasing difficulty of dealing with the effects of financial globalization.

This article examines the political strategies of the EZLN, or Zapatista army, in Chiapas and the EPR, which operates mostly in Oaxaca and Guerrero, through a content analysis of their communiquiés. It argues that these two guerrilla movements demonstrate, through their cultural production, significantly different priorities and preferences; and that these differences reflect different strategic choices. Whereas the EZLN has chosen to pursue a revolutionary strategy similar in key respects to the “war of position” described by Gramsci, the EPR remains closer to the “war of movement.”

Brazil’s comunidades eclesiais de base (CEBs) forged a generation of women leaders from poor communities who helped rebuild civil society and spurred the democratic transition. Fifteen years later, the CEBs and their women leaders have largely disappeared from politics. This study examines the reasons for their eclipse and the chances for their reemergence. New alliances with other Catholic progressives, Pentecostals, and feminist groups may enable these women to resume their activist role and may again help revitalize Brazilian civil society.