Robert Brenneman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753840
- eISBN:
- 9780199918836
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753840.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Central American transnational youth gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteenth Street gang promote a hyper-machismo that idealizes violent, risk-prone codes of conduct and lifelong ...
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Central American transnational youth gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteenth Street gang promote a hyper-machismo that idealizes violent, risk-prone codes of conduct and lifelong affiliation. Central American evangelical churches promote a strict piety that prohibits drinking and promotes domestic ideals of marriage and fatherhood. Yet several studies suggest that conversion to evangelical Christianity is a common pathway out of the gang. Using semi-structured interviews with sixty-four former gang members in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, this book examines why many ex-gang members consider joining an evangelical or Pentecostal church the safest and most effective means of leaving the gang. Religious conversion provides former gang members with new access to social and symbolic resources crucial for keeping safe, building trust, and finding work after leaving the gang. But more than strategic use of cultural “tools” is involved in religious conversion. In some cases, emotional conversion experiences actually helped to bring about gang exit by occasioning embodied, emotional experiences that violated the macho feeling rules of the gang. Highly public emotional conversion experiences also provided some exiting gang members with opportunities for discharging chronic shame. The author argues that an important factor in the ongoing popularity of Pentecostal-ized evangelical Christianity in Central America is its promotion of ritual contexts for effectively dealing with shame. While progressive Catholicism seeks to attack the social sources of shame, evangelical-Pentecostalism offers powerful interaction rituals for dealing with the emotion itself at the individual level.Less
Central American transnational youth gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteenth Street gang promote a hyper-machismo that idealizes violent, risk-prone codes of conduct and lifelong affiliation. Central American evangelical churches promote a strict piety that prohibits drinking and promotes domestic ideals of marriage and fatherhood. Yet several studies suggest that conversion to evangelical Christianity is a common pathway out of the gang. Using semi-structured interviews with sixty-four former gang members in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, this book examines why many ex-gang members consider joining an evangelical or Pentecostal church the safest and most effective means of leaving the gang. Religious conversion provides former gang members with new access to social and symbolic resources crucial for keeping safe, building trust, and finding work after leaving the gang. But more than strategic use of cultural “tools” is involved in religious conversion. In some cases, emotional conversion experiences actually helped to bring about gang exit by occasioning embodied, emotional experiences that violated the macho feeling rules of the gang. Highly public emotional conversion experiences also provided some exiting gang members with opportunities for discharging chronic shame. The author argues that an important factor in the ongoing popularity of Pentecostal-ized evangelical Christianity in Central America is its promotion of ritual contexts for effectively dealing with shame. While progressive Catholicism seeks to attack the social sources of shame, evangelical-Pentecostalism offers powerful interaction rituals for dealing with the emotion itself at the individual level.
Rachel Sieder
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240906
- eISBN:
- 9780191598869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240906.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter considers the role of ‘memory politics’ – understood as the combination of official and unofficial attempts to deal with the legacy of past violations – in the struggle for ...
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This chapter considers the role of ‘memory politics’ – understood as the combination of official and unofficial attempts to deal with the legacy of past violations – in the struggle for democratization in Central America: official initiatives can include truth commissions, amnesty dispensations, criminal investigations and prosecutions, and a range of institutional reforms aimed at redressing the previous failure of the state to guarantee human rights; unofficial initiatives developed by civil society actors to confront the past can include investigations of violations, legal actions, and different kinds of commemorative acts and exercises in collective memory. Memory politics operates at multiple levels and involves a diversity of agents, including local communities, national and international non-governmental human rights organizations (HROs), governments, the media, and, in the case of Central America, the UN; however, it is suggested here that its long-term effects in any national context depend on the interaction between official and unofficial efforts to address the legacies of the past. The experiences of memory politics analysed in this chapter are those of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the three Central American countries that during the 1990s undertook official processes of investigating past violations of human rights. The precise nature of memory politics and the impact it has had varied considerably in these three countries, and it is suggested that four interrelated factors are central to explaining differences between the respective national experiences: the first is the specific political and social legacies of human rights abuse in each country; the second concerns the circumstances of the transition from war to peace, specifically the prevailing balance of forces and the trade-off between truth and justice that this engendered in each case; the third is the role of local HROs and civil society in general in the politics of memory; and the fourth is the role of international governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in efforts to uncover the truth about the past and to address the consequences of violations. The first three sections of the chapter compare the legacies of human rights abuses, the transitional trade-offs between truth and justice, and the role of civil society organizations and international actors in the memory politics of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala; the final section considers the impact of memory politics on the prospects for democracy in these countries.Less
This chapter considers the role of ‘memory politics’ – understood as the combination of official and unofficial attempts to deal with the legacy of past violations – in the struggle for democratization in Central America: official initiatives can include truth commissions, amnesty dispensations, criminal investigations and prosecutions, and a range of institutional reforms aimed at redressing the previous failure of the state to guarantee human rights; unofficial initiatives developed by civil society actors to confront the past can include investigations of violations, legal actions, and different kinds of commemorative acts and exercises in collective memory. Memory politics operates at multiple levels and involves a diversity of agents, including local communities, national and international non-governmental human rights organizations (HROs), governments, the media, and, in the case of Central America, the UN; however, it is suggested here that its long-term effects in any national context depend on the interaction between official and unofficial efforts to address the legacies of the past. The experiences of memory politics analysed in this chapter are those of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the three Central American countries that during the 1990s undertook official processes of investigating past violations of human rights. The precise nature of memory politics and the impact it has had varied considerably in these three countries, and it is suggested that four interrelated factors are central to explaining differences between the respective national experiences: the first is the specific political and social legacies of human rights abuse in each country; the second concerns the circumstances of the transition from war to peace, specifically the prevailing balance of forces and the trade-off between truth and justice that this engendered in each case; the third is the role of local HROs and civil society in general in the politics of memory; and the fourth is the role of international governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in efforts to uncover the truth about the past and to address the consequences of violations. The first three sections of the chapter compare the legacies of human rights abuses, the transitional trade-offs between truth and justice, and the role of civil society organizations and international actors in the memory politics of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala; the final section considers the impact of memory politics on the prospects for democracy in these countries.
Kathryn Sikkink
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199243754
- eISBN:
- 9780191600333
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199243751.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
The history of US human rights policy in Latin America provides useful case studies of the interplay between ‘control’ and ‘consent’ aspects of democratization. It presents a preliminary analysis of ...
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The history of US human rights policy in Latin America provides useful case studies of the interplay between ‘control’ and ‘consent’ aspects of democratization. It presents a preliminary analysis of the influence of US human rights policy on human rights practices and democratization in Argentina, Guatemala, and Uruguay in the 1970s and early 1980s, focusing primarily on the Carter period. In each of these cases, the US policy attempted to influence the domestic human rights situation by linking the improvement of human rights practices to the provision of military or economic aid. But, the nature of the pressures applied and the responses thereto were quite different in the three countries, reflecting the importance of ‘consent’ issues, determined by the state of democratic transition achieved within the country concerned, in modifying the effects of ‘control’ pressures.Less
The history of US human rights policy in Latin America provides useful case studies of the interplay between ‘control’ and ‘consent’ aspects of democratization. It presents a preliminary analysis of the influence of US human rights policy on human rights practices and democratization in Argentina, Guatemala, and Uruguay in the 1970s and early 1980s, focusing primarily on the Carter period. In each of these cases, the US policy attempted to influence the domestic human rights situation by linking the improvement of human rights practices to the provision of military or economic aid. But, the nature of the pressures applied and the responses thereto were quite different in the three countries, reflecting the importance of ‘consent’ issues, determined by the state of democratic transition achieved within the country concerned, in modifying the effects of ‘control’ pressures.
Deborah J. Yashar
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198781837
- eISBN:
- 9780191598968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198781830.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Contemporary political discourse in Guatemala reflects a deep historical division over popular political participation. From the perspective of military and economic elites, social mobilization is ...
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Contemporary political discourse in Guatemala reflects a deep historical division over popular political participation. From the perspective of military and economic elites, social mobilization is potentially subversive and destabilizing. The transition to democracy in the 1986 did not overcome this antagonism between state and society. Comparing the democratic transition in October 1944 with the 1986 transition, this study argues that a democratic change occurred in 1944 when there were divisions within and between military and civilian elites. In contrast, in 1986, the military had the support of a united elite. This second transition represented a more limited political liberalization rather than a full return to democratic politics. The flourishing organization of popular sectors remained at the margins of the political regime. Fear of state repression drove citizenship ‘underground’ and therefore disconnected from the formal political process. The continued practice of exclusion and mistrust perpetuate the tensions between state and society, and threatens to undermine Guatemala's fragile democracy.Less
Contemporary political discourse in Guatemala reflects a deep historical division over popular political participation. From the perspective of military and economic elites, social mobilization is potentially subversive and destabilizing. The transition to democracy in the 1986 did not overcome this antagonism between state and society. Comparing the democratic transition in October 1944 with the 1986 transition, this study argues that a democratic change occurred in 1944 when there were divisions within and between military and civilian elites. In contrast, in 1986, the military had the support of a united elite. This second transition represented a more limited political liberalization rather than a full return to democratic politics. The flourishing organization of popular sectors remained at the margins of the political regime. Fear of state repression drove citizenship ‘underground’ and therefore disconnected from the formal political process. The continued practice of exclusion and mistrust perpetuate the tensions between state and society, and threatens to undermine Guatemala's fragile democracy.
Alexandra Barahona de Brito
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198280385
- eISBN:
- 9780191598852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198280386.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This is the first of two ‘stage-setting’ chapters in Part I of the book (Problems of Transitional Truth and Justice in Comparative Perspective, and Human Rights’ Violations under Military rule in ...
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This is the first of two ‘stage-setting’ chapters in Part I of the book (Problems of Transitional Truth and Justice in Comparative Perspective, and Human Rights’ Violations under Military rule in Uruguay and Chile). It places the Uruguayan and Chilean cases in a wider context by examining various experiences of truth and justice for past abuses in Latin America and elsewhere. After an introduction, the chapter has two main sections. The first, Truth and Justice in Transitional Periods: An Overview, looks at the cases of France, Germany and Japan at the end of World War II, the collapse of the Salazarismo in Portugal in 1974, the collapse of the Somocismo in Nicaragua in 1979, the collapses of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania), and the cases of the former Yugoslavia, Bolivia, Spain, the Philippines, Namibia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, Greece, Paraguay, South Africa. The second section of the chapter, Semi-Restricted, Peaceful Transitions to Democratic Rule: The Cases of Uruguay and Chile, introduces democratization in Uruguay and Chile.Less
This is the first of two ‘stage-setting’ chapters in Part I of the book (Problems of Transitional Truth and Justice in Comparative Perspective, and Human Rights’ Violations under Military rule in Uruguay and Chile). It places the Uruguayan and Chilean cases in a wider context by examining various experiences of truth and justice for past abuses in Latin America and elsewhere. After an introduction, the chapter has two main sections. The first, Truth and Justice in Transitional Periods: An Overview, looks at the cases of France, Germany and Japan at the end of World War II, the collapse of the Salazarismo in Portugal in 1974, the collapse of the Somocismo in Nicaragua in 1979, the collapses of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania), and the cases of the former Yugoslavia, Bolivia, Spain, the Philippines, Namibia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, Greece, Paraguay, South Africa. The second section of the chapter, Semi-Restricted, Peaceful Transitions to Democratic Rule: The Cases of Uruguay and Chile, introduces democratization in Uruguay and Chile.
Michael Dodson and Donald W. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199256372
- eISBN:
- 9780191602368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256373.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter examines the efficacy of justice reform in creating effective mechanisms of horizontal accountability in El Salvador and Guatemala. There is little evidence to suggest that reforms have ...
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This chapter examines the efficacy of justice reform in creating effective mechanisms of horizontal accountability in El Salvador and Guatemala. There is little evidence to suggest that reforms have instilled in judges, prosecutors and the police a commitment to horizontal accountability. Moreover, the public remains skeptical about the impact of reform in promoting horizontal accountability.Less
This chapter examines the efficacy of justice reform in creating effective mechanisms of horizontal accountability in El Salvador and Guatemala. There is little evidence to suggest that reforms have instilled in judges, prosecutors and the police a commitment to horizontal accountability. Moreover, the public remains skeptical about the impact of reform in promoting horizontal accountability.
Donna Yates
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265413
- eISBN:
- 9780191760464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265413.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter concerns the concept of ‘remoteness’ in early Mesoamerican archaeology as a factor in site preservation. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maya sites were academically and popularly ...
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This chapter concerns the concept of ‘remoteness’ in early Mesoamerican archaeology as a factor in site preservation. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maya sites were academically and popularly conceived of as beyond ‘preservation’ in any realistic sense. However, the late nineteenth-century emergence of archaeology as a science and the growth of North American academic interest in Central America forced a situation where ‘preservation’ was incorporated into professional archaeological identity. Using the Guatemalan site of Holmul as a case study, the chapter presents publication as a form of preservation for logistically challenging archaeological sites in the early twentieth century. Publication is conceived of as an obligatory process that not only produced a textual ‘preserved site’, but served as an homage to advances in the development of North American-style archaeology as a scientific enquiry.Less
This chapter concerns the concept of ‘remoteness’ in early Mesoamerican archaeology as a factor in site preservation. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maya sites were academically and popularly conceived of as beyond ‘preservation’ in any realistic sense. However, the late nineteenth-century emergence of archaeology as a science and the growth of North American academic interest in Central America forced a situation where ‘preservation’ was incorporated into professional archaeological identity. Using the Guatemalan site of Holmul as a case study, the chapter presents publication as a form of preservation for logistically challenging archaeological sites in the early twentieth century. Publication is conceived of as an obligatory process that not only produced a textual ‘preserved site’, but served as an homage to advances in the development of North American-style archaeology as a scientific enquiry.
Virginia Garrard‐Burnett
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195379648
- eISBN:
- 9780199869176
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379648.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the language, images, and discourses that General Ríos Montt employed to promote his war of counterinsurgency. While the military’s war of counterinsurgency forcibly pacified ...
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This chapter examines the language, images, and discourses that General Ríos Montt employed to promote his war of counterinsurgency. While the military’s war of counterinsurgency forcibly pacified the largely indigenous highlands (a campaign that some sources claim produced nearly 50 percent of the civilian deaths that occurred over the course of Guatemala’s thirty‐six‐year armed struggle), Ríos Montt captivated much of Guatemala’s urban and nonindigenous population through his anticorruption campaign and his Sunday sermons — weekly broadcast messages that stressed anticommunism and government loyalty against a backdrop of evangelical language and imagery. This chapter provides an analysis of the sermons and offers an attempt to explain and contextualize Ríos Montt’s political popularity, as he sought to establish order and a fresh ideology for what he called the New Guatemala. This chapter is based almost exclusively on transcripts of Ríos Montt’s Sunday sermons and on newspaper clippings from the period.Less
This chapter examines the language, images, and discourses that General Ríos Montt employed to promote his war of counterinsurgency. While the military’s war of counterinsurgency forcibly pacified the largely indigenous highlands (a campaign that some sources claim produced nearly 50 percent of the civilian deaths that occurred over the course of Guatemala’s thirty‐six‐year armed struggle), Ríos Montt captivated much of Guatemala’s urban and nonindigenous population through his anticorruption campaign and his Sunday sermons — weekly broadcast messages that stressed anticommunism and government loyalty against a backdrop of evangelical language and imagery. This chapter provides an analysis of the sermons and offers an attempt to explain and contextualize Ríos Montt’s political popularity, as he sought to establish order and a fresh ideology for what he called the New Guatemala. This chapter is based almost exclusively on transcripts of Ríos Montt’s Sunday sermons and on newspaper clippings from the period.
Alessandro Cigno and Furio Camillo Rosati
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199264452
- eISBN:
- 9780191602511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199264457.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
The link between child labour and health is difficult to disentangle because of problems due to two-way causality, household and individual level unobservables. Aims to establish whether there is a ...
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The link between child labour and health is difficult to disentangle because of problems due to two-way causality, household and individual level unobservables. Aims to establish whether there is a negative health impact of work during childhood controlling for observable and unobservable confounding factors. As far as we are aware, we are the first to take account these confounding factors in a study of the health effects of child work. That is made possible by the use of a particularly rich two-wave panel data set, the 1992/3 and 1997/8 Vietnam Living Standards Surveys, and of the retrospective information contained in the 2000 Guatemalan National Survey on Living Conditions (NSLC).Less
The link between child labour and health is difficult to disentangle because of problems due to two-way causality, household and individual level unobservables. Aims to establish whether there is a negative health impact of work during childhood controlling for observable and unobservable confounding factors. As far as we are aware, we are the first to take account these confounding factors in a study of the health effects of child work. That is made possible by the use of a particularly rich two-wave panel data set, the 1992/3 and 1997/8 Vietnam Living Standards Surveys, and of the retrospective information contained in the 2000 Guatemalan National Survey on Living Conditions (NSLC).
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691166094
- eISBN:
- 9781400873814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166094.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter develops three interrelated claims about the politics of governing social difference through religious rights and freedoms. First, conceiving and governing social difference through ...
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This chapter develops three interrelated claims about the politics of governing social difference through religious rights and freedoms. First, conceiving and governing social difference through religious rights singles out individuals and groups for legal protection as religious individuals and collectivities. Second, governing through religious rights shapes how states and other political authorities distinguish groups from each other, often in law. Third, contemporary international religious freedom advocacy emphasizes belief as the core of religion. The chapter unfolds in three parts, each elaborating on various aspects of these claims through a combination of empirical illustrations and theoretical discussion. The first section on the global political production of religious difference draws on an extended discussion of the Rohingya in Myanmar. The second section on the creation of a landscape populated by faith communities and the effects on those excluded from such designations incorporates examples from the Central African Republic, Guatemala, India, and South Sudan. A final section on the mutually supportive relations between religious freedom advocacy, the creation of a believing religious subject, and the ideology of the free religious marketplace builds on the work of anthropologists and religious studies scholars who complicate the notion of belief as the core of religion.Less
This chapter develops three interrelated claims about the politics of governing social difference through religious rights and freedoms. First, conceiving and governing social difference through religious rights singles out individuals and groups for legal protection as religious individuals and collectivities. Second, governing through religious rights shapes how states and other political authorities distinguish groups from each other, often in law. Third, contemporary international religious freedom advocacy emphasizes belief as the core of religion. The chapter unfolds in three parts, each elaborating on various aspects of these claims through a combination of empirical illustrations and theoretical discussion. The first section on the global political production of religious difference draws on an extended discussion of the Rohingya in Myanmar. The second section on the creation of a landscape populated by faith communities and the effects on those excluded from such designations incorporates examples from the Central African Republic, Guatemala, India, and South Sudan. A final section on the mutually supportive relations between religious freedom advocacy, the creation of a believing religious subject, and the ideology of the free religious marketplace builds on the work of anthropologists and religious studies scholars who complicate the notion of belief as the core of religion.
Tony Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154923
- eISBN:
- 9781400842025
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154923.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter examines Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy in the area of liberal democratic internationalism during the period 1953–1977. Until 1947, the American foreign policy choice had been between a ...
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This chapter examines Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy in the area of liberal democratic internationalism during the period 1953–1977. Until 1947, the American foreign policy choice had been between a Wilsonian advocacy of democracy and a Rooseveltian preference for nonintervention. A third option had emerged since then: intervention for dictatorships, even against indigenous political forces that might be seeking to create constitutional, democratic regimes. The chapter first provides an overview of American realism and mass politics in the twentieth century, with emphasis on the modernity of fascism, communism, and democracy, before discussing American foreign policy during the Eisenhower years. In particular, it considers the Eisenhower administration's policy decisions with respect to Iran, Guatemala, and Vietnam. It also explores the geopolitical realism of American support for democratic governments abroad.Less
This chapter examines Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy in the area of liberal democratic internationalism during the period 1953–1977. Until 1947, the American foreign policy choice had been between a Wilsonian advocacy of democracy and a Rooseveltian preference for nonintervention. A third option had emerged since then: intervention for dictatorships, even against indigenous political forces that might be seeking to create constitutional, democratic regimes. The chapter first provides an overview of American realism and mass politics in the twentieth century, with emphasis on the modernity of fascism, communism, and democracy, before discussing American foreign policy during the Eisenhower years. In particular, it considers the Eisenhower administration's policy decisions with respect to Iran, Guatemala, and Vietnam. It also explores the geopolitical realism of American support for democratic governments abroad.
Loïc Sadoulet
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199276837
- eISBN:
- 9780191601620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276838.003.0018
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter argues that the repeated interaction between banks and clients allows borrowers to establish a credit record, which they can use to insure themselves from temporary liquidity shocks. It ...
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This chapter argues that the repeated interaction between banks and clients allows borrowers to establish a credit record, which they can use to insure themselves from temporary liquidity shocks. It discusses microcredit contracts, and the importance of insurance for borrowers based on a survey in Guatemala. It presents a model that captures the features of microcredit contracts, i.e., the joint liability of members for individual loans and group loans. The model shows the incentive mechanisms behind microfinance contracts, and how insurance is an important by-product of liability loans.Less
This chapter argues that the repeated interaction between banks and clients allows borrowers to establish a credit record, which they can use to insure themselves from temporary liquidity shocks. It discusses microcredit contracts, and the importance of insurance for borrowers based on a survey in Guatemala. It presents a model that captures the features of microcredit contracts, i.e., the joint liability of members for individual loans and group loans. The model shows the incentive mechanisms behind microfinance contracts, and how insurance is an important by-product of liability loans.
Zoltan Barany
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691137681
- eISBN:
- 9781400845491
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137681.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter describes the politics following Argentina's and Chile's last bout with authoritarianism. In spite of some important similarities between Argentina and Chile, military rule and the ...
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This chapter describes the politics following Argentina's and Chile's last bout with authoritarianism. In spite of some important similarities between Argentina and Chile, military rule and the subsequent democratization process have been dissimilar. The chapter argues that the disparate performance of the Argentine and Chilean praetorian elites yielded for them different bargains with the opposition. These different deals led to vastly different outcomes, that is, profound disparities between military politics in contemporary Chile and Argentina. In Chile, democratizers have succeeded in gradually reducing the military's political autonomy to a level acceptable by democratic standards. On the other hand, their Argentine colleagues have gone too far in what has amounted to a virtual vendetta against the military as an institution and, in the process, seriously impaired its ability to protect and project Argentine national interests. The chapter's secondary case is Guatemala, a Central American state ruled for most of the Cold War by unusually brutal military dictators.Less
This chapter describes the politics following Argentina's and Chile's last bout with authoritarianism. In spite of some important similarities between Argentina and Chile, military rule and the subsequent democratization process have been dissimilar. The chapter argues that the disparate performance of the Argentine and Chilean praetorian elites yielded for them different bargains with the opposition. These different deals led to vastly different outcomes, that is, profound disparities between military politics in contemporary Chile and Argentina. In Chile, democratizers have succeeded in gradually reducing the military's political autonomy to a level acceptable by democratic standards. On the other hand, their Argentine colleagues have gone too far in what has amounted to a virtual vendetta against the military as an institution and, in the process, seriously impaired its ability to protect and project Argentine national interests. The chapter's secondary case is Guatemala, a Central American state ruled for most of the Cold War by unusually brutal military dictators.
Sharon Erickson Nepstad
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195169232
- eISBN:
- 9780199835195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195169239.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter discusses the origins of civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and U.S. involvement in Central America. The Spanish conquest in the early 16th century established a feudal ...
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This chapter discusses the origins of civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and U.S. involvement in Central America. The Spanish conquest in the early 16th century established a feudal economic system that led to widespread inequality, poverty, and conflict between wealthy landowners and the poor masses. These conditions erupted into civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The US, fearing the spread of communism, backed a series of military regimes and dictatorships in these countries.Less
This chapter discusses the origins of civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and U.S. involvement in Central America. The Spanish conquest in the early 16th century established a feudal economic system that led to widespread inequality, poverty, and conflict between wealthy landowners and the poor masses. These conditions erupted into civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The US, fearing the spread of communism, backed a series of military regimes and dictatorships in these countries.
Graciana del Castillo
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199237739
- eISBN:
- 9780191717239
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237739.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental, International
This chapter argues that a stronger capacity for international assistance, in conjunction with a sound strategy for economic reconstruction at the country level, would greatly improve a country's ...
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This chapter argues that a stronger capacity for international assistance, in conjunction with a sound strategy for economic reconstruction at the country level, would greatly improve a country's chances of success in consolidating peace and in fully devoting its resources and energies to the normal challenge of development and poverty alleviation. The chapter argues in favor of greater flexibility and more aid on concessional terms from the international financial institutions (IFIs) and other donors on the one hand, and on the other, for post-conflict countries to assume greater responsibility and accountability for dealing with aid and reconstruction issues. The chapter discusses issues of aid (official flows, tied aid, post-conflict vs development aid); budgets; external debt; conditionality; concessionality; technical assistance; and governance related to economic reconstruction. It also proposes measures to improve the mechanisms and capabilities of the international community as a whole to carry out effective reconstruction in the future.Less
This chapter argues that a stronger capacity for international assistance, in conjunction with a sound strategy for economic reconstruction at the country level, would greatly improve a country's chances of success in consolidating peace and in fully devoting its resources and energies to the normal challenge of development and poverty alleviation. The chapter argues in favor of greater flexibility and more aid on concessional terms from the international financial institutions (IFIs) and other donors on the one hand, and on the other, for post-conflict countries to assume greater responsibility and accountability for dealing with aid and reconstruction issues. The chapter discusses issues of aid (official flows, tied aid, post-conflict vs development aid); budgets; external debt; conditionality; concessionality; technical assistance; and governance related to economic reconstruction. It also proposes measures to improve the mechanisms and capabilities of the international community as a whole to carry out effective reconstruction in the future.
Luis Roniger
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813036632
- eISBN:
- 9780813038834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813036632.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This book aims to provide an understanding of the transnational dynamics of Central America. This is a region that includes Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and ...
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This book aims to provide an understanding of the transnational dynamics of Central America. This is a region that includes Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. These countries share a close geographical relationship and historical background, a geopolitical interdependence, and challenges in the international arena. In tracing the transnational dynamics of Central America, the book analyzes the connected history, close and dynamic interrelations, crossings and mutual impact of the countries of the isthmus on one another, in addition to their geopolitical interdependence and a series of common challenges they have faced in the international arena. This book is an attempt to make sense of these and other regional trends by indicating that one needs to approach Central America with a Janus-faced perspective: trying to understand the process of fragmentation into separate nation-states along with lingering transnational dynamics.Less
This book aims to provide an understanding of the transnational dynamics of Central America. This is a region that includes Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. These countries share a close geographical relationship and historical background, a geopolitical interdependence, and challenges in the international arena. In tracing the transnational dynamics of Central America, the book analyzes the connected history, close and dynamic interrelations, crossings and mutual impact of the countries of the isthmus on one another, in addition to their geopolitical interdependence and a series of common challenges they have faced in the international arena. This book is an attempt to make sense of these and other regional trends by indicating that one needs to approach Central America with a Janus-faced perspective: trying to understand the process of fragmentation into separate nation-states along with lingering transnational dynamics.
Robert A. Levine, Sarah E. Levine, Beatrice Schnell-Anzola, Meredith L. Rowe, and Emily Dexter
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195309829
- eISBN:
- 9780199932733
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309829.003.0015
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This is a review of evidence on the relationship of women’s school attainment to child survival and fertility, with an examination of long-term studies in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Guatemala, ...
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This is a review of evidence on the relationship of women’s school attainment to child survival and fertility, with an examination of long-term studies in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Guatemala, an empirically based theory of social and economic causes of child survival, and a summary of previous studies of literacy and health in developing countries. The evidence that women’s schooling acts to reduce child mortality and fertility is strong, and the studies involving literacy are suggestive.Less
This is a review of evidence on the relationship of women’s school attainment to child survival and fertility, with an examination of long-term studies in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Guatemala, an empirically based theory of social and economic causes of child survival, and a summary of previous studies of literacy and health in developing countries. The evidence that women’s schooling acts to reduce child mortality and fertility is strong, and the studies involving literacy are suggestive.
Robert Brenneman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753840
- eISBN:
- 9780199918836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753840.003.0000
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Why would a pistol-packing, tattoo-bearing “homie” trade in his gun for a Bible and the buttoned-down lifestyle of an evangelical hermano? Why is evangelical religion attractive to gang members? This ...
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Why would a pistol-packing, tattoo-bearing “homie” trade in his gun for a Bible and the buttoned-down lifestyle of an evangelical hermano? Why is evangelical religion attractive to gang members? This chapter introduces the main questions of the book through the story of JJ, a converted Guatemalan ex-gang member and leader of a cell of the White Fence gang. One of JJ’s tattoos reads, “Why should I fall in love with life, when I’m already married to death?”Less
Why would a pistol-packing, tattoo-bearing “homie” trade in his gun for a Bible and the buttoned-down lifestyle of an evangelical hermano? Why is evangelical religion attractive to gang members? This chapter introduces the main questions of the book through the story of JJ, a converted Guatemalan ex-gang member and leader of a cell of the White Fence gang. One of JJ’s tattoos reads, “Why should I fall in love with life, when I’m already married to death?”
Robert Brenneman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753840
- eISBN:
- 9780199918836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753840.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Where did the transnational gangs come from and how violent are they? This chapter begins with the story of a Salvadoran ex-member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in order to better understand how ...
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Where did the transnational gangs come from and how violent are they? This chapter begins with the story of a Salvadoran ex-member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in order to better understand how this gang and others emerged in the streets of East Los Angeles and evolved to become loosely-networked “franchises” with thousands of members in several countries. In the 1990s the Los Angeles Police Department deported tens thousands of Central American youth, among whom were many members of the MS-13 and the M-18 who colonized the local street gangs already existing in Central America. The transnational gangs are compared to a franchise in order to emphasize their fluidity and their highly local dynamics along with their adoption of internationally recognized symbols, vocabulary, and protocols. The chapter also examines the connection between gang membership and homicide rates in the “Northern Triangle” of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.Less
Where did the transnational gangs come from and how violent are they? This chapter begins with the story of a Salvadoran ex-member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) in order to better understand how this gang and others emerged in the streets of East Los Angeles and evolved to become loosely-networked “franchises” with thousands of members in several countries. In the 1990s the Los Angeles Police Department deported tens thousands of Central American youth, among whom were many members of the MS-13 and the M-18 who colonized the local street gangs already existing in Central America. The transnational gangs are compared to a franchise in order to emphasize their fluidity and their highly local dynamics along with their adoption of internationally recognized symbols, vocabulary, and protocols. The chapter also examines the connection between gang membership and homicide rates in the “Northern Triangle” of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Robert Brenneman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753840
- eISBN:
- 9780199918836
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753840.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines Central American evangelical churches and how they emerged in the region. The chapter emphasizes the fact that Central American evangelicals see themselves as religious ...
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This chapter examines Central American evangelical churches and how they emerged in the region. The chapter emphasizes the fact that Central American evangelicals see themselves as religious “outsiders” even though their numbers have grown considerably in recent years. According to the most recent polling data, nearly a third of Central Americans now self-identify as Protestant and most of these individuals belong to evangelical or Pentecostal congregations. The chapter also examines the different streams of evangelical Christianity in the region, paying particular attention to what the author calls “barrio evangelicalism”—the small, local, Pentecostalized congregations that abound in the poor and working-class neighborhoods (barrios). These congregations emphasize strict personal piety, evangelization, and physical and psychological healing.Less
This chapter examines Central American evangelical churches and how they emerged in the region. The chapter emphasizes the fact that Central American evangelicals see themselves as religious “outsiders” even though their numbers have grown considerably in recent years. According to the most recent polling data, nearly a third of Central Americans now self-identify as Protestant and most of these individuals belong to evangelical or Pentecostal congregations. The chapter also examines the different streams of evangelical Christianity in the region, paying particular attention to what the author calls “barrio evangelicalism”—the small, local, Pentecostalized congregations that abound in the poor and working-class neighborhoods (barrios). These congregations emphasize strict personal piety, evangelization, and physical and psychological healing.
