Dominant Elites in Latin America: From Neo-Liberalism to the ‘Pink Tide’

254 Pages·2018·2.711 MB·English

by  Liisa L. North, Timothy D. Clark (eds.)

DOMINANT ELITES
IN LATIN AMERICA
From Neo-Liberalism to the ‘Pink Tide’

EDITED BY
LIISA L. NORTH
TIMOTHY D. CLARK
Latin American Political Econom
Latin American Political Economy
Series editors
Juan Pablo Luna
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Macul, Santiago, Chile
Andreas E. Feldmann
University of Illinois
Chicago, IL, USA
Rodrigo Mardones Z.
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Macul, Santiago, Chile
Latin American Political Economy publishes new, relevant, and
empirically-grounded scholarship that deepens our understanding of con-
temporary Latin American political economy and contributes to the for-
mulation and evaluation of new theories that are both context-sensitive
and subject to broader comparisons. Inspired by the need to provide
new analytical perspectives for understanding the massive social, political,
and economic transformations underway in Latin America, the series is
directed at researchers and practitioners interested in resurrecting politi-
cal economy as a primary research area in the developing world. In the-
matic terms, the series seeks to promote vital debate on the interactions
between economic, political, and social processes; it is especially con-
cerned with how findings may further our understanding of development
models, the socio-political institutions that sustain them, and the practi-
cal problems they confront. In methodological terms, the series show-
cases cross-disciplinary research that is empirically rich and sensitive to
context and that leads to new forms of description, concept formation,
causal inference, and theoretical innovation. The series editors welcome
submissions that address patterns of democratic politics, dependency and
development, state formation and the rule of law, inequality and iden-
tity, and global linkages. The series editors and advisory board members
belong to Red para el Estudio de la Economía Política de América Latina
(REPAL) (http://redeconomiapoliticaamlat.com/). Advisory Board Ben
Ross Schneider and Andrew Schrank.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14825
Liisa L. North · Timothy D. Clark
Editors
Dominant Elites
in Latin America
From Neo-Liberalism to the ‘Pink Tide’
Editors
Liisa L. North Timothy D. Clark
Centre for Research on Latin America Willow Springs Strategic Solutions
and the Caribbean Cochrane, AB
York University Canada
Toronto, ON
Canada
Latin American Political Economy
ISBN 978-3-319-53254-7 ISBN 978-3-319-53255-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-53255-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017936486
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A
cknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the generous contributions, of time and
thought, made by various colleagues who provided commentary on the
chapters included in this volume. They include Ricardo Grinspun, who
was involved in the initial moments of planning; Gavin Fridell, who
provided helpful commentary on the introductory chapter; and Louis
Lefeber and Jim Handy, who reviewed chapters in their areas of inter-
est. Carlos Pastor Pazmiño, who was preparing an extended review of
research on economic groups in Ecuador and Latin America, made his
work available prior to its publication.
Camila Bonifaz, Program Coordinator at the Centre for Research
on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) at York University,
provided support of many sorts, from lively encouragement to printing
chapters and assisting with communications. The four York University
PhDs among the authors also wish to acknowledge the support they
received from CERLAC at various points during their graduate studies.
The authors of the three chapters that emerge from doctoral dis-
sertations prepared in the Political Science Department at York
University—Timothy D. Clark, Carlos Velásquez, and Simon Granovsky-
Larsen—would like to thank their supervisory committee heads and
members as well as the various institutions that provided funding
for their doctoral field research: the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) and Canada’s International
Development Research Center (IDRC). Carlos Larrea and Natalia
v
vi ACkNOWLEDGEMENTS
Greene owe special debts to the staff of the Socio-environmental
Research Unit at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (UASB) in
Quito, and Carlos Larrea acknowledges CERLAC for its support while
he completed his Doctorate in the Graduate Program in Social and
Political Thought (SPT) at York.
The anonymous reviewers of the original book proposal, of course,
provided both the green light and valuable suggestions for the prepara-
tion of this publication. At Palgrave, Anca Pusca and Anne Schult have
responded patiently and courteously to various delays in the submission
of the volume.
c
ontents
1 Introduction—Reconfiguring Domination: Case Studies
from Latin America 1
Liisa L. North
2 The Paradox of the Neoliberal Developmentalist State:
Reconstructing the Capitalist Elite in Pinochet’s Chile 23
Timothy D. Clark
3 Quasi-post-neoliberal Brazil: Social Change Amidst Elite
Adaptation and Metamorphosis 57
Simone Bohn
4 Concentration of Assets and Poverty Reduction in
Post-neoliberal Ecuador 93
Carlos A. Larrea and Natalia Greene
5 Rural Colombia: The Architecture of State-Sponsored
Violence and New Power Configurations 119
Luis van Isschot
6 The Reconsolidation of Oligarchic Rule in El Salvador:
The Contours of Neo-liberal Transformation 149
Carlos Velásquez Carrillo
vii
viii CONTENTS
7 Land and the Reconfiguration of Power in Post-conflict
Guatemala 181
Simon Granovsky-Larsen
8 The Limits of Democratization and Social Progress:
Domination and Dependence in Latin America 205
Timothy D. Clark and Liisa L. North
Index 229
e c
ditors And ontributors
About the Editors
Liisa L. North is Professor Emeritus, York University in Toronto, an
Occasional Visiting Professor at the Latin American Faculty of Social
Sciences (FLACSO) and the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in
Quito, Ecuador, and current Fellow and former director of the Centre
for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) at York
University. She is author or co-author of 11 books and more than 60
book chapters and journal articles on party politics, civil–military rela-
tions, political economic processes, and mining conflicts in various
Andean region countries; on the civil wars, UN peacekeeping mis-
sions, and human rights and refugee crises in Central America; and on
Canadian-Latin American relations.
Timothy D. Clark is a Principal at Willow Springs Strategic Solutions,
where he carries out and supervises research on the impacts of industrial
projects and cumulative-industrial development on the rights and inter-
ests of Canadian First Nations and Métis peoples. Clark is co-editor of
Community Rights and Corporate Responsibility: Canadian Mining
and Oil Companies in Latin America; he has published in Third World
Quarterly, Latin American Research Review and Studies in Political
ix