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This volume examines the ways in which the socio-economic elites of the region have transformed and expanded the material bases of their power from the inception of neo-liberal policies in the 1970s through to the so-called progressive 'pink tide' governments of the past two decades. The six case study chapters-on Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, and Guatemala-variously explore how state policies and even United Nations peace-keeping missions have enhanced elite control of land and agricultural exports, banks and insurance companies, wholesale and import commerce, industrial activities, and alliances with foreign capital. Chapters also pay attention to the ways in which violence has been deployed to maintain elite power, and how international forces feed into sustaining historic and contemporary configurations of power.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Reconfiguring Domination: Case Studies from Latin America .- 2. The Paradox of the Neoliberal Developmentalist State: Reconstructing the Capitalist Elite in Pinochet's Chile .- 3. Quasi-post-neoliberal Brazil: Social Change Amidst Elite Adaptation and Metamorphosis .- 4. Concentration of Assets and Poverty Reduction in Post Neoliberal Ecuador .- 5. Rural Colombia: The Architecture of State-sponsored Violence and New Power Configurations .- 6. The Reconsolidation of Oligarchic Rule in El Salvador: The Contours of Neoliberal Transformation .- 7. Land and the Reconfiguration of Power in Post-Conflict Guatemala .- 8. The Limits of Democratization and Social Progress: Domination and Dependence in Latin America.
About the author
Liisa L. North is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at York University, Canada.
Timothy D. Clark is Principal at Willow Springs Strategic Solutions.
Summary
This volume examines the ways in which the socio-economic elites of the region have transformed and expanded the material bases of their power from the inception of neo-liberal policies in the 1970s through to the so-called progressive ‘pink tide’ governments of the past two decades. The six case study chapters—on Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, and Guatemala—variously explore how state policies and even United Nations peace-keeping missions have enhanced elite control of land and agricultural exports, banks and insurance companies, wholesale and import commerce, industrial activities, and alliances with foreign capital. Chapters also pay attention to the ways in which violence has been deployed to maintain elite power, and how international forces feed into sustaining historic and contemporary configurations of power.
