Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics) - Softcover

Yashar, Deborah J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521534801 ISBN 13: 9780521534802

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Indigenous people in Latin America have mobilized in unprecedented ways - demanding recognition, equal protection, and subnational autonomy. These are remarkable developments in a region where ethnic cleavages were once universally described as weak. Recently, however, indigenous activists and elected officials have increasingly shaped national political deliberations. Deborah Yashar explains the contemporary and uneven emergence of Latin American indigenous movements - addressing both why indigenous identities have become politically salient in the contemporary period and why they have translated into significant political organizations in some places and not others. She argues that ethnic politics can best be explained through a comparative historical approach that analyzes three factors: changing citizenship regimes, social networks, and political associational space. Her argument provides insight into the fragility and unevenness of Latin America's third wave democracies and has broader implications for the ways in which we theorize the relationship between citizenship, states, identity, and social action.

About this title

About the Author

Deborah J. Yashar is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s-1950s (Stanford University Press) as well as articles and chapters on democratization, ethnic politics, collective action, and globalization.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521534801
• ISBN 13: 9780521534802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 388