Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America

A dense web of private associations drawn from multiple social classes, interest groups and value communities makes for a firm foundation for strong democracy. In Latin America today, will civil society improve the quality of democracy or will it foster political polarization and reverse recent progress? Distinguished theorists from the United States, Canada and Latin America explore the diverse impact of civil society on economic performance, political parties, and state institutions. In-depth and up-to-date country studies explore the consequences of civil society for the durability of democracy in three highly dynamic, controversial settings: Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.

"Feinberg, Waisman and Zamosc are to be commended. Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America provides state-of-the art analyses by leading US and Latin American scholars who combine theoretical sophistication with well-executed case studies of civic activism and the new politics of citizenship in Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. This volume will be obligatory reading for sociologists and political scientists as well as for others interested in the role of social movements in the emergence of more vibrant and participatory democracies in Latin America." - William C. Smith, University of Miami, editor of Latin American Politics and Society

"This superb book addresses one of the most important issues of our time in Latin America: democratization, and the role of civil society in strengthening it. The essays address changes in the region both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Case studies focus on Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, with their very interesting contrasting civil society experiences." - Susan Eckstein, Professor of Sociology at Boston University, Ex-President of the Latin American Studies Association

"This book offers a bountiful harvest of conceptual perspectives on the complex relationships between civil society and democracy set against the rich tapestry of contemporary Latin American politics and society." - Lester M. Salamon, Director of Center for Civil Society Studies, Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University

"Does the current growth of civil society promote democracy? These essays significantly advance this discussion by addressing the crucial question of the many ways the ensembles of civil society organizations relate to politics. Rehearsing modest success and considerable weaknesses in Latin America, they show the variation between countries, between social sectors in individual countries, and even between issue-areas. They go a long way to replace enthusiasm and cynicism with a new and more productive realism." - Douglas Chalmers, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Autorentext
Richard Feinberg is professor of international political economy at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. He has written widely on international finance and trade and US-Latin American relations and his latest book is Summitry in the Americas. Currently he teaches a course on civil society in developing economies and is book reviewer for the Western Hemisphere section of Foreign Affairs magazine.
Carlos H. Waisman is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Waisman is a comparative political sociologist. His current work deals with the social and political dynamics of neo-mercantilist regimes. He has published Modernization and the Working Class, Reversal of Development in Argentina*, Institutional Design in New Democracies (with Arend Lijphart), Spanish and Latin American Transitions to Democracy (with Raanan Rein) and many articles and book chapters.
*Leon Zamosc* is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of
California, San Diego. His work includes books and articles in Spanish and English on rural development, peasant political participation, and
indigenous movements in Colombia and Ecuador. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies*.

Inhalt
Introduction Civil Society and Democracy: the Latin American Case - Carlos H. Waisman, Richard Feinberg& Leon Zamosc Part I: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives Autonomy, Self-regulation and Democracy: Tocquevillean-Gellnerian Perspectives on Civil Society and the Bifurcated State in Latin America - Carlos H. Waisman Civil Society in Latin America in the Twenty-first Century: Democratic Deepening, Social Fragmentation and State Crisis - Leonardo Avritzer Conceptualizing Civil Society from the Bottom Up: A Political Economy Perspective - Philip Oxhorn Part II: Country Case Studies Citizenship and Civil Society in Renascent Argentina - Isidoro Cheresky Argentina after the Nineties: Changes in Social Structure and Political Behavior - Manuel Mora y Araujo Sem Reforma Agrária, Não Ha Democracia : The Struggle over Access to Land and Deepening Democracy in Brazil - Wendy Wolford Civil Society and Political Decay in Venezuela - Daniel H. Levine