Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:26:05.186Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inequality, Protests, and the Progressive Allocation of Cash Transfers in the Argentine Provinces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ernesto Calvo  and
Lorena Moscovich
Ernesto Calvo
Affiliation:
University of Maryland. ecalvo@umd.edu.
Lorena Moscovich
Affiliation:
Universidad de San Andrés. lmoscovich@udesa.edu.ar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the last 20 years, two broadly defined theories have sought to explain the relationship between economic inequality and redistribution. The well-known hypothesis set forth by Meltzer and Richard (1981) states that larger income differences between the median voter and the average income earner should increase redistributive pressures in democratic regimes. Power Resource Theory (PRT), by contrast, argues that income inequality breeds power inequality and should dampen redistribution. Critical to both theories is the translation of redistributive interest into policy signals. This article considers protests as signals that increase the salience of inequality among voters. Results provide evidence that protests facilitate more progressive cash transfers in highly unequal environments but have modest effects in more egalitarian ones.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 3 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2005. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Alcañiz, Isabella, and Scheier, Melissa. 2007. New Social Movements with Old Party Politics: the Mtl Piqueteros and the Communist Party in Argentina. Latin American Perspectives 34 2: 157–71.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, and Angeletos, George-Marios. 2005. Fairness and Redistribution. American Economic Review 95 4: 960–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Christopher J., and Beramendi, Pablo. 2012. Left Parties, Poor Voters, and Electoral Participation in Advanced Industrial Societies. Comparative Political Studies 45 6: 714–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Christopher J., and Mendes, Silvia M.. 2006. Learning to Lose: Election Outcomes, Democratic Experience and Political Protest Potential. British Journal of Political Science 36 1: 91.Google Scholar
Ansell, Ben W., and Samuels, David. 2014. Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arce, Moisés. 2010. Parties and Social Protest in Latin America's Neoliberal Era. Party Politics 16 5: 669–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ardanaz, Martin, and Scartascini, Carlos. 2013. Inequality and Personal Income Taxation: the Origins and Effects of Legislative Malapportionment. Comparative Political Studies 46 12: 1636–63.Google Scholar
Barber, Benjamin, Beramendi, Pablo, and Wibbels, Erik. 2013. The Behavioral Foundations of Social Politics: Evidence from Surveys and a Laboratory Democracy. Comparative Political Studies 46 10: 1155–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benford, Robert D., and Snow, David A.. 2000. Framing Processes and Social Movements: an Overview and Assessment. Annual Review of Sociology 26 1: 611–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blofield, Merike, and Pablo Luna, Juan. 2011. Public Opinion on Income Inequalities in Latin America. In The Great Gap: Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Latin America, ed. Blofield, . University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 147–81.Google Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvo, Ernesto, and Escolar, Marcelo. 2005. La nueva política de partidos en la Argentina: crisis política, realineamientos partidarios y reforma electoral. Buenos Aires: Prometeo.Google Scholar
Cont, Walter, and Porto, Alberto. 2014. Personal and Regional Redistribution through Public Finance in a Federal Setting. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 54 4 (November): 563–78.Google Scholar
Cusak, Thomas R., Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2007. Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems. American Political Science Review 101 3: 373–91.Google Scholar
Delamata, Gabriela. 2002. De los “estallidos” provinciales a la generalización de las protestas en Argentina. Nueva Sociedad 182: 121–38.Google Scholar
ENPEA. 2015. Database from a national survey about preference and political opinions. PASCAL-UNSAM. 2015. Version 1.0. http://www.pascal.unsam.edu.ar/wp-content/enpea.html Google Scholar
Escolar, Marcelo. 2016. Informe de la encuesta nacional permanente electoral argentina 2015. PASCAL-UNSAM Working Paper no. 2. Buenos Aires: PASCAL-UNSAM. http://www.pascal.unsam.edu.ar/wp-content/enpea.html Google Scholar
Falleti, Tulia G. 2005. A Sequential Theory of Decentralization: Latin American Cases in Comparative Perspective. American Political Science Review 99 3: 327–46.Google Scholar
Falleti, Tulia G. 2006. Review of Decentralizing the State: Elections, Parties, and Local Power in the Andes by Kathleen O'Neill. Latin American Politics and Society 48 3 (Fall): 208–11.Google Scholar
Gamson, William A. 1975. The Strategy of Social Protest. Homewood: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Garay, Candelaria. 2007. Social Policy and Collective Action: Unemployed Workers, Community Associations, and Protest in Argentina. Politics and Society 35 2: 301–28.Google Scholar
Gervasoni, Carlos. 2010. A Rentier Theory of Subnational Regimes: Fiscal Federalism, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in the Argentine Provinces. World Politics 62 2: 302–40.Google Scholar
Gibson, Edward L. 2005. Boundary Control: Subnational Authoritarianism in Democratic Countries. World Politics 58 1: 101–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giraudy, Agustina. 2007. The Distributive Politics of Emergency Employment Programs in Argentina (1993–2002). Latin American Research Review 42 2: 33–55.Google Scholar
Giraudy, Agustina. 2010. The Politics of Subnational Undemocratic Regime Reproduction in Argentina and Mexico. Journal of Politics in Latin America 2 2: 53–84.Google Scholar
Goldstone, Jack A., and Tilly, Charles. 2001. Threat (and Opportunity): Popular Action and State Response in the Dynamics of Contentious Action. In Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics, ed. Aminzade, Ronald R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 179–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gormley, William T. Jr. 1986. Regulatory Issue Networks in a Federal System. Polity 18, 4: 595–620.Google Scholar
Huber, Evelyne, and Stephens, John D.. 2012. Democracy and the Left: Social Policy and Inequality in Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Inclán, María. 2009. Repressive Threats, Procedural Concessions, and the Zapatista Cycle of Protests, 1994–2003. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 5: 794–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2006. Electoral Institutions and the Politics of Coalitions: Why Some Democracies Redistribute More than Others. American Political Science Review 100 2: 165–81.Google Scholar
Latinobarómetro. 2015. Latinobarómetro Survey (Lbs) 2003–2009. Ref. LAC_2003_LBS_v01_M. Dataset. http://www.latinobarometro.org/latContents.jsp. Accessed March 29, 2016.Google Scholar
Leiras, Marcelo. 2007. Todos los caballos del rey. La integración de los partidos políticos y el gobierno democrático de la Argentina, 1995–2003. Buenos Aires: Prometeo.Google Scholar
Lerman, Robert I., and Yitzhaki, Shlomo. 1985. Income Inequality Effects by Income Source: a New Approach and Applications to the United States. Review of Economics and Statistics 67 1: 151–56.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter H. 2004. Growing Public. Volume 1. The Story: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lodola, Germán. 2005. Protesta popular y redes clientelares en la Argentina: el reparto federal del Plan Trabajar (1996–2001). Desarrollo Economico 44 176: 515–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lodola, Germán. 2013. El votante argentino. Revista SAAP 7 2: 379–88.Google Scholar
Lodola, Germán, and Seligson, Mitchell A.. 2013. Cultura política de la democracia en Argentina y en las Américas, 2012: hacia la igualdad de oportunidades, lo hicieron. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/argentina/Argentina_Country_Report_2012_Cover_W.pdf. Accessed February 2016.Google Scholar
Lucesole, María José. 2004. Solá no descarta usar la fuerza. La Nación, July 8. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/616570-sola-no-descarta-usar-la-fuerza. Accessed Feburuary 2016.Google Scholar
Lupu, Noam, and Pontusson, Jonas. 2011. The Structure of Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution. American Political Science Review 105 2: 316–36.Google Scholar
Lupu, Noam, Gervasoni, Carlos, Oliveros, Virginia, and Schiumerini, Luis. 2015. Apes: Argentine Panel Election Study. http://www.noamlupu.com/data.html. Accessed May 4, 2016.Google Scholar
Lustig, Nora, López-Calva, Luis F., and Ortiz-Juárez, Eduardo. 2013. Declining Inequality in Latin America in the 2000s: the Cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. World Development 44: 129–41.Google Scholar
Machado, Fabiana, Scartascini, Carlos, and Tommasi, Mariano. 2011. Political Institutions and Street Protests in Latin America. Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 3: 340–65.Google Scholar
Mahler, Vincent A., and Jesuit, David K.. 2006. Fiscal Redistribution in the Developed Countries: New Insights from the Luxembourg Income Study. Socio-Economic Review 4 3: 483–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, Doug. 1999. Marcos interpretativos y tácticas utilizadas por los movimientos: dramaturgia estratégica en el movimiento americano pro-derechos civiles. In Movimientos sociales, perspectivas comparadas, oportunidades políticas, estructuras de movilización y marcos interpretativos culturales, ed. McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Zald, Mayer N.. Madrid: Istmo.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N.. 1977. Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: a Partial Theory. American Journal of Sociology 82 6: 1212–41.Google Scholar
Meltzer, Allan H., and Richard, Scott F.. 1981. A Rational Theory of the Size of Government. Journal of Political Economy 89 5 (October): 914–27.Google Scholar
Milanovic, Branko. 2000. The Median-Voter Hypothesis, Income Inequality, and Income Redistribution: an Empirical Test with the Required Data. European Journal of Political Economy 16 3: 367–410.Google Scholar
Moene, Karle Ove, and Wallerstein, Michael. 2001. Inequality, Social Insurance, and Redistribution. American Political Science Review 95 4: 859–74.Google Scholar
Morgan, Jana, and Kelly, Nathan J.. 2010. Explaining Public Attitudes toward Fighting Inequality in Latin America. Poverty and Public Policy 2 3: 79–111.Google Scholar
Moscovich, Lorena. 2012. From Top to Bottom (and Back to the Top Again): Federal Spending, Sub-national Coalitions, and Protests in Argentina, 2002–2006. Journal of Politics in Latin America 4 1: 35–72.Google Scholar
Murillo, María Victoria. 2001. Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions and Market Reforms in Latin America. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yañez, Navarro, Clemente, J., and Rosa Herrera Gutiérrez, María. 2009. Contexto micro y macro de la protesta colectiva: América Latina en la década de los noventa [Micro and Macro Context of Collective Protest: Latin America in the 1990s.] Revista Mexicana de Sociología 71 1: 83–130.Google Scholar
Noro, Pedro R. 2003. Jujuy: un muerto en una violenta jornada. La Nación (Buenos Aires), October 11. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/534875-jujuy-un-muerto-en-una-violenta-jornada. Accessed February 2016.Google Scholar
Norpoth, Helmut, and Buchanan, Bruce. 1992. Wanted: the Education President: Issue Trespassing by Political Candidates. Public Opinion Quarterly 56 1: 87–99.Google Scholar
Pérez, Germán J., and Armesto, Melchor. 2012. Social Protest Database. Collected by the Group of Studies on Social Protest and Collective Action, University of Buenos Aires (GEPSAC-UBA).Google Scholar
Pérez, Germán J., and Pereyra, Sebastián. 2013. La protesta social entre las crisis de la democracia argentina. Revista SAAP 7 2: 463–71.Google Scholar
Perotti, Roberto. 1996. Growth, Income Distribution, and Democracy: What the Data Say. Journal of Economic Growth 1 2: 149–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piven, Frances Fox, and Cloward, Richard. 1977. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Pontusson, Jonas, and Rueda, David. 2007. Income Inequality and Partisan Politics in Industrialized Democracies. Unpublished mss.Google Scholar
Pontusson, Jonas, and Rueda, David. 2010. The Politics of Inequality: Voter Mobilization and Left Parties in Advanced Industrial States. Comparative Political Studies 43 6: 675–705.Google Scholar
Porto, Alberto, and Cont, Walter. 1998. Presupuestos provinciales, transferencias interguber namentales y equidad. Desarrollo Económico 38: 267–91.Google Scholar
Rodden, Jonathan A. 2006. Hamilton's Paradox: The Promise and Peril of Fiscal Federalism. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scartascini, Carlos, and Tommasi, Mariano. 2012. The Making of Policy: Institutionalized or Not? American Journal of Political Science 56 4: 787–801.Google Scholar
Schneider, Ben Ross, and Soskice, David. 2009. Inequality in Developed Countries and Latin America: Coordinated, Liberal and Hierarchical Systems. Economy and Society 38 1: 17–52.Google Scholar
Schuster, Federico L., Pérez, Germán J., Pereyra, Sebastián, Armesto, Melchor, Armelino, Martín, García, Analía, Natalucci, Ana, Vázquez, Melina, and Zipcioglu, Patricia. 2006. Transformaciones de la protesta social en Argentina 1989–2003. Documentos de Trabajo 48: 1. Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.Google Scholar
Scribano, Adrián, and Schuster, Federico. 2001. Protesta social en la Argentina de 2001: entre la normalidad y la ruptura. Observatorio Social de América Latina 5: 17–22.Google Scholar
Soares, Sergei, Osorio, Rafael Guerreiro, Soares, Fábio Veras, Medeiros, Marcelo, and Zepeda, Eduardo. 2009. Conditional Cash Transfers in Brazil, Chile and Mexico: Impacts upon Inequality. Estudios Económicos 1: 207–24.Google Scholar
Spiller, Pablo T., and Tommasi, Mariano. 2007. The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Svampa, Maristella. 2009. Protesta, movimientos sociales y dimensiones de la acción colectiva en América Latina. Paper presented at the conference Jornadas de Homenaje a Charles Tilly. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Fundación Carolina. May 7–9.Google Scholar
Szwarcberg, Mariela. 2015. Mobilizing Poor Voters: Machine Politics, Clientelism, and Social Networks in Argentina. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Torre, Juan Carlos. 1990. La vieja guardia sindical y Perón: sobre los orígenes del peronismo. Colección Historia y Sociedad. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana/Instituto Torcuato di Tella.Google Scholar
Weitz-Shapiro, Rebecca. 2006. Partisanship and Protest: the Politics of Workfare Distribution in Argentina. Latin American Research Review 41 3: 122–47.Google Scholar