This article examines residential segregation by skin color in forty of the largest metropolitan areas in Brazil, using census tract data from the 2010 Brazilian census. Residential dissimilarity among whites, browns, and blacks is moderate to low by US standards, and residential segregation correlates positively with socioeconomic status. By contrasting our findings with results from the 1980 Brazilian census, we observe that in thirty years, residential segregation decreased significantly in many metropolitan areas, particularly white-brown and brown-black dissimilarities. We speculate as to why these changes should have occurred.

Are women and men in positions of authority judged differently? If a gender evaluation gap exists, is it due to persistent stereotypes or notions of gender solidarity? We explore gender differences in judgement through a survey experiment in Argentina with a national sample of 4,068 employees. Respondents were asked to recommend a salary increase for a “bad boss” whose behavior was characterized as aggressive and at the limit of what is fair and appropriate. The survey experiment measures the extent to which respondents punish and reward female and male managers differently. The main finding is that women are more likely to punish male bad bosses, and men are more likely to punish female bad bosses. We explain variation as a function of respondents’ social and personal networks. Study findings carry significant implications for the study of the gender pay gap.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes Indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination and to maintain their distinct institutions. This article investigates how those rights are being exercised in Charagua, which became Bolivia’s first “Indigenous autonomous government” when the municipality’s Guaraní majority approved conversion in 2015. We explore the construction of novel institutions of self-government to assess how local Guaraní leaders are negotiating autonomy, both externally and internally. The result of those negotiations is a hybrid political system in which power is balanced between an executive organ (as required by Bolivian law) and a deliberative assembly (the Ñemboati Guasu, which operates according to Indigenous custom). The prominence of the assembly expresses a significant form of autonomy that promotes intercultural political participation and enacts Indigenous self-government in ways that are important to Guaraní people. Yet, because the new political unit does not control subsoil rights and thus cannot determine the sorts of development that take place in its territory, we cannot yet say the Guaranís are exercising full and robust autonomy as expressed by the UN Declaration’s provisions for self-determination.

Report presented at the meeting of the Executive Council of the Latin American Studies Association (online session), May 22–23, 2020.

El artículo analiza de las percepciones y legitimación frente a las desigualdades para el caso chileno, enfocándose en su dimensión socioecológica. Muestra resultados de una investigación cualitativa de cuatro años realizada en cinco casos de territorios sometidos a altos niveles de degradación ambiental, con el fin de analizar los procesos a través de los cuales los sujetos perciben esta dimensión de la desigualdad y van construyendo una gramática al respecto, considerando que son espacios en los que la intersección de variables que configuran las posiciones de desventaja adquieren una violencia tal que amenaza la vida misma de los sujetos y la de su entorno. Para esto analiza los elementos del contexto tóxico que atraviesan las percepciones de desigualdad, para establecer cuatro gramáticas de la legitimación: la naturalización, la relativización, la negación y la resignación.

Este artículo analiza el mecanismo causal que subyace a las condicionalidades a partir del análisis de los procesos de implementación de la Asignación Universal por Hijo de Argentina y el Régimen de Asignaciones Familiares (Plan de Equidad) de Uruguay. Para ello, con el objetivo de aportar elementos sobre la relación causal entre condicionalidades y el eventual cambio de comportamiento de las familias, aquí se profundiza en cómo las condicionalidades son comunicadas a los receptores de ambas políticas, cómo son entendidas por ellos, y cómo el incumplimiento es sancionado. La comparación entre Argentina y Uruguay muestra cómo cada política pone el foco en distintas etapas de su proceso de implementación. Esto da cuenta de dos formas distintas de implementar las condicionalidades, alterando en forma distinta la cadena causal a través de la cual las condicionalidades podrían modificar la conducta de los receptores. El análisis provee elementos para reflexionar sobre el grado en que es esperable que las condicionalidades de las políticas de transferencias logren los efectos deseados y en qué condiciones es esto razonable.

This article examines patterns of change and continuity in Latin American foreign policies. It asks two interrelated questions: How can we conceptually and empirically account for foreign policy change? And why do states change their foreign policies in Latin America? To answer these questions, we used the results of a new expert survey on foreign policy preferences in the region between 1980 and 2014. The results we obtained using both linear and nonparametric specifications are very clear and consistent: presidential ideology is what matters the most. Simply put, a change in the ideology of the president produces a change in foreign policy that is almost equivalent in magnitude, all other theoretically relevant factors set to their means.

This article explores the impact of neighborhood effects on the socioeconomic integration of the inhabitants of three favelas of Salvador da Bahia. Urban research has argued that the spatial concentration of poverty adversely affects individual outcomes. Nevertheless, disagreement persists on whether contiguity between poor neighborhoods and higher-class gated communities widens opportunity structures. Examining the composition of social networks and their mobilization in the struggle for economic mobility, this study confirms that the proximity of Nordeste de Amaralina to upper-class neighborhoods improves access to labor opportunities, though mechanisms of social stratification limit these potentials. Segregation and the scarcity of economic opportunities in Plataforma foster the residents’ social isolation, whereas the socializing effects of public institutions in Fazenda Grande II mitigate the negative repercussions of poverty. The study urges a more holistic approach to urban poverty within public policies.

O presente artigo tem por objetivo lastrear o desenvolvimento inicial das concepções sobre a teoria marxista da dependência ainda no calor do embate político no Brasil entre 1959 e 1967. Inicialmente, o texto se debruça sobre a formação e desenvolvimento da Organização Revolucionária Marxista Política Operária através da análise de alguns documentos políticos da organização, para em seguida, pôr em foco o Programa Socialista para o Brasil de 1967, de modo a destacar certas similaridades do programa político com as linhas centrais que virão a compor a teoria marxista da dependência. Ao final, o artigo levanta relação recíproca entre os conhecimentos forjados no calor da luta política com aqueles elaborados dentro da universidade, indicando a presença e reelaboração das concepções da organização política nas obras iniciais dos cientistas sociais brasileiros Theotônio dos Santos e Ruy Mauro Marini.

This article examines how the organizational structure of a social movement affects the tactics it is likely to adopt. Hybrid movements gained prominence at the start of the twenty-first century. Like movements of the past, they protested on the streets; but unlike the movements of the past, they also acted like interest groups by lobbying government over policy. Considered through the lens of traditional scholarship, this phenomenon presents a puzzle. Loose networks of activists are thought to be good at contentious politics but incapable of negotiating with government. By contrast, federations of interest groups are seen to be good at insider lobbying but subject to co-optation. This article theorizes the middle ground between social movements and interest groups by proposing a third structure for social movement organizing, the federative coalition, which incorporates some of the advantages of hierarchy while avoiding some of its pitfalls. The article illustrates this argument through a case study of Brazil’s AIDS movement.

Este artículo describe y explica la sub representación de mujeres en los gabinetes ministeriales de Ecuador entre los años 1979 y 2015. A partir de una base de datos inédita y recurriendo a un modelo de regresión lineal, el artículo sostiene que el incremento tanto en el número de legisladoras como en el tamaño de la bancada legislativa oficialista, inciden positivamente sobre la presencia de mujeres en los gabinetes ministeriales. Adicionalmente el artículo discute la importancia política de los ministerios asignados a mujeres a lo largo del período analizado. En este aspecto, el principal hallazgo empírico que se presenta indica que, a pesar del drástico aumento de ministras durante los gobiernos de Rafael Correa, la histórica tendencia de colocar mujeres en Carteras de Estado de menor importancia política continúa en vigencia.

On the basis of data collected by the RETTRANS survey (2011–2012) on Bolivian migrants living in Spain, this article aims to identify the influence of the 2008 economic crisis on the determinants marking the migrants’ return intention. In this regard, there is a need to incorporate the concept of double embeddedness based on migrants’ social networks (meso level), the way migration is imbricated in persons’ lives (micro level); and how, at a macro level, economic and social transformations of different contexts affect these decisions. The article highlights that unexpected changes in living conditions trigger a reconfiguration of these mixed factors that condition return intentions.

To explain the high rates of violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle, this article argues that it is rooted in an armed arena comprised of state and nonstate actors with roles in security, ranging from the military to organized crime. In this space of collaboration, those actors bring resources and reap rewards, strengthening their relationships in the process. Of the many activities within the armed arena, one of the most destructive is the trafficking of firearms. Based on fieldwork in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, this article focuses on two sets of relationships that demonstrate the armed arena’s strength. The first set is the area of criminal justice, centered on investigations, ballistics, inventories, and destruction of arms. The second is the arms market: regional trafficking, internal arms sales, and the state’s licensing system. Evaluating governmental responses, the final section shows that arms control policies are most effective when they target and disrupt these relationships.

Este articulo analiza el papel que desempeñaron turistas norteamericanos en la redefinición de la vocación productiva de dos localidades mexicanas. Estos visitantes desde sus actividades empresariales tuvieron un papel fundamental en la constitución de estos espacios sociales como lugares turísticos. El trabajo analiza el papel de los emprendedores como agentes en la transformación de la identidad cultural de pequeñas poblaciones que, hasta antes de la presencia de estos emprendedores, no eran considerados destinos turísticos y pasaban por una crisis económica por lo que sus proyectos parecían una aventura destinada al fracaso. El papel que los visitantes norteamericanos han tenido en la definición de la cultura y la actividad turística en México ha sido poco analizado. Los casos de estudio son Taxco (Guerrero) y Álamos (Sonora).

This article examines support for the restriction of human rights in Latin America, arguing that rising crime rates and personal experience with crime are only part of the story. Despite an emphasis on the protection of human rights in the aftermath of military regimes and civil war in Latin America, some citizens contest the defense of these rights across the region. Arguing that protecting human rights only keeps criminals out of jail, these citizens support policies and crime control measures that violate the rights of criminal suspects and other marginalized groups. Using public opinion data, this article demonstrates a relationship between individuals’ worldviews and their attitudes toward the human rights abuses committed against criminal suspects.

In the 1930s the Bolivian and Mexican governments decreed the nationalization of their respective oil industries, thus starting a juncture of tensions in their relationship with the United States government and companies. In both cases foreign companies quit the respective host countries, but Bolivia was less successful than Mexico in maintaining its initial stand in face of the external pressure. Following a most-similar-system design strategy to compare both cases of asymmetrical confrontation, which share a similar set of conditions regarding simultaneity, starting causes of the conflict, actors involved and international context, we contend that the difference in the confrontation’s resolution is mainly attributable to differing domestic variables. Controlling for the similarity in external conditions, we show that the building and maintenance of a strong internal support coalition was critical for the capacity of the weakest part to advance its interest in an asymmetrical atmosphere.

Why have moderate electorates elected and reelected leftist governments in Latin America over the last twenty years? Scholars who rely on the classic Downsian logic of the median voter theorem have observed a process of ideological moderation among the most salient left-wing parties in the region. However, there have been no systematic attempts to evaluate the moderation thesis at the comparative level, either across Latin America or within cases over time. This article uses a directional model in the spatial modeling tradition to argue that the success of the left rests on the provision of clear leftist programmatic cues to voters. Data coming from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems for five Latin American countries during 1994 and 2014 show that left-wing parties won on left-wing platforms across the region, while an in-depth study on Brazilian elections reveals that leftist voters of the Workers’ Party in 2002 were driven by programmatic cues that largely disappeared during the 2010 elections.

Este artículo estudia la percepción que tienen los individuos sobre el color de su piel como una dimensión ideológica del blanqueamiento. Usando modelos de regresión logística binaria en una muestra nacional representativa del Barómetro de las Américas en Colombia, preguntamos: ¿Existe alguna asociación entre las categorías étnico-raciales, el color de la piel, el estatus social y el deseo individual de tener un color de piel más claro? ¿Qué explica el deseo de tener un color de piel más claro en el seno de una sociedad racializada? Este estudio encuentra que las personas que se autoidentifican como blancas tienen una mayor probabilidad de desear tener un color de piel más claro que las personas negras, después de controlar por el color de la piel. Además, aquellos con un tono de piel intermedio también tienen un mayor deseo de blanqueamiento. Los resultados muestran que, para las personas que se autoidentifican como negras en Colombia, el blanqueamiento parece no constituirse en una ventana de escape de procesos históricos y estructurales de marginación social, ni en una estrategia de evasión de prácticas de discriminación racial.

El estudio revisa las diferentes teorías sobre las relaciones entre informalidad, competitividad e institucionalidad y las contrasta con lo sucedido en los últimos diez años en el Perú, valorando aquellas que pueden dar cuenta de la articulación de lo formal e informal. Arriba a la conclusión de que en la etapa de auge se produjo una combinación de crecimiento sin competitividad y con un debilitamiento institucional, que es el modelo final de economía y sociedad de la informalidad. Se fundamenta el paso de la informalidad blanda a la informalidad dura, con la consiguiente expansión de una cultura de trasgresión y encarecimiento de los costos de transacción. El ciclo de crecimiento no sostenible que se vivió en la primera década del nuevo milenio produjo un éxito fácil que ahora está a prueba con el cambio en el entorno global y nacional. El estudio se basa en una amplia revisión bibliográfica y documental, así como en bases de datos de estadísticas nacionales e internacionales.

O artigo toma como referência a abordagem dos regimes de bem-estar proposta inicialmente por Gösta Esping-Andersen e tem como objetivos a caracterização dos regimes de bem-estar nas unidades federativas brasileiras e a identificação dos fatores e complementariedades capazes de explicar a heterogeneidade da proteção social no Brasil. Além disso, inovando em relação a trabalhos precedentes, introduz uma dimensão étnica na construção tipológica, tema quase negligenciado pela literatura especializada. A metodologia utilizada foi uma combinação entre a análise fatorial e a de cluster. A primeira caracterizou os tipos e a segunda agrupou e classificou os estados segundo seus sistemas de proteção social (SPS). Foram encontrados três tipos de SPS etnicamente segmentados, confirmando a inadequação de tratar o País como um tipo único e homogêneo e evidenciando o peso da hierarquia étnica na produção de bem-estar.