Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T07:49:12.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inequality in Twentieth-Century Latin America: Path Dependence, Countermovements, and Reactive Sequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2018

Judith Teichman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most recent explanations of social welfare and development outcomes have focused on the role and impact of formal institutional arrangements, particularly the state. The institutional legacies of colonial rule and the role of democratic institutions have been common explanatory variables. This article focuses on the historical origins, persistence, and increases in inequality in Mexico and Chile during the twentieth century. It argues that despite important historical economic and political institutional differences, similar processes account for the unequal distributional outcomes that characterize the two cases. Critical conjunctures involved bitter struggle between social groups. While popularly based countermovements (along the lines predicted by Karl Polyani) arose periodically and struggled to improve social conditions, these movements were unable to alter the underlying sources of inequality. By mid-twentieth century, popular pressure had been able to exact only an unequal form of embeddedness (or social protection from the market) that contributed to inequality. Further, waves of popular mobilization linked to critical conjunctures produced reactive historical sequences involving fierce resistance from propertied elites and their middle-class allies. This resistance inevitably gave rise to new conjunctures ushering in new institutional arrangements that entrenched or increased inequality. The absence of a distributive settlement between propertied classes and popular groups was at the heart of the mobilization and countermobilization cycles in both cases; indeed, it was the depth of this disagreement, particularly the disagreement over private property, that fueled reactive sequences and their unequalizing outcomes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , Spring 2019 , pp. 131 - 157
Copyright
© Social Science History Association, 2018 

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 Robinson, James A. (2006) Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon Robinson, James (2001) “The colonial origins of comparative development.” American Economic Review 91 (5): 1369–1401.Google Scholar
Aguilar, Alonso Carmona, Fernando (1972) México: Riqueza y miseria. Mexico City: Editorial Nuestro Tiempo S.A.Google Scholar
Allende, Salvador (1971) “La vía chilena al socialismo.” Discurso ante el Congreso de la República, http://biblio3.url.edu.gt/Libros/2012/la_viaChile.pdf (accessed September 29, 2017).Google Scholar
Bauer, Arnold J. (1975) Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berg, Janine (2004) Miracle for Whom? Chilean Workers under Free Trade. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Borzutzky, Silvia (2002) Vital Connections: Politics, Social Security, and Inequality in Chile. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Borzutzky, Silvia (2006) “Cooperation or confrontation between the state and the market: Social security and health policies,” in Silvia Borzutzky and Lois Hecht Oppenheim (eds.) The Chilean Road to Democracy and the Market. Gainesville: University of Florida Press: 142–166.Google Scholar
Boyle, Catherine M. Hojman, David E. (1985) “Middle class sectors in contemporary Chile.” Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 38 (June): 15–45.Google Scholar
Boylan, Delia M. (1996) “Taxation and transition: The politics of the 1990 Chilean tax reform.” Latin American Research Review 43 (1): 7–31.Google Scholar
Camp, Roderic (1989) Entrepreneurs and Politics in Twentieth Century Mexico. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cockcroft, James D. (1968) Intellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1913. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Cockcroft, James D. (1983) Mexico: Class Formation, Capital Accumulation and the State. New York: Monthly Review.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Collier, David (1991) Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, Addison, Tony Kiiski, Sampson (2004) “Income distribution changes and their impact in the post second world war period,” in Giovanni Andrea Cornia (ed.) Inequality, Growth and Poverty in an Era of Liberalization and Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 26–52.Google Scholar
Cumberland, Charles C. (1968) Mexico: The Struggle for Modernity. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cyper, James Wise, Raúl Delgado (2010) Mexico’s Economic Dilemma: The Development Failure of Neoliberalism. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
De Ferranti, D., Perry, G. E., Ferreira, F. H. G. Walton, Michael (2004) Inequality in Latin America: Breaking with History? Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Drake, Paul W. (1978) Socialism and Populism in Chile, 1932–52. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2017) Social Panorama of Latin America, 2016, Statistical Appendix. Santiago: ECLAC, www.cepal.org/en/publications/39964-social-panorama-latin-america-2015 (accessed July 6, 2017).Google Scholar
Fáundez, Julio (1988) Marxism and Democracy in Chile: From 1932 to the Fall of Allende. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan (1994) “Targeting the poorest: The role of the National Indigenous Institute in Mexico’s Solidarity Program,” in Wayne A. Cornelius, Ann L. Craig, and Johnathan Fox (eds.) Transforming State Society Relations in Mexico. San Diego: Center for US-Mexican Studies and University of California: 179–216.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan Haight, Libby (2010) “Mexican agricultural policy: Multiple goals and conflicting interests,” in Jonathan Fox and Libby Haight (eds.) Subsidizing Inequality: Mexican Corn Policy since NAFTA. Santa Cruz: Woodrow Wilson Centre for Scholars and University of California: 9–50.Google Scholar
Foxley, Alejandro (1987) “The neoconservative economic experiment in Chile,” in J. Samuel Valenzuela and Arturo Valenzuela (eds.) Military Rule in Chile: Dictatorship and Opposition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: 13–43.Google Scholar
Foxley, Alejandro, Aninat, Eduardo Arellano, J. P. (1979) Redistributive Effects of Government Programs: The Chilean Case. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Garrido, Celso (1998) “El liderazgo de las grandes empresas industriales mexicanas,” in Wilson Peres (coord.) Grandes empresas y grupos industriales latinoamericanos. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores: 397–472.Google Scholar
Gereffi, Gary Evans, Peter (1981) “Transnational corporations, dependent development and state policy in the semi-periphery: A comparison of Brazil and Mexico.” Latin American Research Review 21 (3): 31–64.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, Christoffer, Kersbergen, Kees van Hemerijck, Anton (2001) “Neo-liberalism, the ‘Third Way’ or what? Recent social democratic welfare policies in Denmark and the Netherlands.” Journal of European Public Policy 8 (2): 307–325.Google Scholar
Gribomont, C. Rimez, M. (1977) “La política económica del gobierno de Luís Echeverría (1971–1976): Un primer ensayo de interpretación.” El Trimestre Económico 44 (4): 771–833.Google Scholar
Haagh, Louis (2002) Citizenship, Labor Markets and Democratization. New York, Houndmills, and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Haber, Stephen H. (1989) Industry and Underdevelopment: The Industrialization of Mexico, 1890–1940. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, Roger D. (1980) The Politics of Mexican Development. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Hellman, Judith Alder (1983) Mexico in Crisis, 2nd ed. New York: Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Hewitt de Alcántara, Cynthia (1976) Modernizing Mexican Agriculture: Socio-economic Implications of Technological Change, 1940–1976. Geneva: UN Institute for Social Development.Google Scholar
Hickey, Sam, Sen, Kunal Bukenya, Badru (2014) “Exploring the politics of inclusive development: Toward a new conceptual approach,” in Sam Hickey, Kunal Sen, and Badru Bukenya (eds.) The Politics of Inclusive Development: Interrogating the Evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press (ebook).Google Scholar
Hudson, Rex A. (1994) Chile: A Country Guide. Washington, DC: GPO for the Library of Congress, http://countrystudies.us/chile/ (accessed August 2016).Google Scholar
Kay, Cristobal (2006) “East Asia’s success and Latin America’s failure: Agrarian reform, industrial policy, and state capacity,” in Richard B. Boyd, F. Galjart, and Tak-Wing Nog (eds.) Political Conflict and Development in East Asia and Latin America. New York: Routledge: 21–52.Google Scholar
Khan, Mushtaq (2010) “Political settlements and the governance of growth-enhancing institutions.” Research Paper Series on “Growth-Enhancing Governance.” SOAS Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Department of Economics, University of London, http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/9968/ (accessed May 11, 2016).Google Scholar
King, Timothy (1970) Mexico: Industrialization and Trade Policies since 1940. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kornbluh, Peter (NA). Chile and the United States: Declassified documents relating to the military coup, September 11, 1973. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 8, www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm (accessed March 12, 2017).Google Scholar
Kuznets, S. (1955) “Economic growth and income inequality.” American Economic Review 45 (1): 1–28 Google Scholar
Lambert, Jacques (1967) Latin America: Social Structures and Political Institutions. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lefort, Fernando Walker, Eduardo (2000) “Ownership and capital structure of Chilean conglomerates: Facts and hypotheses for governance.” Revista Abante 3 (1): 3–27.Google Scholar
Leftwich, Adrian (2011) “Beyond institutions: Rethinking the role of leaders, elites, and coalitions in the institutional formation of developmental states and strategies.” Forum for Development Studies 37 (1): 93–111.Google Scholar
Loaeza, Solidad (1983) “El papel político de las clases medias en el México contemporáneo.” Revista Mexicana de Sociología 45 (2): 407–439.Google Scholar
Loveman, Brian (1976) Struggle in the Countryside: Politics and Rural Labor in Chile. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Loveman, Brian (1988) The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lustig, Nora (1998) Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James (2000) “Path dependence in historical sociology.” Theory and Society 29 (4): 507–548.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James (2010) Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mamalakis, Markos J. (1976) The Growth and Structure of the Chilean Economy: From Independence to Allende. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Martínez, Gabriel Fárber, Guillermo (1994) Desregulación económica (1989–1993). Mexico City: Fundo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar
Martínez, Javier Díaz, Álvaro (1996) Chile: The Great Transformation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Martínez Nava, Juan M. (1984) Conflicto estado empresarios. Mexico City: Editorial Nueva Imagen.Google Scholar
Maxfield, Sylvia (1990) Governing Capital: International Finance and Mexican Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Meller, Patricio (2000) Pobreza y distribución del ingreso en Chile (década del 90). Working Paper No. 69, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Chile: Santiago.Google Scholar
Merino, María E. Quilagueo, Daniel (2003) “Ethnic prejudice against the Mapuche in Chilean society as a reflection of the racist ideology of the Spanish conquistadores.” American Culture and Research Journal 27 (4): 105–116.Google Scholar
Meyer, Michael C. Sherman, William L. (1979) The Course of Mexican History. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Middlebrook, Kevin J. (1995) The Paradox of Revolution: Labor, the State and Authoritarianism in Mexico. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Phil Roddick, Jackie (1983) Chile, the Pinochet Decade: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Boys. London: Latin American Bureau.Google Scholar
Parkes, Henry Bamford (1962) A History of Mexico. London: Eyre and Spotiswoode.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul (2000) “Not just what, but when: Timing and sequence in political processes.” Studies in American Political Development 14 (1): 72–92.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl (2001 [1957]) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.Google Scholar
Puryear, Jeffrey M. (1994) Thinking Politics: Intellectuals and Democracy in Chile. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Rindefjäll, Teresia (2005) Democracy beyond the Ballot Box: Citizen Participation and Social Rights in Post Transition Chile. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Rodrik, Dani (2000) “Institutions for high-quality growth: What they are and how to acquire them.” Studies in Comparative International Development 35 (3): 3–31.Google Scholar
Rodrik, Dani, Subramanian, Arvind Trebbi, Francesco (2004) “Institutions rule: The primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development.” Journal of Economic Growth 9 (2): 131–165.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Stephens, Evelyne Huber Stephens, John D. (1992) Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Philip L. (1995) The Chiapas Rebellion. Austin, TX: Mexico Resource Center.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Steven E. (1981) Agrarian Populism and the Mexican State: The Struggle for Land in Sonora. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Segura-Ubiergo, Alex (2007) The Political Economy of the Welfare State in Latin America. Globalization, Democracy and Development. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (2000) Development as Freedom. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Silva, Eduardo (1996) The State and Capital in Chile: Business Elites, Technocrats and Market Economics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Silva, Patricio (1991) “Technocrats and politics in Chile: From the Chicago boys to the CIEPLAN Monks.” Journal of Latin American Studies 23 (2): 385–410.Google Scholar
Tannenbaum, Frank (1968) Mexico: The Struggle for Peace and Bread. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Taylor, Lucy (1998) Citizenship, Participation and Democracy: Changing Dynamics in Chile and Argentina. New York, Houndsmills, Basingstoke, and London: Palgrave Macmillan Press and St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Marcus (2003) “The reformulation of social policy in Chile, 1973–2001.” Global Social Policy 3 (1): 21–44.Google Scholar
Tello, Carlos (1979). La política económica en México, 1970–1976. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores.Google Scholar
Teichman, Judith A. (2001) The Politics of Freeing Markets in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Teichman, Judith A. (2016) The Politics of Inclusive Development, Policy, State Capacity, and Coalition Building. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, and Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Thacker, S. C. (2000) Big Business, the State, and Free Trade: Constructing Coalitions in Mexico. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1998) Durable Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
UNU-WIDER Database. United Nations University, World Institute for Economics Research database, www.wider.unu.edu/research/Database/en_GB/wiid/ (accessed July 6, 2017).Google Scholar
Ward, Peter (1986) Welfare Politics in Mexico: Papering over the Cracks. Boston: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Wilkie, James W. (1967) The Mexican Revolution: Federal Expenditures, and Social Change since 1910. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wilkie, James W., ed. (1999) Statistical Abstract of Latin America 35. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Maurice Ratcliff, Richard Earl (1988) Landlords and Capitalists: The Dominant Class of Chile. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar