From Movements to Parties in Latin America. The Evolution of Ethnic Politics. Donna Lee Van Cott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Pp. 276

These four cleavages emerged as the part of the foundation of the argument for a sociological approach to explaining party systems. A social cleavage is a far cry from a political party, and so Lipset and Rokkan had to provide a transition from the former to the latter; which they did in three parts. The first being that these cleavages existed before all adult males were given the privilege of voting. What this meant was that before these men could have joined together and voted one way or another there already existed certain issues on which they held viewpoints, whether consciously or not. The second point they made was that during this time of enfranchisement of the masses, the structure made it so that political organizations had to rely on support of the people to continue to enjoy political success. Typically this support came from certain factions that were strongly supportive of whatever ideal the organization held. The final point they make about transitioning from cleavage to party system is that when there is a movement towards better representation it’s the result of a fracturing of current parties and not new ones. All of these points illustrate the steps taken in order to arrive at the assumption that party systems are a function of a sociological interaction between the people of a nation.

Political Scientists, Thomas Flanagan and Roger Townshend explain the key to the big question: “Can a Native State Exist Within a Canadian State?” in the readings: “The Case for Native Sovereignty” and “Native Sovereignty: Does Anyone Really Want an Aboriginal Archipelago?”. The essay will outline and provide evidence to both sides, whether there could or could not exist a Native State in Canada. The document will argue that Natives are not organized enough to form their own government. Throughout the decades, Natives have agonized many savageries at the hands of the European settlers. The essay will take Flanagan’s side with the belief that Natives should not be sovereign, using the textbooks “Principles of Comparative Politics”, and

Comprised of landowners, lawyers, judges, priests, military officers and public officials, the creole and mazomba leaders of Latin American society found insatiable inspiration from the American and French Revolutions of the eighteenth century, and flooded Latin America with a liberal movement for independent nations. Conservatives, in contrast, sought to preserve the traditions of the colonial period, and the Orthodox rule of both the church and foreign-born royal authorities. Yet Old World flavor soured bitterly in a New World teeming with liberal thinkers and daring rebels. Desiring to surpass Old World peninsular and reinós rulers, creole and mazomba won control over local resources and economic development.

Racial inequality plays a key role in achieving the consolidation of democracy, due to its constant dependency of a class hierarchy. Since the beginning of Latin American history, those who controlled power were considered the elitist class. The elites had the resources and financial stability to hold places of power, and ultimately controlling all around them. In the colonial period of Latin America, the Encomienda and Hacienda systems displayed the different classes and rights each one had in a new light. The encomienda was a system where the royal crown of Spain granted charters of land

The P.R.I. is a Mexican political party. P.R.I. stands for Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Its goal was to change Mexican politics and make society more equitable. Once the P.R.I. was elected, the government changed rapidly. Because of these rapid changes, there was a lot of uncertainty among the Mexican people. Everybody was in search of a paramount person to help them fight for their own personal causes. While the P.R.I. may have achieved its goal of revolutionizing Mexico, it made the Mexican people very dubious of the government, by instilling in them, a lack of trust in the government for not disclosing all of the information it should have, a feeling of not being able to have control in society and politics, and the fear of voter fraud and corruption.

combine with social traits as though socio-economic status. So that a person is ranked not only according to physical phenotype, but also according to social standing.Race is often conceptualized as a system of categorization where the membership is limited to one category and is externally described by others who are not members of that category and without regards to the individuals own feeling of membership.Peninsular,Criollo,Indio,and Negro were the four main ranks of race.

Lastly, in modern democracies, political parties fail to fulfill their classical function as being ‘peoples’ representatives’ and enforcing the advocated policies. They tend to become such large organizations with tremendous amount of reach and power that they dominate the government and become less and less accountable to the people. The parties gain the power to suppress civil cases and manipulate their way into the parliament. Large parties are also able to turn elections in their favor and spend massive amounts of money and society’s scarce resources into election campaigning, solely based on marketing and advertisement. Thus, political parties in modern democracies are no longer instruments of public participation in the decision making process and these reason offer enough justification

Like most societies around the world, a single elite or a multitude of elites compete with one another to gain or maintain control over a much larger group of people. This distribution of power among a few selected groups to govern the people, is known as the Elite Power Theory; and this theory applies to many of the Latin American countries. Furthermore, elite groups like any other social groups are conditioned by a set of unwritten rules, by which, elite groups have to demonstrate their power and correspond with other existing elite groups in order to maintain control (also called the ‘living museum’ effect by Anderson).

The last thirty years in Latin America has been marked by the struggle of the indigenous peoples from the Andes to the Amazon, Indigenous people have emerged as important political actors calling attention to the exclusions that continue to mark the democracies in which they live. Since the 1980s, indigenous peoples have demanded their right to political participation, pressuring nation states to broaden their understandings of the democracy. They’ve demanded self-determination and the freedom to make their own decisions about their forms of government and lands. Used classic tools of citizenship, media, non violent protests like Bolivia and more and more using ballot box. Evo Morales was the first indigenous president of South America in Bolivia

Mexico’s political party that is most dominated the country’s political institutions when it was found back in 1929 and then eventually ended towards the end of the 20th century. Nearly all important symbol in Mexican nation and local policies belonged to the political party system, as a result of the recommendation of the participants that public offices have always been commensurated during this time period. During India’s return to the political party system they needed to declare their party.

Solis relies on journals, such as those found in La Vanguardia, to examine the positions of different political currents. However, Solis’s main flaw in his argument is that he does not provide readers with enough information on the Spanish government structure. When addressing the importance of the 2000 election, Solis mentions how the Partido Popular chose to form a coalition with Convergencia I Unio, even though they did not have to form such a government in order to form a majority in parliament. Without a working knowledge of how a coalition government works, why it is formed and how it is beneficial, the average reader may not be able to fully grasp the importance of the 2000 election. However, this is only a minor weakness. Ultimately, Solis is highly successful in laying out a convincing argument and demonstrating why Catalonian people, who have a strong attachment to their cultural identity, wish to gain autonomy within

This essay will compare and contrast the party systems of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay according to Mainwaring and Shugart's Chapter 11 of Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America. First, I will discuss majority verses minority government; second, I will discuss the number of relevant parties; third, I will discuss the level of party discipline with the parties.

“Their were different political parties which the people acknowledge to support the rise of this new economic development era. One party in particular is the

Approximately 40 parties are officially registered. However, only 4 of them hold the majority of seats in the public positions: “El Partido Revolucionario Social Cristiano (PRSC), El Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) and El Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD).” The latter is in power and controls the majority

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ZAPATISTAS AND THE EZLN AS A CASE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENT - LEFT PARTY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA