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Zapatista Experience Summary

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Morgan Bean
Professor Jackson
Intro to Political Science
20 February 2018
Response Paper Many parts of the world have recently begun to question and focus on the purpose of politics and even have started to propose new alternatives or options to what was traditionally accepted as government. Specifically, in Latin America, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) is proposing the establishment of a political-social organization that would run parallel to the framework recognized as law. The article, “Societies in Movement vs. Institutional Continuities? Insights from the Zapatista Experience,” written by Diana Guillén, explains the the causation behind the creation of autonomous institutions, like the one proposed by the Zapatista, …show more content…

She supports her main idea by providing multiple examples of the inequalities that are still faced by a large number of people today. For example, she writes that “the indigenous population has the most severe and adverse indicators with regard to poverty and marginalization” (Guillén 10). Additionally, Guillén illustrates the conflicts and issues that arise as a result of the inequalities, like armed resistance. Later, Guillén describes the issues that have arise when attempting to overlap positive and indigenous law, but also gives accounts of how the autonomous groups are working to try to deal with the conflicts. Ultimately, Guillén finishes her second section by presenting evidence showing that while the autonomous groups have not completely eradicated inequalities amongst the communities, they are slowly making things better; for example, the use of a secret ballot election for authorities and “the pursuit of accountability through expressly created committees” (Guillén …show more content…

Her final section acts as her conclusion; she touches once more on the factors that back the need for change and the inequalities faced amid the communities and autonomous institutions. Similarly, this is also the section she uses to somewhat tie all her information she set forth into her purpose for writing this work: to discuss and analyze why autonomous institutions are formed and how they operate. Her organizational system was to offer extremely sufficient evidence to support her major claims and ideas in the first two sections and then creating a summary as the final section to offer her thoughts on

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