Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America

by W. Ascher (Editor), N. Mirovitskaya (Editor)

Overview

Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America explores the links between Latin American governments' economic policies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. Based on the patterns of ten countries, the contributions to this volume trace the remarkable transformation from open ideological conflict to the explosion of social (seemingly apolitical) violence, the upsurge of urban crime, and the confrontations over natural resources and drugs across the region spanning from Mexico to Argentina. The variations in economic success and in conflict prevention and transformation can guide policymakers, development professionals, and activists committed to conflict-sensitive development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137485014
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/03/2014
Series:	Politics, Economics, and Inclusive Development
Edition description:	2012
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

GUSTAVO ARCIA Senior economist at Analítica WILLIAM ASCHER Donald C. McKenna Professor of Government and Economics at Claremont McKenna College, USA WILLIAM T. BARNDT Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside, USA SHEILA AMIN GUTIÉRREZ DE PIÑERES Professor of Economics at The University of Texas at Dallas, USA where she is also the Dean of undergraduate education and Mary McDermott Cook Distinguished Chair JENNIFER S. HOLMES Associate Professor of Political Economy and Political Science at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA PETER KINGSTONE Professor and coordinator of the Program on High Growth-Emerging Markets at King's College London, UK NATALIA MIROVITSKAYA Senior researcher and lecturing fellow at the Duke Center for International Development DEBORAH NORDEN Professor of Political Science and chair of the Political Science Department at Whittier College, USA JUDITH TEICHMAN Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada

Table of Contents

Economic Development Patterns and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America; W.Ascher & N.Mirovitskaya Violent Conflict and Unequal Development: The Case of Mexico; J.Teichman The Evolution of Violence: Economic Development and Inter-group Conflict in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica; G.Arcia Violence and Sectoral Development in Colombia; J.S.Holmes & S.A.Gutiérrez de Piñeres On the Brink of Violence: Work, Fear, and the State in the Bolivian Regions; W.T.Barndt Sowing Conflict in Venezuela: Political Violence and Economic Policy; D.L.Norden Education Policy and Conflict in Latin America: Lessons from Chile and Venezuela; E.Penner Economic Exclusion and the Shifting Patterns of Violence in Argentina and Brazil; P.Kingstone

Editorial Reviews

"In broad terms, this collection is the first I have seen to systematically address the relationship between post-Cold War development patterns and the use of violence in Latin America. This is a difficult topic it was so much easier to address related questions during the Cold War, when a bipolar view of the world was so often superimposed on Latin America. Today, however, two decades after the disappearance of the Soviet Union, we know there are far more than two sides to almost every important question of Latin American politics and Latin American development patterns in particular. With standout contributions, this book will be of interest to students of comparative politics, both of violence in a cross-national context and of more traditional Latin American politics." - Lars Schoultz, William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of Political Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

"It is not a coincidence that Latin America is both the most unequal and the most violent region of the world. This timely book is a lucid attempt to demonstrate that the choice of development policies has contributed to intergroup conflict and to weakening the State, thus making violence a deep-rooted phenomenon." - Eduardo Lora, former Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, currently Senior Fellow at the Center for International Development, Harvard University, USA, and Editor of Vox.Lacea.org of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association

From the Publisher