Critical Currents in Latin American Perspective Series:

Editor(s):  Ronald H. Chilcote

Emphasizing broad studies of Latin America, this series explores the central issues that confront the region today. The series includes both syntheses and cutting-edge research on the institutional, political, economic, and social forces that are shaping Latin America. Theoretically challenging, issue-oriented, cogently argued, often controversial, and always intellectually stimulating, books in the series will appeal to scholars, advanced students, and general readers alike. To view recent editions in the Latin American Perspectives in the Classroom series, click here.

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RECENT EDITIONS:

The Portuguese Revolution: State and Class in the Transition to Democracy
By Ronald H. Chilcote
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List Price: $79.00
Cloth 0-7425-6792-3 / 978-0-7425-6792-4
Dec 2009 328pp

"In The Portuguese Revolution, Chilcote has presented not only a wealth of information including the debates inside and outside of Portugal on the events of 1974–75 and its impact but also a model of how to analyze the dynamics of revolutionary struggle in the context of an enduring yet changing political economy. . . . [An] important new work."—Rosemary Galli, H-Net

"This is a carefully crafted, richly documented, and powerfully argued study. It will be of great interest to historians, political scientists, and other scholars interested in contemporary Portugal, the larger Lusophonic world, and broader questions of state power and decolonization. It has particular relevance for students working on Portuguese Africa."—Allen Isaacman, University of Minnesota

Building on decades of research, leading scholar Ronald H. Chilcote provides a definitive analysis of the 1974-1975 Portuguese revolution, which captured global attention and continues to resonate today. His study revisits a key historical moment to explain the revolution and its aftermath through periods of authoritarianism and resistance as well as representative and popular democracy. Exploring the intertwined themes of class, state, and hegemony, Chilcote builds a powerful framework for understanding the Portuguese case as well as contemporary political economy worldwide.

 

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Mexico's Economic Dilemma: The Developmental Failure of Neoliberalism
By James M. Cypher and Raúl Delgado Wiseaa
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List Price: $70.00
Cloth 0-7425-5660-3 / 978-0-7425-5660-7
Jun 2010 226pp

"The book is well written, firmly based on ample and solid empirical evidence, and supported by painstaking field research and a thorough review of the relevant literature. It is an eye opener and a must for anyone who wants to really understand contemporary Mexico s economy and society—and in fact for all those interested in the darker side of the globalization process."—Osvaldo Sunkel, University of Chile

"This is surely the best treatment of modern Mexican economic history and the development of an unending crisis. Mexico's close linking to the United States through NAFTA produced an acute vulnerability to the Great Crisis, and thus Mexico's current condition ought to be an acute embarrassment to the architects of neoliberal globalization."—James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin, author of The Predator State

Written by two leading scholars, this book provides a detailed analysis of Mexico's political economy. James M. Cypher and Raúl Delgado Wise begin with an examination of Mexico's pivotal economic crisis of the 1980s and the consequent turn toward an export-led economy, later anchored by NAFTA. They show how Mexico, after abandoning frequently successful past practices of state-led development, disastrously tied its future to an unconditional reliance on foreign corporations to promote an export-led growth strategy.

Focusing on Mexico's cheap labor export model, the authors use the maquiladora sector and the auto industry as case studies of the perils of globalization—the "race to the bottom" as capital becomes ever more international. The government's unconstrained free-market policies, they convincingly argue, have resulted in a fragmented economy marked by stagnation, falling wages, informal part-time employment, and massive migration, which define daily life for all but a tiny minority.

About the Editors
James M. Cypher is a research professor in the doctoral program in development studies, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. Raúl Delgado Wise is director of the doctoral program in development sStudies, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas.

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Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, New Edition
Edited by Richard L. Harris and Jorge Nef
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"Recommended."—Choice 2008

"Provocative analyses that invert current orthodoxies. Reshapes how we think about social movements, rural societies, working class struggles and indigenous peoples."—Elizabeth Dore, University of Southampton

"The editors of this collection have brought together leading critical scholars with a wealth of experience behind them to provide an up-to-date survey of the main economic, political, and social aspects of contemporary Latin America. Recommended."—Ronaldo Munck, Dublin City University

"The first edition of Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America was prophetic, and this revision is even more important, especially in light of the pace and space of globalization. In the spirit of Andre Gunder Frank, it examines Latin America and globalization: the diverse alliances of women's organizations and the growth of new social movements, political parties, indigenous movements, and environmentalist groups. While it is clearly written and appropriate for undergraduates, its analytical focus will appeal to all scholars."—Pat Lauderdale, Arizona State University

Comprehensive and interdisciplinary, this thoroughly updated and revised second edition is an engaging critical analysis of the major political, economic, social, and ecological conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Genuinely regional in scope, this textbook examines the hemispheric and global context of these conditions as well as the relations among Latin American and Caribbean states and their relations with the United States. Expert contributors describe and analyze the economies and trading relations, politics and state policies, social inequalities and social injustices, indigenous communities, gender relations, influence of religion, wide array of social movements, and social ecology of the societies in this important region of the world. Harris and Nef have assembled a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate courses and all readers concerned with understanding the past, present, and future development of contemporary Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Americas as a whole.
Special Features:

--new edition includes thoroughly revised and updated chapters, several new chapter authors, and an additional online chapter on health security and insecurity

--readable and engaging for students

--interdisciplinary in terms of theory, methodologies, and vocabulary

--genuinely comparative with a regional focus

--includes history, current issues, and new developments and trends

--concerned with progressive social change
List of Contributors
Guido Pascual Galafassi, Richard L. Harris, Judith Adler Hellman, Cristóbal Kay, Michael Kearney, Francesca Miller, Jorge Nef, Viviana Patroni, Wilder Robles, and Stefano Varese.

About the Editors
Richard Harris holds a joint appointment as professor of global studies and of world languages and cultures at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Jorge Nef is professor and director of the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean (ISLAC) at the University of South Florida.

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People's Power: Cuba's Experience with Representative Government, Updated Edition - Updated Edition, By Peter Roman
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People's Power is a theoretical, historical and analytical account of representative government that has emerged in Cuba since the 1970's. By combining original research and extensive interviews with citizens and officials, Peter Roman illustrates how the Cuban model was built on theoretical foundations derived from Rousseau, Marx, and Lenin, and the historical precedents of the 1871 Paris Commune, the 1905 and 1917 soviets, and the pre- and post-Stalin years of the Soviet Union. Cuba's contributions to this legacy--the Organs of People's Power--include unique approaches to the nomination and election of municipal assembly delegates and National Assembly deputies, to citizen input and participation, and to the role of the Communist Party.

There is no other detailed study of the Cuban parliamentary system. Recorded eyewitness accounts the nominations sessions for municipal assembly delegates and the accountability sessions where citizens voice suggestions and complaints to their delegates, allow Cubans to speak for themselves. Reading this book is imperative for anyone interested in understanding the so often overlooked and misunderstood representative government that exists in Cuba today--as it has for decades.

About The Author:
Peter Roman is professor of political science at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York.

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Democracy: Government of the People or Government of the Politicians?, By José Nun
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One hundred and fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln stressed the pressing need for a new definition of "freedom." Today, with 85 of some 190 countries claiming to be representative democracies, José Nun makes an equally compelling case for "democracy." In emerging democracies throughout much of the developing world, the need is especially urgent, as nascent debates about democracy are modified by such descriptions as delegative, transitional, incomplete, low-intensity, relative, uncertain, or even authoritarian.

In accessible and engaging style, Nun provides a comprehensive analysis of the theory and practice of democracy from ancient Greece to contemporary Latin America. The author's authoritative historical and comparative discussion of democracy is combined with his own evaluation of the conditions and possibilities for the development of genuinely democratic societies in our time, in Latin America and throughout the world. The author identifies the preconditions of a democratic regime, the links between citizenship construction and social rights, the centrality of work for the promotion of equality and freedom, and the current democratic deficits both in core and peripheral countries. All readers will benefit from Nun's insightful distinction between two visions of democracy--government of the people or government of the politicians--and its profound consequences.

-Ideal reading for courses in political science, political sociology, political history, political philosophy, and Latin American studies.

-Written in vigorous and clear prose to allow students easy access to concepts of democratic theory

About The Author:
One of Latin America's most noted scholars, José Nun is senior researcher at the National Council of Technical and Scientific Investigation (CONICET) and director of the Institute of Advanced Social Sciences, the National University of General San Martín, Buenos Aires.

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The Marxism of Che Guevara: Philosophy, Economics, Revolutionary Warfare, Second Edition
By Michael Löwy
Foreword by Peter McLaren
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"This short study of the ideology of Che Guevara is an excellent companion to the many anthologies of his life and work.... The book gives one a clear understanding of the relationship of Guevara's thought to traditional Russian and Marxist philosophy. This work should prove useful to anyone interested in either contemporary Marxist thought or the Cuban Revolution."—CHOICE

In this seminal exploration of Che Guevara's contributions to Marxist thinking, Michael Löwy traces Che's ideas about Marxism both as they related to Latin America and to more general philosophical, political, and economic issues. Now revised and updated, this edition includes a chapter on Guevara's search for a new paradigm of socialism and a substantive essay by Peter McLaren on Che's continued relevance today. Lowy portrays Guevara as a revolutionary humanist who considered all political questions from an internationalist viewpoint. For him, revolutionary movements in Latin America were part of a world process of emancipation. Lowy considers especially Che's views on the contradiction between socialist planning and the law of value in the Cuban economy and his search for an alternative road to the "actually existing socialism" of the Stalinist and post-Stalinist Soviet bloc.

Che's varied occupations—doctor and economist, revolutionary and banker, agitator and ambassador, industrial organizer and guerrilla fighter—were expressions of a deep commitment to social change. This book eloquently captures his views on humanity, his contributions to the theory of revolutionary warfare, and his ideas about society's transition to socialism, offering a cohesive, nuanced introduction to the range of Guevara's thought.
About the Author

Michael Löwy is research director emeritus in sociology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and guest lecturer at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. His many publications include The War of Gods: Religion and Politics in Latin America.  

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The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America: The Dominican Case in Comparative Perspective
By Emelio Betances
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"History has a curious and even dangerous way of showing us things that reality forces us to see day after day. It works like one of the enlargers we used in photography long before a computer sat on top of our desks. History is also the method Emelio Betances has chosen to focus on and illuminate that odd fellowship of the Catholic Church and the state in Latin America. He couldn't have chosen a better method."—José Luis Sáez

Since the 1960s, the Catholic Church has acted as a mediator during social and political change in many Latin American countries, especially the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Although the Catholic clergy was called in during political crises in all five countries, the situation in the Dominican Republic was especially notable because the Church's role as mediator was eventually institutionalized. Because the Dominican state was persistently weak, the Church was able to secure the support of the Balaguer regime (1966–1978) and ensure social and political cohesion and stability. Emelio Betances analyzes the particular circumstances that allowed the Church in the Dominican Republic to accommodate the political and social establishment; the Church offered non-partisan political mediation, rebuilt its ties with the lower echelons of society, and responded to the challenges of the evangelical movement. The author's historical examination of church-state relations in the Dominican Republic leads to important regional comparisons that broaden our understanding of the Catholic Church in the whole of Latin America.

About the Author
Emelio Betances is professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Gettysburg College.