Overview

Through an in-depth analysis of the Chilean labour market, social welfare, and state reforms, this book reveals the manner in which neoliberal reform in Chile has undermined the urban poor's incentives and ability to hold public officials accountable, negatively affecting the quality of Chilean democracy.

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9781349373314

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In State, Market and Democracy in Chile, Posner argues that even in the competitive political environment characterizing the post-authoritarian period, neoliberalism, as a model of economic growth, erodes subaltern groups capacity for collective action. Indeed, he makes the point that the current consolidation of a democratic political regime in Chile rests, at least in part, on the silence of these groups. His focus on the participation and incorporation of the popular sectors in the new democratic institutional arrangements provides a revealing corrective to narrowly institutionalist and procedural interpretations common in much recent work on democracy in Latin America and elsewhere. Comparative chapters on Argentina and Mexico extend Posner s analysis and make this book important to anyone interested in the quality of democracy in Latin America. - William C. Smith, Editor, Latin American Politics and Society and Professor of Political Science, University of Miami This is a first-rate work that will be a most important contribution to the democracy/democratization debate.It is original in its angle, and a fitting complement to classical works on the subject like Gil's, Petras', or Valenzuela's. There is history, structures, dynamics, contextualization, fruitful comparisons, interviews with relevant actors, numerous examples, copious sources, and accessible theorizing on issues of development, democracy, and stability. The Chile he talks about seems more 'real' than the Chile described in other works from recent years. - Jorge Nef, Director, Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean, University of South Florida This provides a much needed conceptual framework required to analyze and interpret the connections between neoliberal economic policies and limited political participation in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America. The combination of an excellent review of the existing literature on state-society relations, a unique theoretical framework, and the sophisticated application of this framework to the analysis of a number of policies, including labor, social welfare policies and local and national representation, make this book truly valuable in the fields of Comparative and Latin American Politics. - Silvia Borzutzky, Professor of Political Science, Carnegie Mellon University

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PAUL W. POSNER is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Clark University, USA.

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