This book is a systematic inquiry of conspiracy theories across Latin America. Conspiracy theories project not only an interpretive logic of reality that leads people to believe in sinister machinations, but also imply a theory of power that requires mobilizing and taking action. Through history, many have fallen for the allure of conspiratorial narratives, even the most unsubstantiated and bizarre. This book traces the main conspiracy theories developing in Latin America since late colonial times and into the present, and identifies the geopolitical, socioeconomic and cultural scenarios of their diffusion and mobilization. Students and scholars of Latin American history and politics, as well as comparatists, will find in this book penetrating analyses of major conspiratorial designs in this multi-state region of the Americas.

In this book, Luis Roniger offers a comprehensive and systematic discussion of the influence of clientelism and clientelistic relationships in social and political life in Mexico and Brazil. The author describes, analyzes, and compares clientelistic arrangements not only in terms of economic development and social differentiation, but also as a strategy of interaction and control over economic and political markets shaped both by structural factors and cultural patterns. Contrary to some theorists who argue that clientelism disappears following industrialization and modernization, Roniger sees clientelistic networks as both a distinct institutional pattern and a major model of structuring social exchange. Thus, he argues that it may be more reasonable to expect changes in the forms of Mexican and Brazilian clientelism, rather than its demise following economic development and political transformation.

Roniger begins with a general discussion of clientelism and trust, exploring the variety of clientelistic bonds, the conditions which lead to the emergence of clientelism, and the dynamics of Latin American clientelism. Following a chapter on the institutional contexts of Mexico and Brazil, the author presents an extended analysis of clientelism in the two countries. In each case, Roniger presents a historical overview, discusses the dominant characteristics of clientelism in that country, and examines clientelism in the rural, urban, labor, and political sectors. Subsequent chapters compare and contrast Mexican and Brazilian variants of clientelism. In the final chapter, Roniger places the Latin American data within its broader cultural context, comparing Mexican and Brazilian clientelism with hierarchical arrangements in Japan, Thailand, and India. He concludes that although political and social change in Mexico and Brazil has led to major transformations in clientelistic patterns, clientelism has been retained as an important element of social exchange in these societies. Sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, Latin American specialists, and students of development will find Roniger's work and incisive portrait of Mexican and Brazilian institutional development and social realities.

The book provides a systematic comparative study of how three countries in the Southern Cone of the Americas have confronted the legacy of past human rights violations. It examines their attempts to rebuild human rights through public accountability, compensation, educational policy, constitutional reform, and debates about national history and collective memory.

During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, dictatorships in Latin America hastened the outward movement of intellectuals, academics, artists, and political and social activists to other countries. Following the coups that toppled democratically elected governments or curtailed parliamentary oversight, the incoming military or civilian-military administrations assumed that, by forcing those aligned with opposition movements out of the country, they would assure their control of politics and domestic public spheres. Yet, by enlarging a diaspora of co-nationals, the authoritarian rulers merely extrapolated internal dissent and conflicts, emboldening opposition forces beyond their national borders. Displaced individuals soon had a presence in many host countries, gaining the support of solidarity circles and advocacy networks that condemned authoritarianism and worked with exiles and internal resistance towards the restoration of electoral democracy. Exiles soon became vehicles for spreading cultural ideas from abroad, celebrating cosmopolitanism over nationalism, and emphasizing human rights and democracy in Latin American countries. Exile, Diaspora, and Return explores how Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay have been affected by post-exilic relocations, transnational migrant displacements, and diasporas. Specifically, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of diasporic experiences and the impact of returnees on the public life, culture, institutions, and development of post-authoritarian politics in the Southern Cone of the Americas. Bringing together sociopolitical, cultural, and policy analysis with the testimonies of dozens of intellectuals, academics, political activists, and policy makers, the authors address the impact of exile on people's lives and on their fractured experiences; the debates and prospects of return; the challenges of dis-exile and post-exilic trends; and the ways in which those who experienced exile impacted democratized institutions, public culture, and discourse. Furthermore, the authors present new readings of the recent history of South America and the diasporas that emphasize the importance of regional, transnational or global dimensions over the national.

This book is a systematic inquiry of conspiracy theories across Latin America. Conspiracy theories project not only an interpretive logic of reality that leads people to believe in sinister machinations, but also imply a theory of power that requires mobilizing and taking action. Through history, many have fallen for the allure of conspiratorial narratives, even the most unsubstantiated and bizarre. This book traces the main conspiracy theories developing in Latin America since late colonial times and into the present, and identifies the geopolitical, socioeconomic and cultural scenarios of their diffusion and mobilization. Students and scholars of Latin American history and politics, as well as comparatists, will find in this book penetrating analyses of major conspiratorial designs in this multi-state region of the Americas.

This book traces the interplay between the public structuring and regulation of identities and the creative processes of collective identification, appropriation and evasion of identities. It deals with the ways in which individuals and social groups have developed and enacted identities as cultural resources with different degrees of public recognition and political legitimation, and how these identities have had an impact in defining the boundaries of social order and diversity.

The Politics of Exile in Latin America addresses exile as a major mechanism of institutional exclusion used by all types of governments in the region against their own citizens, while they often provided asylum to aliens fleeing persecution. The work is the first systematic analysis of Latin American exile on a continental and transnational basis and on a long-term perspective. It traces variations in the saliency of exile among different expelling and receiving countries; across different periods; with different paths of exile, both elite and massive; and under authoritarian and democratic contexts. The project integrates theoretical hindsight and empirical findings, analyzing the importance of exile as a recent and contemporary phenomenon, while reaching back to its origins and phases of development. It also addresses presidential exile, the formation of Latin American communities of exiles worldwide, and the role of exiles in shaping the collective identities of these countries.

The Politics of Exile in Latin America addresses exile as a major mechanism of institutional exclusion used by all types of governments in the region against their own citizens, while they often provided asylum to aliens fleeing persecution. The work is the first systematic analysis of Latin American exile on a continental and transnational basis and on a long-term perspective. It traces variations in the saliency of exile among different expelling and receiving countries; across different periods; with different paths of exile, both elite and massive; and under authoritarian and democratic contexts. The project integrates theoretical hindsight and empirical findings, analyzing the importance of exile as a recent and contemporary phenomenon, while reaching back to its origins and phases of development. It also addresses presidential exile, the formation of Latin American communities of exiles worldwide, and the role of exiles in shaping the collective identities of these countries.

This text analyses the Americas, North and South, in the global and comparative arena, showing how these societies gazed at each other and Europe as they followed the road to multiple forms of modernity and globalization. Insights are contributed on the ways in which reflected conceptions of modernity, with utopian overtones, influenced the ways in which politicians and intellectuals viewed their own societies, other societies in the "New World" and the older nations of Europe.;Two themes emerge which address central debates in contemporary sociological theory. The first is that there is no such thing as "modernity" but rather multiple modernities. The US, Canada, Brazil and Spanish America represented different types of "new society" - self-conscious attempts to establish social and political orders. The second is that modernity was always "reflexive".;These projects of social transformation and the models of society that they institutionalized were the result of, and kept triggering, high levels of reflexivity by political and intellectual elites.;These trends have shaped the distinct institutional and cultural patterns that set the American societies apart from each other and from the metropolis against which they defined their early identities. Distinctive civilizational dynamics developed; distinctive paths were shaped by patterns of colonization, the various ethnic mixes and types of ethnic stratification, the social, political and cultural models articulated by elites in different societies, and path-dependent processes of different kinds, particularly the extent to which collective identities crystallized before independence, and the exclusion and inclusion of various social and ethnic groups at different points in time.

The form of social relations described by the terms ?patronage? and ?patron-client relations? is of central concern to sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists today. Characterised by its voluntary and highly personal but often fully institutionalised nature, it is a type of behaviour found in almost every human society. It touches upon basic aspects of the construction and regulation of social order and is therefore closely connected to major theoretical problems and controversies in the social sciences. This book analyses some special types of these interpersonal relations - ritual kinship, patron-client relations and friendship - and the social conditions in which they develop. The authors draw upon a wide range of examples, from societies as diverse as these of the Mediterranean, Latin America, the Middle and Far East and the U.S.S.R., in their study of the core characteristics of such relationships. They look at them as mechanisms of social exchange, examine their impact on the institutional structures in which they exist, and assess the significance of the variations in their occurrence. Their analysis highlights the importance of these relationships in social life and concludes with a stimulating discussion of the ensuring tensions and ambivalences and the ways in which these are dealt with - though perhaps never fully overcome. Patrons, clients and friends is the first systematic comparative study of these interpersonal relations and makes the first attempt to relate them to central aspects of social structure. It will therefore be an important contribution to both comparative analysis and social theory and will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists.

"Finally, a study that moves beyond abstract assertions of the importance of a transnational perspective to demonstrate compellingly why transnationalism matters in the specific context of Central America. This is a rich, interdisciplinary look at regional history, politics, and society--of immense value for students of Latin American studies and transnationalism alike."--Thomas Legler, coeditor of "Promoting Democracy in the Americas" Political theorists tend to write about the countries of Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) either as individual nation-states or as the pawns and victims of international intervention. What these approaches ignore is the shared history of these countries, which were a single nation until domestic and colonial forces dissolved it in the early nineteenth century. In "Transnational Politics in Central America," Luis Roniger argues for the importance of examining the connected history, close relationships and mutual impact of the societies of Central America upon one another. Eschewing well-trod theoretical approaches that do not account for the existence of transnational dynamics before the current stage of globalization, this landmark book identifies recurring trends of state fragmentation and attempts at reunification or social and political association in the region over the past two centuries. Luis Roniger, Reynolds Professor of Latin American Studies at Wake Forest University, is the author of fourteen books, including "The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone; Democracy, Clientelism, and Civil Society"; and "The Politics of Exile in Latin America."

Latin America is a region made up of multiple states and societies with a diversity of races, ethnicities, and cultures. These states share historical legacies, cultural backgrounds and institutional frameworks, as well as political and socioeconomic challenges-but can one say they share a "regional perspective," if such perspectives even exist? In Transnational Perspectives on Latin America, Luis Roniger argues that the notion of Latin America is significant for understanding these societies' multiple connections and spillover across state boundaries. He claims that cross-border networks, a protracted concern and at times involvement in the affairs of neighboring states have shaped the region's modern character as much as the process of nation-state formation. Geopolitical, sociological, and cultural trends molded a contiguity of influences, leading sometimes to state confrontations, but overall, shaping a transnational arena of connected histories, interactions, and visions, complementing the process of separate nation-state formation. The book offers fresh readings of the dynamics of this region of multiple societies that have shared historical and cultural connections and developed divergent paths while unable to fully disengage from one another. Its chapters analyze persisting forms of circulation and articulation of networks, practices and ideas crossing international borders. Among the topics covered are political exile; the interface of state building and transnationalism; wars and the diffusion of conspiracy theories; the transnational imprint of the Cold War and democratization; social movements and transnational solidarity; states' geopolitical shifts and their impact on Jewish and Muslim citizens. The book closes with a chapter on twenty-first century dilemmas and challenges, including the process of segmented regional integration, state accountability, the vitality and limits of citizenship regimes, and pandemic politics.