Leon Zamosc - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Leon Zamosc
This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been ... more This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been removed or forced to resign as a result of political interactions in which street protests demanding their dismissal played a central role. Since1990, thirteen Latin American presidencies have collapsed in this way, signaling that, rather than isolated incidents, popular impeachments became a salient phenomenon following the return to democracy in the 1980s. They have been especially frequent in South America, where they cost the job to nine elected presidents and two of their replacements in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. As a rule, popular impeachments have happened in contexts in which the president's policies or personal conduct became the lightning rod of acute political crises. Typically, the motives invoked by the street protesters were related to unpopular economic policies, abuse of power, or corruption. Perhaps the most important common element has been the fact that democracy always survived: despite frequent irregularities, all the presidents who fell in the heat of mass protests were replaced by the vice-presidents or by congress-appointed caretakers, in moves that were presented to the nation as reaffirmations of the democratic constitutional order. Patterns invite research. Popular impeachments are particularly intriguing because their study can offer insights on the tensions between the institutionalization of democracy and the fulfillment of its principles in Latin America. Their investigation, however, remains relatively underdeveloped. Scholars engaged in comparative research have been slow in recognizing the trend and, when they have tried to explain the ouster of presidents, they have had difficulty coming to terms with the role of the street protests, their motives, and their significance as an intervention of civil society in the political process. As I argue below, this is consistent with the ascendancy of a political science that is too narrowly focused on the workings of institutions and the political behavior of elites. Underlying such orientation is the assumption that popular protests, as intrusions of non-institutional actors who break the rules of the political game, do not belong among the appropriate subjects in the study of democratic politics. As a result, the question of why Latin American presidents have been falling on the crest of street protests has not been satisfactorily answered. In the absence of referents for alternative interpretations, popular impeachments have been banished to the realm of the pathologies of democracy as expressions of herd behavior and as a factor of political instability. Here, my starting point is the opposite assumption; namely, that protest mobilizations are a normal part of democratic political life. Popular protests and social movements have accompanied the historical development of modern democracy as standard forms of political engagement in which civil society actors use non-institutional means to exert influence on their
This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been ... more This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been removed or forced to resign as a result of political interactions in which street protests demanding their dismissal played a central role. Since1990, thirteen Latin American presidencies have collapsed in this way, signaling that, rather than isolated incidents, popular impeachments became a salient phenomenon following the return to democracy in the 1980s. They have been especially frequent in South America, where they cost the job to nine elected presidents and two of their replacements in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. As a rule, popular impeachments have happened in contexts in which the president's policies or personal conduct became the lightning rod of acute political crises. Typically, the motives invoked by the street protesters were related to unpopular economic policies, abuse of power, or corruption. Perhaps the most important common element has been the fact that democracy always survived: despite frequent irregularities, all the presidents who fell in the heat of mass protests were replaced by the vice-presidents or by congress-appointed caretakers, in moves that were presented to the nation as reaffirmations of the democratic constitutional order. Patterns invite research. Popular impeachments are particularly intriguing because their study can offer insights on the tensions between the institutionalization of democracy and the fulfillment of its principles in Latin America. Their investigation, however, remains relatively underdeveloped. Scholars engaged in comparative research have been slow in recognizing the trend and, when they have tried to explain the ouster of presidents, they have had difficulty coming to terms with the role of the street protests, their motives, and their significance as an intervention of civil society in the political process. As I argue below, this is consistent with the ascendancy of a political science that is too narrowly focused on the workings of institutions and the political behavior of elites. Underlying such orientation is the assumption that popular protests, as intrusions of non-institutional actors who break the rules of the political game, do not belong among the appropriate subjects in the study of democratic politics. As a result, the question of why Latin American presidents have been falling on the crest of street protests has not been satisfactorily answered. In the absence of referents for alternative interpretations, popular impeachments have been banished to the realm of the pathologies of democracy as expressions of herd behavior and as a factor of political instability. Here, my starting point is the opposite assumption; namely, that protest mobilizations are a normal part of democratic political life. Popular protests and social movements have accompanied the historical development of modern democracy as standard forms of political engagement in which civil society actors use non-institutional means to exert influence on their
Estadística de las areas de predominio etnico de la sierra Ecuatoriana, 1995
Referentes estadisticos para aproximarse a las dimensiones de la población indigena de la Sierra ... more Referentes estadisticos para aproximarse a las dimensiones de la población indigena de la Sierra Ecuatoriana, su ubicación regional, sus caracterlsticas socioeconomicas y sus procesos organizativos.
This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been ... more This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been removed or forced to resign as a result of political interactions in which street protests demanding their dismissal played a central role. Since1990, thirteen Latin American presidencies have collapsed in this way, signaling that, rather than isolated incidents, popular impeachments became a salient phenomenon following the return to democracy in the 1980s. They have been especially frequent in South America, where they cost the job to nine elected presidents and two of their replacements in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. As a rule, popular impeachments have happened in contexts in which the president's policies or personal conduct became the lightning rod of acute political crises. Typically, the motives invoked by the street protesters were related to unpopular economic policies, abuse of power, or corruption. Perhaps the most important common element has been the fact that democracy always survived: despite frequent irregularities, all the presidents who fell in the heat of mass protests were replaced by the vice-presidents or by congress-appointed caretakers, in moves that were presented to the nation as reaffirmations of the democratic constitutional order. Patterns invite research. Popular impeachments are particularly intriguing because their study can offer insights on the tensions between the institutionalization of democracy and the fulfillment of its principles in Latin America. Their investigation, however, remains relatively underdeveloped. Scholars engaged in comparative research have been slow in recognizing the trend and, when they have tried to explain the ouster of presidents, they have had difficulty coming to terms with the role of the street protests, their motives, and their significance as an intervention of civil society in the political process. As I argue below, this is consistent with the ascendancy of a political science that is too narrowly focused on the workings of institutions and the political behavior of elites. Underlying such orientation is the assumption that popular protests, as intrusions of non-institutional actors who break the rules of the political game, do not belong among the appropriate subjects in the study of democratic politics. As a result, the question of why Latin American presidents have been falling on the crest of street protests has not been satisfactorily answered. In the absence of referents for alternative interpretations, popular impeachments have been banished to the realm of the pathologies of democracy as expressions of herd behavior and as a factor of political instability. Here, my starting point is the opposite assumption; namely, that protest mobilizations are a normal part of democratic political life. Popular protests and social movements have accompanied the historical development of modern democracy as standard forms of political engagement in which civil society actors use non-institutional means to exert influence on their
This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been ... more This chapter focuses on what I call popular impeachments: episodes in which presidents have been removed or forced to resign as a result of political interactions in which street protests demanding their dismissal played a central role. Since1990, thirteen Latin American presidencies have collapsed in this way, signaling that, rather than isolated incidents, popular impeachments became a salient phenomenon following the return to democracy in the 1980s. They have been especially frequent in South America, where they cost the job to nine elected presidents and two of their replacements in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. As a rule, popular impeachments have happened in contexts in which the president's policies or personal conduct became the lightning rod of acute political crises. Typically, the motives invoked by the street protesters were related to unpopular economic policies, abuse of power, or corruption. Perhaps the most important common element has been the fact that democracy always survived: despite frequent irregularities, all the presidents who fell in the heat of mass protests were replaced by the vice-presidents or by congress-appointed caretakers, in moves that were presented to the nation as reaffirmations of the democratic constitutional order. Patterns invite research. Popular impeachments are particularly intriguing because their study can offer insights on the tensions between the institutionalization of democracy and the fulfillment of its principles in Latin America. Their investigation, however, remains relatively underdeveloped. Scholars engaged in comparative research have been slow in recognizing the trend and, when they have tried to explain the ouster of presidents, they have had difficulty coming to terms with the role of the street protests, their motives, and their significance as an intervention of civil society in the political process. As I argue below, this is consistent with the ascendancy of a political science that is too narrowly focused on the workings of institutions and the political behavior of elites. Underlying such orientation is the assumption that popular protests, as intrusions of non-institutional actors who break the rules of the political game, do not belong among the appropriate subjects in the study of democratic politics. As a result, the question of why Latin American presidents have been falling on the crest of street protests has not been satisfactorily answered. In the absence of referents for alternative interpretations, popular impeachments have been banished to the realm of the pathologies of democracy as expressions of herd behavior and as a factor of political instability. Here, my starting point is the opposite assumption; namely, that protest mobilizations are a normal part of democratic political life. Popular protests and social movements have accompanied the historical development of modern democracy as standard forms of political engagement in which civil society actors use non-institutional means to exert influence on their
Estadística de las areas de predominio etnico de la sierra Ecuatoriana, 1995
Referentes estadisticos para aproximarse a las dimensiones de la población indigena de la Sierra ... more Referentes estadisticos para aproximarse a las dimensiones de la población indigena de la Sierra Ecuatoriana, su ubicación regional, sus caracterlsticas socioeconomicas y sus procesos organizativos.