Introduction: Student Movements and Political Change in Contemporary Latin America (original) (raw)
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Policies, Politics, and Protests: Explaining Student Movements in Latin America
The objective of this paper is explaining the emergence and characteristics of university student movements in Latin America after the third wave of democratization. The paper asks when changes in higher education policy and student-party linkages affect the likelihood and features of student mobilization. I hypothesize that, the larger the enrollment ratio in conjunction with higher costs for students, the more likely it is that they will mobilize en masse against neoliberal education policies. In other words, the effect of increased access on mobilization for education policy is moderated by changes in the costs of education. I also hypothesize that, similarly to worker's movements, the weaker the linkages between students and parties in power, the more likely it is that students will mobilize massively for financial reasons. These hypotheses are tested first, through the analysis of a dataset of student protests in the region from 2000 to 2012, and second, through a case study analyzing changes in higher education policy, student-party linkages, and student protests in Chile from the early 1980s to the early 2010s. This paper challenges a well-established finding from the literature on democratic consolidation, which argues that market reforms initially increase eventually diminish mobilization. Analyzing student movements suggests how market reforms cause protests even after their implementation. Students of political parties argue that the relationship between parties and society has an important effect on political stability and governance. Studying the relationship between students and parties and its effect on protests offers insights on this argument.
Latin American college student protesters have been historically a force to reckon with. Scholars have argued, however, that the introduction of neoliberal policies would discourage mobilization. Yet, some of the most liberalized higher education systems in the region have witnessed relatively frequent and massive mobilizations in recent years. What explains variation in the frequency and size of student mobilizations in Latin America? To answer this question, I propose a theory of student mobilization that considers explanations based on both social grievances and political opportunities. I argue that, in order to understand the effect of these explanations on protests, mobilization must be disaggregated into two of its main dimensions: the frequency of mobilizations, and the size of protests. The reasons that explain the frequency of protests may not adequately explain the size of individual mobilization, and vice versa. I claim that social grievances, caused by neoliberal policies, have a positive effect on mobilization. More specifically, the expansion of higher education to include working class students, and the increase in private costs, increase both the frequency and size of protests. Meanwhile, political opportunities have an effect on mobilization through student-party linkages – the level of organizational, programmatic, and personalistic connections between political parties and students. I argue that stronger organizational linkages with ruling parties have a demobilizing effect on frequency, but that stronger linkages with the opposition can increase protest size. I use a mixed-methods, multilevel research design to test the theory. At the regional level, I use an original dataset of more than 4,700 protest events to carry out quantitative analyses of protest frequency and size in Latin America. At the country level, I draw evidence from comparative case studies of student mobilization, higher education policies, and student-party linkages in Chile and Peru. Finally, I carry out a quantitative analysis of a 2012 Chilean survey to test the theory at the individual level. This quantitative and qualitative evidence drawn from different levels of analysis supports the theory’s expectations.
Student movements in the age of austerity. The cases of Chile and England
Several recent episodes of massive student protests in countries in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, raise the question of whether we are witnessing to a new surge of student protests. This profile offers an interpretation of the socio-economic and political processes that have caused contentious reactions among students, paying special attention to changes in the major characteristics of the higher education sector. In last decades, governments of all colors have enacted laws promoting the outsourcing of personnel, the managerialization of governing bodies, and the introduction of tuition fees as well as cuts to public funding. These changes are inspired by a new paradigm, which promotes the ‘discipline of the market place, the power of the consumer and the engine of the competition.’ In this context, various forms of resistance and opposition can be observed. Here, we focus on three dimensions: (1) financing and autonomy of universities; (2) governance and managerialization; (3) precarization of labor conditions. The profile shows how recent protests in Chile and England are related to changes in the afore-mentioned dimensions. We conclude that the reappearance of students as political actors is related to the emergence of a range of distributional conflicts stemming from the implementation of the neoliberal agenda in the field of higher education.
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Studies in Higher Education, 2014
This paper analyses the 2011 Chilean student movement, the most relevant social mobilisation in Chile since the restoration of democracy in 1990. Based on available material and secondary sources, it describes the main features of this student movement, analyses the key components of the students' discourse and its relationship with the Chilean market-oriented educational system, and identifies its impact on the field of higher education. The paper argues that this student movement was a process of expressing accumulated grievances against some neoliberal features of Chilean education. Since this movement is also linked to the emergence of a new generation of higher education students, it identifies relevant characteristics of current students' organisations and protests. Finally, the paper discusses hypotheses for interpreting the recent student movements. This case is informative not only for those concerned with student participation, but also with the potential downsides of market-oriented educational policies.
Social Movement Studies Student movements in the age of austerity. The cases of Chile and England
Several recent episodes of massive student protests in countries in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, raise the question of whether we are witnessing to a new surge of student protests. This profile offers an interpretation of the socio-economic and political processes that have caused contentious reactions among students, paying special attention to changes in the major characteristics of the higher education sector. In last decades, governments of all colors have enacted laws promoting the outsourcing of personnel, the managerialization of governing bodies, and the introduction of tuition fees as well as cuts to public funding. These changes are inspired by a new paradigm, which promotes the ‘discipline of the market place, the power of the consumer and the engine of the competition.’ In this context, various forms of resistance and opposition can be observed. Here, we focus on three dimensions: (1) financing and autonomy of universities; (2) governance and managerialization; (3) precarization of labor conditions. The profile shows how recent protests in Chile and England are related to changes in the afore-mentioned dimensions. We conclude that the reappearance of students as political actors is related to the emergence of a range of distributional conflicts stemming from the implementation of the neoliberal agenda in the field of higher education.
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According to mainstream international analysis (e. g. United Nations 2011), Chile is one Latin America’s “best students”. The first country in the region to implement drastic neoliberal reforms in the mid-1970s, Chile sustained impressive rates of economic growth and reduced poverty to a third in the last two decades. All this took place in the midst of political stability, regular elections, and a high respect for civic and political liberties by regional standards. In 2011, however, Chile caught the attention of the world not for its macroeconomic numbers but for an unprecedented wave of social protest against the government and the state of its educational system. While the first protests in May of that year brought to the street a few thousands secondary and tertiary students, by August protesters reached an estimated peak of about 200,000 and included not only students but also their families, workers, environmental activists, indigenous peoples, and a heterogeneous mass of cit...
Still Massive? Explaining the Size of Tertiary Student Protests in Latin America
During most of the twentieth century, higher education students in Latin America were an active force in national politics through massive protests, but with the rise of authoritarian regimes in the region in the 70s and 80s, and the privatization higher education institutions, students lost their mobilization power. In recent years, however, students have started to protest en masse in several countries in the region. This paper seeks to characterize tertiary student protests in region, and to identify the determinants of the size of tertiary student mobilization in Latin America. It draws from an original dataset of student protest events, created using monthly chronologies of social conflicts in 18 countries in the region between 2000 and 2012. It characterized student protests in region along different dimensions: protest size, tactics, demands, and other actors involved, among others. The study uses this data for ordered logistic regressions to identify the determinants of tertiary student mobilization's size in Latin America, finding that the institutional strength of targets, cooperation with political parties, and personal influence and grievances are key to explain the massiveness of protests.
Educational Opportunity and Contentious Politics: The 2011 Chilean Student Movement
The 2011 Chilean student movement was one of the most massive and original processes of social mobilization in Latin America in the last decade. Led by university students, the movement challenged the longstanding free-market orientation of educational policies in Chile, demanding a more active role for the State in the regulation and supply of education. In this article, we study the main educational and social factors that explain the emergence of the movement. We draw upon social movement theory as an analytical framework and use newspaper articles as basic sources of data. Our research suggests that the simultaneous expansion and privatization of the Chilean education system provided students not only with mobilizing grievances (e.g., disparity in access and quality) but also with capabilities and resources (e.g., critical awareness and higher aspirations) to advance political mobilization. We also find that student organizations created effective frames to take advantage of the windows of opportunity opened in Chilean democracy. Implications for comparative international research on education reform and social movements are also discussed.
Dissertation: Student Movements, Politics, and Policy in Chile, 2001 – 2012.
Proquest, 2023
Chile has frequently been touted as an economic miracle, the “Jaguar of Latin America”. Boasting the strongest economy in South America, due to severe neoliberal economic structural adjustments made under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, it has long been held up as the perfect exemplar of economic growth and stability, as well as the poster child for the effectiveness of neoliberal economics. After the re-establishment of democracy in 1990, political conditions improved as well; the country enjoyed a decade of stability and peace under its first two democratically-elected governments. Yet, beginning approximately ten years after the transition to democracy, Chilean students began engaging in massive waves of protest. Discontent grew, and students manifested in larger numbers and for longer periods of time with each successive cycle of mobilization, eventually culminating in the “social explosion” of 2019. This dissertation examines three cycles of student mobilization in Chile; the Mochilazo (2001), the Revolución Pengüina (2006), and the Invierno Chileno (2011), seeking to explain the effects the protests had on public policy, laws, and political institutions in the country. It delves into how the students were able to enlarge both the number of participants and their claims with each successive cycle; their repertoires of contention; their interactions with government officials; their framing and messages; and what changes occurred as a result of each cycle. A combination of the joint-effect model and Felix Kolb’s framework are used to analyze the effects of social mobilization. Guided by the state-movement intersection model, Marco Giugni’s joint-effect model, and Felix Kolb’s framework for analyzing the impact of social movements, I find that the students were able to affect numerous changes in each cycle of mobilization, enlarging their claims and numbers each time via transferred knowledge from previous cycles. Chilean students have come to be regarded as important political actors in the political system, and have evolved their claims to demand massive structural changes to both the political and economic systems in the country.
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In 2011, Chilean students mobilized in the largest demonstrations since the country’s return to democracy. Students in some other Latin American countries have also carried out mass demonstrations in recent years. What explains students’ participation in mobilizations in Latin America? This article argues that financial grievances generated by neoliberal education policies and the massification of higher education are major causes of student protest participation. In addition, it shows how weak organizational linkages with ruling political parties increase the likelihood of mobilization. The theory is explored through a case study of higher education policy, student-party linkages, and student mobilization in Chile from 1990 to 2011. A statistical analysis of a survey of Chilean students demonstrates that a working class background, using debt to finance education, and weak programmatic connections to parties in power are associated with higher levels of protest participation.