Several databases now provide information on large-scale companies in Latin America. This information is being made available on a commercial basis to clients (mainly financial institutions interested in emerging markets in Latin America). The information is also available to academics, however, and promises to be a rich source that thus far has been undervalued by Latin Americanists. This research note will explore the possibilities generated by one database, Economática in São Paulo.

This research note seeks to offer some resolution to the theoretical disagreements over how democratization affects civil society, specifically in a transition toward democracy that occurs through pacted settlements of an armed internal conflict. Using a comparative study over time of the labor movement in El Salvador, the authors demonstrate that while unions of the political center and left have weakened since the signing of the Salvadoran Peace Accords, independent labor groups show higher levels of organizing and right-leaning unions have maintained nearly constant levels of organizing. But the labor movement has become atomized because unions have been unable to redefine their once-common political goals to adopt other unified stances in the postwar period. The data show that the unions that have relinquished excessively politicized stances or never claimed them are the ones that survive and sometimes grow in the postwar environment. These findings have implications for the nature of the emerging Salvadoran democracy and the economic well-being of its citizens.

This research note is meant to serve as a working tool for scholars interested in pursuing archival investigations in Oaxaca City. Over the last fifteen years, the city has experienced a cultural renaissance characterized by renovation of its colonial architectural treasures and the establishment of institutions dedicated to the arts. This cultural renewal has provided the context for an equally impressive reinvigoration of the city's archives, thanks to the commitment of local historians, social scientists, and archivists to rescuing and cataloguing a wealth of historical documentation. To encourage and facilitate research, we provide a summary of the holdings and contact information for ten archives in addition to a select bibliography of secondary sources.

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a relação entre os agentes estatais e umafração da classe economicamente dominante da economia cafeeira paulista—o “capital cafeeiro”—durante a Primeira República brasileira (1889–1930). Para tanto, escolhi como objeto de análise a política tributária promovida pelo governo do estado de São Paulo durante o período. A minha intencão é mostrar que os agentes estatais ao promoverem uma política tributária essencialmente calcada no imposto de exportação serviram-se de parte significativa do excedente pro-duzido pelo capital cafeeiro para financiar as atividades ordinárias do aparelho estatal paulista (educação, polícia, saúde, judiciário), o que muito desagradou aos membros daquela fração de classe. Estes reagiram à política oficial tanto pela via corporativa como pela via política, sem, contudo, conseguir revertê-la. Por fim, afirmamos que os conflitos políticos oriundos desse embate foram importantes para a configuração da cena política do final da Primeira República.