Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-h6jzd Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-02-23T08:42:22.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Associations and Activism: Mobilization of Urban Informal Workers in Costa Rica and Nicaragua

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Charles L. Davis ,
Edwin E. Aguilar  and
John G. Speer
Charles L. Davis
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
Edwin E. Aguilar
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Albany
John G. Speer
Affiliation:
Houston Community College-Southwest, University of Kentucky
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of Latin American civil society tend to assume that popular organizations promote “high-intensity” forms of political participation while political parties mainly encourage voting. This study compares the influence of these two forces in the urban informal sector. Association involvement, low in both samples, is related to “higher-intensity” participation, but the differential influence of associations and parties holds only for Costa Rica; Nicaragua’s revolutionary FSLN has fostered a more politically active citizenry.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1999 , pp. 35 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguilar, Edwin. 1995. El sindicato nos tiene con vida aquí: Informal Labor, Occupational Organization, and Political Behavior in Costa Rica. Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Ameringer, Charles. 1982. Democracy in Costa Rica New York : Praeger.Google Scholar
Babb, Florence E. 1998. From Cooperatives to Microenterprises: The Neoliberal Turn in Postrevolutionary Nicaragua. In The Third Wave of Modernization in Latin America, ed. Lynne, Phillips. Wilmington : Scholarly Resources. 109–24.Google Scholar
Backer, James. 1978. La iglesia e el sindicalismo en Costa Rica San José : Editorial Costa Rica.Google Scholar
Barnes, William A. 1998. Incomplete Democracy in Central America: Polarization and Voter Turnout in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 40, 3 (Fall): 63–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., and Stanley, Feldman. 1985. Multiple Regression in Practice Beverly Hills : Sage.Google Scholar
Biesanz, Mavis H., Richard, Biesanz, and Karen, Z. Biesanz 1979. Los costarricenses San José : Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia.Google Scholar
Booth, John A. 1982. The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution Boulder : Westview Press.Google Scholar
Booth, John A. 1998. Costa Rica: Quest for Democracy Boulder : Westview Press.Google Scholar
Booth, John A., and Patricia, Bayer Richard. 1998a. Civil Society and Political Context in Central America. American Behavioral Scientist 42, 1 (September): 33–46.Google Scholar
Booth, John A. 1998b. Civil Society, Political Capital, and Democratization in Central America. Journal of Politics 60, 2: 780–800.Google Scholar
Brady, Henry, Sidney, Verba, and Kay, Lehman Scholzman. 1995. Beyond Ses: a Resource Model of Political Participation. American Political Science Review 89, 2 (June): 271–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cañel, Eduardo. 1992. Democratization and the Decline of Urban Social Movements in Uruguay: A Political-Institutionalist Account. In The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy, ed. Arturo, Escobar and Sonia, E. Alvarez Boulder : Westview Press. 276–90.Google Scholar
Castiglia, Miguel, Daniel, Martínez, and Jaime, Mezzera. 1994. Sector informal urbano: su contribución alproducto. Cuadernos de Ciencias Sociales no. 73. San José : FLACSO.Google Scholar
Coleman, Kenneth M., and Douglas, Stuart H. 1997. The Other Parties. in Walker 1997 165–84.Google Scholar
Collinson, Helen, and Lucinda, Broadbent. 1990. Women and the Revolution in Nicaragua London : Zed Books.Google Scholar
Dalton, Russell J. 1988. Citizen Politics in Western Democracies: Public Opinion and Political Parties in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and France Chatham , NJ : Chatham House.Google Scholar
Davis, Charles L. 1997. Religious Transformations and Partisan Polarization in Latin America: the Case of the Urban Informal Sector in Nicaragua. Journal of Developing Areas 31 (Winter: 183–202.Google Scholar
Dietz, Henry. 1998. Urban Poverty, Political Participation, and the State: Lima, 1970–1990 Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Bob, and Michael, W. Foley 1998. Civil Society and Social Capital beyond Putnam. American Behavioral Scientist 42, 1 (September): 124–39.Google Scholar
Envío (Managua). 1991. The Rich Get Richer. March: 41–47.Google Scholar
Foley, Michael W., and Bob, Edwards. 1996. The Paradox of Civil Society. Journal of Democracy 7, 3 (July): 38–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, Michael W. 1998. Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and Social Capital in Comparative Perspective. American Behavioral Scientist 42, 1 (September): 5–20.Google Scholar
Gindling, T. H., and Albert, Berry. 1992. The Performance of the Labor Market during Recession and Structural Adjustment: Costa Rica in the 1980s. World Development 20, 11: 1599–1616.Google Scholar
Ginsberg, Benjamin. 1986. The Captive Public: How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power New York : Basic Books.Google Scholar
Hart, Keith. 1973. Informal Income Opportunities and Urban Employment in Ghana. Journal of African Studies 11, 1 (March): 61–89.Google Scholar
Hoyt, Katherine. 1997. The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy Athens : Ohio University Center for International Studies.Google Scholar
Itzigsohn, José. 1996. Globalization, the State, and the Informal Economy: The Limits to Proletarianization in the Latin American Periphery. In Latin America in the World Economy, ed. Roberto, Patricio Korzeniewicz and William, C. Smith Westport : Greenwood Press. 101–16.Google Scholar
Jelin, Elizabeth. 1997. Emergent Citizenship or Exclusion? Social Movements and Non-Governmental Organizations in the 1990s. In Politics, Social Change, and Economic Restructuring in Latin America, ed. William, C. Smith and Roberto, Patricio Korzeniewicz. Coral Gables : North-South Center Press. 79–104.Google Scholar
Korzeniewicz, Roberto Patricio. 1997. The Deepening Differentiation of States, Enterprises, and Households in Latin America. In Politics, Social Change, and Economic Restructuring in Latin America, ed. William, C. Smith and Roberto, Patricio Korzeniewicz. Coral Gables : North-South Center Press. 215–50.Google Scholar
Morley, Samuel A. 1995. Poverty and Inequality in Latin America: The Impact of Adjustment and Recovery in the 1980s Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo. 1994. The State, Democratization, and Some Conceptual Problems. In Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives for the 1990s, ed. William, C. Smith, Carlos, H. Acuña, and Eduardo, A. Gamarra Coral Gables : North-South Center Press. 157–80.Google Scholar
Oxhorn, Philip D. 1995. Organizing Civil Society: The Popular Sectors and the Struggle for Democracy in Chile University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Oxhorn, Philip D. 1998. Social Inequality, Civil Society, and the Limits of Citizenship in Latin America. Paper presented at the 1998 Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, September 24–26.Google Scholar
Paige, Jeffery M. 1997. Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America Cambridge : Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Peeler, John A. 1985. Latin American Democracies: Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Polakoff, Erica, and Pierre, La Ramée. 1997. Grass-Roots Organizations. in Walker 1997 185–202.Google Scholar
Prevost, Gary. 1997. The Fsln. in Walker 1997 149–64.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D., Robert, Leonardi and Raffaella, Y. Nanetti 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Bryan. 1996. The Social Context of Citizenship in Latin America. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 20, 1: 38–65.Google Scholar
Seligson, Mitchell A., and John, A. Booth 1993. Political Culture and Regime Type: Evidence from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Journal of Politics 55, 3 (August): 777–92.Google Scholar
Speer, John G. 1997. The Urban Informal Sector. in Walker 1997 265–79.Google Scholar
Speer, John G. 1999. The Motivational Bases of Political Support among Urban Informal Sector Workers in Transitional Nicaragua. Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Tardanico, Richard. 1997. From Crisis to Restructuring: Latin American Transformations and Urban Employment in World Perspective. In Global Restructuring, Employment, and Social Inequality in Urban Latin America, ed. Tardanico, and Rafael, Menjívar Larín Coral Gables : North-South Center Press. 1–46.Google Scholar
Tardinico, Richard, and Mario, Lungo. 1997. Continuities and Discontinuities in Costa Rican Urban Employment. In Global Restructuring, Employment, and Social Inequality in Urban Latin America, ed. Tardanico, and Rafael, Menjívar Larín. Coral Gables : North-South Center Press. 95–142.Google Scholar
Vargas, R. Jorge. 1992. El cooperativismo en los años ochenta: balance de una decada. In El nuevo rostro de Costa Rica, ed. Juan, Manuel Villasuso. San José : CEDAL. 191–202.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Norman, H. Nie, and Jae-On, Kim. 1978. Participation and Political Equality: A Seven-Nation Comparison Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, Thomas W., ed. 1997. Nicaragua Without Illusions: Regime Transition and Structural Adjustment in the 1990s Wilmington : SR Books.Google Scholar
Williams, Philip J. 1994. Dual Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Popular and Electoral Democracy in Nicaragua. Comparative Politics 26, 2 (January): 169–86.Google Scholar
Yashar, Deborah J. 1995. Civil War and Social Welfare: The Origins of Costa Rica's Competitive Party System. In Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America, ed. Scott, Mainwaring and Timothy, R. Scully Stanford : Stanford University Press. 72–99.Google Scholar
Yashar, Deborah J. 1997. Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s–1950s Stanford : Stanford University Press.Google Scholar