Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T12:01:22.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Popular Religions and the Building of Democracy in Latin America: Saving the Tocquevillian Parallel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Rowan Ireland
Rowan Ireland*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Do Latin America’s popular religions contribute to the formation of citizens and the development of civil society—the infrastructure of democracy—in ways that parallel the operation of the religious factor in the development of North American democracy as perceived by Tocqueville? Examining evidence prompting both negative and positive responses, this essay argues that Catholicism, Pentecostalism, and Afro-Brazilian Spiritism all contain tendencies that contribute to the development of pluralist democracy in the Latin American republics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 41 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Religion in America: Churches, Globalization, and Democratization , Winter 1999 , pp. 111 - 136
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

Alvarez, Sonia E. 1990. Engendering Democracy in Brazil. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Alvarez, Sonia E. 1993. “Deepening” Democracy: Popular Movement Networks, Constitutional Reform, and Radical Urban Regimes in Contemporary Brazil. In Mobilizing the Community: Local Politics in the Era of the Global City, ed. Robert, Fisher and Joseph, Kling. Urban Affairs Annual Review 41. Newbury Park : Sage Publications. 191–219.Google Scholar
Bacelar, Jeferson. 1989. Etnicidade: ser negro em Salvador. Salvador : Inamá, Programa de Estudos do Negro na Bahia (PENBA).Google Scholar
Banck, Geert A. 1995. Mass Communication and Urban Contest in Brazil: Some Reflections on Lifestyle and Class. Bulletin of Latin American Research 13, 1: 45–60.Google Scholar
Berryman, Phillip. 1996. Religion in the Megacity: Catholic and Protestant Portraits from Latin America. Maryknoll , NY : Orbis Books.Google Scholar
Boff, Leonardo. 1980. Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology of Our Time. London : SPCK.Google Scholar
Brown, Diana. 1986. Umbanda: Religion and Politics in Brazil Ann Arbor : UMI Research Press.Google Scholar
Burdick, John. 1993. Struggling against the Devil: Pentecostalism and Social Movements in Urban Brazil. in Garrard-Burnett and Stoll 1993 20–44.Google Scholar
Castells, Manuel. 1997. The Power of Identity. Vol. 2 of The Information Agey Oxford : Blackwell.Google Scholar
Chesnut, R. Andrew. 1997. Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty. New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Cleary, Edward L., and Hannah, W. Stewart-Gambino, eds. 1992. Conflict and Competition: The Latin American Church in a Changing Environment. Boulder : Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleary, Edward L. 1997. Power, Politics, and Pentecostals in Latin America. Boulder : Westview Press.Google Scholar
Cleary, Edward L., and Juan, Sepúlveda. 1997. Chilean Pentecostalism: Coming of Age. in Cleary and Stewart-Gambino 1997 97–121.Google Scholar
Connolly, William E. 1995. The Ethos of Pluralization. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Dodson, Michael. 1997. Pentecostals, Politics, and Public Space in Latin America. in Cleary and Stewart-Gambino 1997 25–40.Google Scholar
Drogus, Carol Ann. 1992. Popular Movements and the Limits of Political Mobilization at the Grassroots in Brazil. in Cleary and Stewart-Gambino 1992 63–86.Google Scholar
Drogus, Carol Ann. 1997. Private Power or Public Power: Pentecostalism, Base Communities, and Gender. in Cleary and Stewart-Gambino 1997 55–75.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo, and Sonia, E. Alvarez, eds. 1992. The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy. Boulder : Westview Press.Google Scholar
Freston, Paul. 1993. Brother Votes for Brother: the New Politics of Protestantism in Brazil. in Garrard-Burnett and Stoll 1993 66–110.Google Scholar
Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, and David, Stoll, eds. 1993. Rethinking Protestantism in Latin America. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Gaskill, Newton J. 1997. Rethinking Protestantism and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America. Sociology of Religion 58, 1: 69–91.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. 1973. Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Caridad Inda and John Eagleson. Maryknoll , NY : Orbis Books.Google Scholar
Hassett, John, and Hugh, Lacey, eds. 1991. Toward a Society that Serves Its People: the Intellectual Contribution of El Salvador's Murdered Jesuits. Washington, Dc: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Ireland, Rowan. 1991. Kingdoms Come: Religion and Politics in Brazil. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Ireland, Rowan. 1998. A Pentecostal Latin America The Way 38, 3 (July): 209–20.Google Scholar
Jaquette, Jane S., ed. 1989. The Women's Movement in Latin America: Feminism and the Transition to Democracy. Boston : Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Jelin, Elizabeth, ed. 1990. Women and Social Change in Latin America London : Zed Books.Google Scholar
Lalive, Christian 1969. Haven of the Masses: A Study of the Pentecostal Movement in Chile. London : Lutterworth Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, David. 1996. Struggle for the Spirit: Religious Transformation and Popular Culture in Brazil and Latin America. Cambridge : Polity Press.Google Scholar
Levine, Daniel H. 1992. Popular Voices in Latin American Catholicism Princeton : Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Daniel H. 1993. Popular Groups, Popular Culture, and Popular Religion. In Constructing Culture and Power in Latin America, ed. Levine, . Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press. 171–225.Google Scholar
Levine, Daniel H. 1995. Review Essay: on Premature Reports of the Death of Liberation Theology. Review of Politics 57, 1 (Winter): 105–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott, and Alexander, Wilde. 1989. The Progressive Church in Latin America: An Interpretation. In The Progressive Church in Latin America, ed. Mainwaring, and Wilde, Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press. 1–37.Google Scholar
Mariz, Cecilia. 1992. Religion and Poverty in Brazil: a Comparison of Catholic and Pentecostal Communities. Sociological Analysis 53: S63–S70.Google Scholar
Martin, Bernice. 1998. From Pre- to Postmodernity in Latin America: The Case of Pentecostalism. In Religion, Modernity and Postmodernity, ed. Paul, Heelas. Oxford : Blackwell. 102–46.Google Scholar
Martin, David. 1990. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Oxford : Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mignone, Emilio F. 1988. Witness to the Truth: The Complicity of Church and Dictatorship in Argentina, 1976–1983. Maryknoll , NY : Orbis Books.Google Scholar
Morales, Ana Maria Tixe. 1991. Blocos negros em Salvador: reelaboração cultural e símbolos de baianidade. Caderno CRH: Suplemento. Salvador : Universidade Federal de Bahia. 72–92.Google Scholar
Nagle, Robin. 1997. Claiming the Virgin: The Broken Promise of Liberation Theology in Brazil. New York : Routledge.Google Scholar
Ortiz, Renato. 1978. A morte branca do feiticeiro negro—Umbanda: integração de uma religião numa sociedade de classes. Petrópolis : Vozes.Google Scholar
Prandi, Reginaldo. 1996. Perto da magia, longe da política. In A realidade social das religiões no Brasil: religião, sociedade e política, ed. Antônio Flâvio de Oliveira Pierucci and São Paulo: Hucitec. 93–105.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert. D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Tina. 1991. Beyond Elections. Foreign Policy 84 (Fall: 72–91.Google Scholar
Sansone, Livio. 1996. The Local and the Global in Today's Afro-Bahia. In The Legacy of the Disinherited: Popular Culture in Latin America: Modernity, Globalization, Hybridity and Authenticity, ed. Ton, Salman. Amsterdam : CEDLA. 197–219.Google Scholar
Stewart-Gambino, Hannah W., and Everett, Wilson. 1997. Latin American Pentecostals: Old Stereotypes and New Challenges. in Cleary and Stewart-Gambino 1997 227–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis 1969. Democracy in America. ed. Mayer, J. P. Garden City , NY : Doubleday.Google Scholar
Vásquez, Manuel A. 1997. Structural Obstacles to Grassroots Pastoral Practice: the Case of a Base Community in Urban Brazil. Sociology of Religion 58, 1: 53–68.Google Scholar
Vásquez, Manuel A. 1998. The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity: Cambridge : University Press.Google Scholar
Weffort, Francisco. 1990. A América errada. Lua Nova: Revista de Cultura e Política (São Paulo) 21 (September): 5–40.Google Scholar
Wieviorka, Michel. 1996. Identity and Difference: Reflections on the French Non-Debate on Multiculturalism. Thesis Eleven (La Trobe University) 47: 49–72.Google Scholar
Willems, Emilio. 1967. Followers of the New Faith: Culture Change and the Rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile. Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Everett. 1997. Guatemalan Pentecostals: Something of Their Own. in Cleary and Stewart-Gambino 1997 139–62.Google Scholar
Zirker, Daniel. 1998. José Nun's Middle-Class Military Coup in Contemporary Perspective: Implications of Latin America's Neoliberal Democratic Coalitions. Latin American Perspectives 25, 5 (September): 67–86.Google Scholar