During the twentieth century, the countries of Central America were characterised by remarkably different political regimes: military-authoritarianism in Guatemala and El Salvador, progressive democracy in Costa Rica and traditional-authoritarianism in Honduras and Nicaragua. This article explains these contrasting regime outcomes by exploring the agrarian and state-building reforms pursued by political leaders during the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century liberal reform period. Based on differences in the transformation of state and class structures, three types of liberalism are identified: radical liberalism in Guatemala and El Salvador, reformist liberalism in Costa Rica and aborted liberalism in Honduras and Nicaragua. It is argued that these types of liberalism set the Central American countries on contrasting paths of political development, culminating in diverse regime outcomes.

This article focuses on the changes that occurred within Querétaro's elite from the late Habsburg to the high Bourbon period in colonial Mexico from the perspective of its relationship to the convent of Santa Clara. It explores how creole elite families of landed background with firm roots in the early seventeenth century, tied together through marriage, entrepreneurship and membership in Santa Clara were slowly pushed out of the city's economic and administrative circles by a new Bourbon elite which broke with the social strategies of the past by not sheltering its daughters in the city's most opulent convent.

This article traces the historiography of the romantic yet poorly understood mistress, friend and political ally of Simón Bolívar: Manuela Sáenz Aizpuru de Thorne (1797–1856). It highlights two opposing schools of interpretation on Sáenz: the ‘bad girl’ and ‘heroine’ schools. Nationalism and the cult of Bolívar (especially among Venezuelan and Ecuadorean authors), have combined with the later influence of revolutionary socialist and feminist ideas to ensure the predominance of the latter and, thus, of an heroic-mythic view of Sáenz. Yet scholars' efforts to recover the historical woman have challenged this view and, above all, paved the way for a more nuanced, gender-conscious understanding of Sáenz's role and significance.

This article examines the relationship between elections and political participation in nineteenth-century Peru. Focusing on the elections of 1871–72, I argue that for a better understanding of the way elections facilitated political participation, we should consider not only the vote itself but also analyse the extensive electoral campaign. Generally, voting was irregular, as the different political factions attempted to impede the participation of their opponents through violence. To win the violent clashes on election day it was necessary to mobilise the popular classes. Especially in the cities, corruption and patron–client ties alone proved to be insufficient to gain support. To build powerful political factions, candidates had to win public opinion through massive campaigning and they had to respond to the claims of the urban middle and lower classes. All factions engaged in electoral fraud and neither the government nor any other political actor could determine the electoral outcome. Strong political factions were able to counterbalance governmental interference. That is why, in 1872, a government-opposed candidate, Manuel Pardo, was able to win the presidential election.

In response to the gradual disappearance of the Movimiento Nacional Socialista as the dominant force of the extreme right during the course of 1938, new groups emerged on Chile's political scene. The Partido Nacional Fascista and the Movimiento Nacionalista de Chile, established in October 1938 and February 1940 respectively, attempted to assume the role of nacismo after it had turned to the left. Operating in a national and international environment, which became increasingly detrimental to the development of national fascist organisations, these new voices of Chilean fascism never managed to build up substantial support. They remained on the sidelines of the political system. The return of the Vanguardia Popular Socialista (the name of the MNS since January 1939) to its fascist roots in the (Chilean) autumn of 1940 did not revive the dwindling forces of the radical right. The Vanguardia, the Movimiento Nacionalista and a number of smaller groups that followed the former dictator Carlos Ibáñez established the Unión Nacionalista in March 1942, but this was a last desperate attempt to breathe new life into a dying cause.

The regional impact of the economic integration between Mexico and its northern neighbours remains virtually unexplored for Mexico. This research substantiates what had hitherto been no more than conjectures regarding the impact of NAFTA on the most laggardly Mexican regions. The southern states have been unable to share in Mexico's impressive export-growth and attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) of the 1990s. Neither the insignificant amount of fdi received by these states nor the increase in their small export-value level can be attributed to opportunities created by NAFTA. The strong linkage between fdi and exports, and the predominance of manufacturing observed at the national level and in other northern states does not exist there. In the state of Oaxaca export growth is largely accounted for by a primary commodity whose production has no foreign investment participation. This local scenario is consistent with the interregional divergence trend observed since the start of the process of economic integration.