Much of the literature on Latin American women's movements finds that movements have grown weaker since transitions to democracy in part because of the institutionalization of gender policy within states. This article advances an alternative argument drawing on evidence from the Chilean case. Using a historical institutionalist approach and the framework of state feminism, I outline the way Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM) has altered the institutional context in which women's movements act. I show that SERNAM has affected both the shape of the movement (most notably the power relations among its various segments) and the strategies that different segments employ to pursue their interests. I argue that instead of weakening the women's movement, SERNAM actually provides the movement with important resources, most notably a discourse of women's equality and a set of objectives around which to mobilize. There is evidence that Chilean women's organizations are responding to this new institutional context by linking up previously dispersed groups, using SERNAM's own discourse to pressure the state to fulfill its commitments to women and, most importantly, to ensure that, in addition to gender, class and ethnicity are also addressed as sources of women's marginalization.

This article proposes a framework for the analysis of social classes in Latin America and presents evidence on the composition of the class structure in the region and its evolution during the last two decades, corresponding to the years of implementation of a new economic model in most countries. The paper is an update of an earlier article on the same topic published in this journal at the end of the period of import substitution industrialization. Relative to that earlier period, the present era registers a visible increase in income inequality, a persistent concentration of wealth in the top decile of the population, a rapid expansion of the class of micro-entrepreneurs, and a stagnation or increase of the informal proletariat. The contraction of public sector employment and the stagnation of formal sector labor demand in most countries have led to a series of adaptive solutions by the middle and lower classes. The rise of informal self-employment and micro-entrepreneurialism throughout the region can be interpreted as a direct result of the new adjustment policies. We explore other, less orthodox adaptive strategies, including the rise of violent crime in the cities and migration abroad by an increasingly diversified cross-section of the population. The impact that changes in the class structure have had on party politics and other forms of popular political mobilization in Latin American countries is discussed.

This article analyzes the effects on employment, wages, and labor standards of the growth of non-traditional, export-oriented, high-value crops in the PetrolinaJuazeiro region in Northeast Brazil. It focuses on understanding why these crops were accompanied by job creation, upskilling of labor, and improvements in wages and labor standards among rural wage workers. These labor effects can be explained by: (1) the type of crops involved and their high demand for skilled workers to meet high quality demands from consumers; (2) the limited supply of skilled workers in the region involved; (3) the consumer concerns for the labor conditions of production; (4) the characteristics of labor institutions, including laws and regulations, government agencies, and rural workers' unions; and (5) how labor institutions, crop and technology characteristics, and consumer concerns affected the balance of power between growers and rural wage workers and their respective organizations.

It has often been suggested that there are two reasons for the particular vitality of the ethnohistory of colonial Mesoamerica. John Kicza eloquently articulated these reasons not long ago (1995, 240) as first, the integrity and vigor of native civilizations from pre-Conquest to modern times, and secondly, the richness and variety of relevant colonial documentation. Without taking issue with this rationale at allindeed, working from the assumption that we may take for granted these two factorsI would like to suggest that a third factor is equally pertinent; to wit, the concatenation of activity by a wide variety of scholars in such a way as to create a collective vision of method and interpretation and a constructive momentum that realizes and further develops that vision.

Leyendo casi cualquier estudio sobre la historia de Iberoamrica durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX, comprobamos fcilmente que el Estado es un personaje central. Hace y deshace, se halla siempre en el centro de las decisiones y tiene un desempeo actoral relevante en la resolucin de todos los conflictos.

As one moves from the social science literature of religion and politics to the literature of women's movements in Latin America, the silence is deafening regarding the phenomenon of Pentecostalism, a movement primarily made up of women. This article argues that Pentecostalism does fit into the newer analyses of feminism and women's movements in the region in a much-needed interdisciplinary approach. The research is a literature review reinforced by field study in Central America. Pentecostalism provides an arena where women help each other and can learn civic skills to participate in fledgling democracies in Latin America.

The profile of voters and nonvoters according to age, occupation, and education is described. The study is based on samples of around 30 male mesas from the city of Buenos Aires in four presidential elections1983, 1989, 1995, and 1999and 100 from each of two elections (1997 representatives and 1999 presidential) in the homonymous province. Data from official voter registers (padrones) are analyzed for those obligated to vote (18-69) and for those exempted (70+ years). The level of abstention increased slowly but steadily along the time span considered. Citizens obligated to vote do so more than those who are not. Logistic regression equations showed a positive effect of the lowest occupational status categoriesless educated peopleon the odds of nonvoting, while the opposite was true for the highest occupational status categories.

In the early 1990s Cuba initiated a new phase of social transformation, driven forward by an economic reform. Some aspects of that reform resembled orthodox structural adjustment, while others differed from it. In agriculture the reform reshaped state farms into multiple cooperatives, subdivided cooperative production, liberalized produce markets, and ceded land to individual parceleros. Through interviews with policy makers and cooperative leaders, and a survey of small farmers in western and eastern Cuba, I examined the reform's impact on small farmers' production. I found that two important patterns characterized the 1990s:first, repeasantization occurred; and second, income disparities between these two regions were maintained, if not expanded. Yet, even in poorer regions, small farmers are modestly better off than the average salary earner, while in other regions they are substantially better off. In sum, Cuba's economic crisis forced the reshaping of agricultural policy in ways that fortified the position of small farmers.