Politics and Society in Latin America

Latin American politics sits at the intersection of contested democratic institutions, persistent informal power arrangements, and sharp inequalities that shape who governs and how. Scholars examine how clientelism—the exchange of material benefits for political loyalty—coexists with and often undermines formal democratic participation, while neoliberal restructuring since the 1980s has reconfigured the state's role and redistributed both resources and grievances across the region. Ethnicity and indigenous identity have emerged as increasingly potent axes of mobilization, raising questions about whether greater electoral inclusion translates into substantive representation or merely absorbs dissent. Ongoing debates center on whether decentralization genuinely disperses power to marginalized communities or reproduces old hierarchies at a smaller scale, and on how citizens navigate institutions that are formally democratic but informally shaped by patronage and economic constraint.

Works

57,446

Total citations

313,073

Keywords

ClientelismLatin AmericaPolitical PowerNeoliberalismDemocracyIdentity