(Re)distributive Policies, Elites and Non-elite Actors in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together research on elites and non-elite actors to show how they shape distributive and redistributive policies and how these policies, in turn, influence actors’ preferences and behavior. Focusing on diverse Latin American contexts and periods, the papers study the determinants of public policies in highly unequal societies by employing different theoretical and methodological approaches. Urteaga studies the role of agrarian elites and political parties in shaping agricultural policy during the developmentalist period in Colombia and Chile. She carries out comparative historical analysis and statistical methods to analyze original archival data. Güiza analyzes rural-poor collective action for land redistribution in war-to-peace transitions in Colombia. She uses a multi-method design combining automated text analysis, statistical techniques, and interviews with movement leaders and peace negotiators to assess the incorporation of movements’ claims on land reform into the Colombian 2016 peace accord. Manzi studies elites’ ideas about poverty and inequality in Honduras, Mexico, and Uruguay. She employs web-scraped data of elite public statements and interviews with economic elites to identify similarities and differences in elite thought across these three countries. Warwick investigates the role that patriotism plays in triggering support for environmental policies in Bolivia among rural and urban populations. She employs experimental methods to gauge the conditions under which environmental issues become politically salient to individuals who are not immediately, materially affected by them.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Agrarian Developmentalism: The Politics of Agricultural Policy in Latin America - Madai Urteaga Quispe, Harvard University

• Drafting Redistribution: Rural Movements and Land Dispositions in Peace Accords - Isabel Güiza-Gómez, The University of Notre Dame

• Latin American Elites and their Views on Poverty and Inequality - Pilar Manzi, Northwestern University

• Does Patriotism Inspire Environmentalism? Experimental Evidence from Bolivia - Emily Warwick, University of Virginia

Chair

• Victoria Paniagua London School of Economics

Discussant

• Candelaria Garay Cornell University