Assignment Code: MPSE-002/ASST//TMA/2022-23

Course Code: MPSE-002

Assignment Name: State and Society in Latin America (

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

SECTION –I

1. Critically examine the process of import substitution industrialization in Latin America.

Ans) Import substitution is implemented along with import controls or high tariffs during a balance of payments crisis. Domestic manufacture of consumer products expands quickly during its initial phase. This is made achievable by relatively straightforward technology, a lack of significant capital expenditures, and generally steady demand. As a result, industrial output and employment increase quickly, and the share of imports in the total demand for manufactured goods significantly declines. However, it is frequently noted that the products are of questionable quality, made in unprofitable-sized companies, and offered at exorbitant prices in the home market that is under protection. Johnson finds that the cost of import substitution might be far higher than what is represented by the gap between protective tariff rates and the international price of the produced items. In addition to the lost consumption, the high cost of import substitution may eventually absorb the increase in real income that should flow to capital and technical advancements, resulting in a significant capital accumulation without any increase in real income per capita.

The use of indigenous raw materials and intermediary products, which are currently or soon will be competitive by international standards, should be emphasised as the initial step of import replacement. The ultimate goal should not be consumer self-sufficiency. Hirschman emphasised that the sequential or tiered nature of the process is to blame for both the ease with which it may be implemented as well as the lack of technical innovation training and the resistance to both backward linking investments and exporting that are being met with. The domestic manufacture of consumer durables is the next step in the process of import substitution, which is followed by the production of intermediate and capital goods. A protected profitable market, a series of constraints over the allocation of scarce inputs like capital and foreign exchange due to government policies, and a highly uneven distribution of income caused by the initial pattern of capital ownership all work together to support this process. This stage is frequently marked by sluggish industrial development, a severe fall in job prospects, and a minimal further decline or even an increase in the import component of overall manufacturing demand. The final feature of the effect is a result of state authorities and private companies' adamant opposition to backward linkage investment.

Additionally, when nations go to higher levels of manufacturing, their governments continue to use outdated economic strategies that are ineffective in the current stage of import substitution. Additionally, a strong drive for import substitution across the board in all industries results in resource waste. Therefore, the factors that tend to start import substitution in businesses producing consumer goods are likely to keep it going. In many nations' experience, import substitution has sparked additional import substitution and increased controls. The initial phase of import substitution proceeds smoothly, but after that, industrial expansion slows down since the existing market has reached its maximum size. Analysts have noted that if growth is to continue, one or more of three additional forms of demand should take the place of the currently dominant consumption demand. That is, new consumer products must be introduced to the home market, manufactured goods must enter the export market, or investments must be made in capital goods manufacturing, intermediate goods, or raw materials instead of finished consumer goods industries.

2. Examine the historical role of the Church in Latin America.

Ans) God and riches were the motivations behind the conquest of the Americas. It was thought that In order to propagate Christianity throughout the Americas, Spain was tasked with conquest. In the first several decades after, there were numerous attempts to convert Amerindians as a result of the fervour. colonisation. Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian orders missionaries were scheduled to employment in Spanish colonies.

The state conceptions were supported and strengthened by the religious institutions of Catholicism, which were also employed as a weapon of conquest. The Spanish Church was more rigid and intolerable. than those of its European rivals. The Church was more than just a place of worship in Spain; it was also the pillar of the government. Along with the military, they had a significant impact on Latin American politics. landed and military interests. Although it had historically been one of the major facets of the Spanish and In traditional Portuguese society, the role of the church has begun to change. Among the primary "Liberation theology" is a movement that emphasises that the church should vigorous opposition against oppression and brutality.

It favoured treating all Christians equally with minimal priestly engagement However, the majority do not adhere to this liberation theology doctrine as They are concerned about the deterioration of hierarchical power and the loss of conventional authority. The traditional church elite, which has upper class social roots, would prefer the status quo. The Church is still active in politics, continuing to fulfil its historical obligations of providing religious services. running parochial high schools and universities, and giving directions in the classroom. whereas some academics some claim that the military and the affluent landed class are now more powerful than the church, while believe that the church is still just as prominent and powerful as it always was.

Women's organisations that initially garnered the most attention were those fighting for human rights and denouncing disappearances, torture, and detentions. The female relatives of individuals who had endured suffering at the hands of the regimes, for example, were at the centre of organisations like the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Argentina. In some instances (though not in Argentina), people's activity developed as a result of their involvement in the popular church, and as a result, the church provided some assistance. They established neighbourhood workshops, nurseries, and communal kitchens with assistance from churches and international organisations. The social agenda of the women's movement was formed by the issue of economic survival, which was also vital in giving it a broad support base. In Chile, the military dictatorship had considered women to be its 'natural friends' since they were committed to service and abnegation. The goal of its illustrious women's organisations was to foster civility and discipline. However, growing poverty and oppression prompted a different form of participation. The church encouraged neighbourhood conflicts, the left organised neighbourhood groups, and the opposition used the network of mothers' centres already in place for their own objectives.

The military itself gave women the freedom to organise because it did not see them as "political" and thus "subversive." In Brazil, too, the church had urged women to join communal conflicts. Left-wing parties had also stationed female militants on the urban fringe to mobilise. The mobilisation of women increased as the rule became more liberal. The left was wiped out in the "dirty wars" in Argentina, on the other hand, and women's militancy was reduced to and concentrated in the human rights organisations, which explains both their prominence and their isolation.

3. Critically examine the cyclical pattern of the transition to democracy in Latin America.

Ans) It is important to briefly review some of the top transitional analysis studies. James Malloy and M. Seligson's analysis of "transition" was one of the earliest notable ones. James Malloy saw few grounds to be positive about the "transitional" democracies of the 1980s after analysing the continuance of authoritarianism and corporatism as the political expression of the "crisis" of "delayed dependent capitalism" in Latin America. He maintained that there is no unilinear tendency in Latin America toward democracy or authoritarianism from the perspective of political history. Instead, there are alternating "moments" of democracy and authoritarianism and the "predominant pattern is cyclical." One more rotation of the wheel is taking place right now. He asserted that the political climate of the 1970s and 1980s still very much reflects the underlying dynamics that produce the alternation between authoritarianism and democracy.

Malloy stated that no overarching model or theory of the transitions between authoritarianism and democracy can be constructed since the case-to-case variations are so considerable. Malloy interestingly acknowledged that there is a link between economic concerns and regime upheavals, but this linkage is neither deterministic nor insurmountable, in contrast to his understanding of bureaucratic authoritarianism. There is a crucial voluntary factor to the process in the current shift towards democracy, which is Malloy's most important argument. As a result of their "concrete behaviour of crucial civilian leaders," who had frequently failed in the past due to their ideological rigidities or political intransigence, "transition" has a great deal to do with these leaders.

According to Malloy, the circumstances and nature of transition necessitate certain care and circumspection on the side of civilian regimes: Elected civilian leaders would have to function in "constraining settings" since they had such a great "will" for democracy. If the current phase of democratisation is to persist for a sufficient period of time, they must exercise caution. These "prudentiary norms" deal with the political and economic challenges democratic regimes face. Elected regimes would do better for themselves and the future of democracy if they focused exclusively on temporary fixes rather than searching for some long-term, radical answers, for example, to the problems of poverty, unemployment, and human rights abuses by the armed forces. In other words, democracies must exercise caution and pragmatism, seek out short-term "solutions" (salidas), rather than opt for long-term structural fixes that will only provoke conflict with authoritarian forces. Second, the transitional phase will only see hybrid regimes due to the restrictive conditions in almost all of the Latin American countries. While granting the executive quasi-authoritarian powers in times of emergency, democratic regimes will guarantee political participation and civil liberties.

A little constitutional engineering is required here. Elections must be connected to the proper operation and role of the legislatures in order to be significant. To foster national consensus on divisive subjects, broad legislative alliances are urgently needed. These could support powerful presidencies and, at the same time, mould a cooperative process for formulating policy. Military and civilian leaders will have to compromise and form de facto coalitions so that the armed forces find it in their own interest to support a strong civilian regime in times of crisis. Political parties will need to shun their narrow constituents and instead mediate between the socio-economic groups and the powerful presidency.

SECTION –II

Write a short note on each part of the question in about 250 words.

4. a) Rise of neo-liberalism in Latin America

Ans) The cornerstones of the emerging neo-liberal model of development are hence free trade, open markets, and a minimal role for government in the economy. This development plan has already caused significant economic changes in almost all of the countries. Not all of the projected economic benefits have been advantageous or favourable, it should be acknowledged. One is the lack of competent and motivated businesspeople, with the possible exception of a few in Brazil and Chile. Even private investments of the right size, let alone state investments, have not occurred outside of the category of short-term portfolio investments. Although markets are supposed to balance things out, this is not the case at all. Rising inequality, high unemployment rates, and social violence within families have all contributed to a worsening of the social climate.

States throughout Latin America clearly lacked perfection. They were "rentier" states that syphoned off a large percentage of productive investment, engaged in careless borrowing and deficit financing, and created inefficient businesses. These developmentalist regimes had become weak and vulnerable by the late 1970s, and they had shown a great deal of incapacity to control the economy or limit distributive forces. Even the bureaucratic authoritarian regimes' use of violence and intimidation fell short of effectively resolving the economic and social problems. The current market capitalism remedy, however, is worse than the ailments caused by state-centric capitalism.

b) Revolutionary movements in Latin America

Ans) Revolutionary revolutions foretell profound changes in politics, as well as in society, the economy, and culture. The definition of revolution is frequently highly ambiguous in Latin America. It has been employed in the context of military authoritarian control and is connected to violence, societal change, or regime transition. In the 20th century, there were four notable revolutions that might be regarded as successful: Mexico (1910), Bolivia (1952), Cuba (1959), and Nicaragua (1979). (1979). Nevertheless, these are regarded as being extremely uncommon among Latin America's numerous and diverse revolutionary revolutions. Because these revolutions have had a significant impact not only on those countries and the rest of Latin America, but also on hemispheric ties and global politics.

It is crucial to study the origins, development, and consequences of the Latin American revolutions, focusing in particular on their unique characteristics, in order to comprehend the following societal change. Other revolutionary movements in Latin America, such as the Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) movement of El Salvador and the Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path") movement of Peru, are not regarded as effective in comparison to the four successful revolutions.

Urbanization, education, mass media, and increased aspirations are only a few of the "social mobilisation" elements that affect social change. One factor is the spread of new ideologies that were either revived from pre-conquest eras (like Mexican 2 indigenismo/nativism or Nicaraguan Sandinismo) or imported from other societies (like liberalism at the turn of the 19th century and Marxism at the turn of the 20th century) to give a sense of direction to sporadic and unfocused social unrest. A component of societal transformation is revolution. However, social change or mobilisation alone does not trigger a revolution, even though it increases the pressure that does. A revolution only happens when there are barriers to an evolutionary shift.

5. a) Rise and fall of Pampas as a food basket for Europe

Ans) The pampas had the potential to serve as Western Europe's "food basket" by the middle of the 19th century. The centralised governmental structure of Argentina offered a supportive atmosphere for the realisation of this potential. The pampas area underwent a major shift during the 1850s and 1880s, which had a significant impact on the Argentine economy.

Political stability following the overthrow of dictator Rosas in 1852, access to Western Europe's expanding markets, the relocation of nomadic Indian hunters to the South-West, the introduction of agricultural and pastoral techniques like windmills, machinery, and barbed wire fences, the influx of capital from British investors, the immigration of Italian labour, the expansion of the region's railway network, and quick transportation were all factors that contributed to this transformation.

Since the 1930s, agricultural production has not been able to keep up with the combined need of generating significant foreign exchange while also meeting expanding domestic consumption. The Pampas' inability to boost productivity and the increased share of production going to urban consumers caused a drop in agricultural exports. Due to overuse of the land's resources, the Pampas region has seen soil erosion over time. There were no plans to increase land production. Despite the extremely skewed distribution of land in the Pampas, where 8% of the owners controlled 80% of the farmland, tiny holdings were too small to be economically sustainable. The latter made up 27% of the farms in the Pampas and employed 17% of its workforce. Low levels of productivity in the land and labour both played a decreasingly larger role in the overall production.

b) Regional integration in Latin America

Ans) This liberal economic free trade framework was also established as the first step towards regional integration in Latin America. The 1960 Treaty of Montevideo established the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), which was responsible for this. In the end, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador were also participating, along with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. By utilising the economies of scale that come with producing for a larger market, LAFTA was designed to assist nations in gaining the advantages of a larger market through regional integration.

The size of the grouping was one of the factors that prevented LAFTA from taking actual form.

It was clear by the 1970s that this second effort at regional integration had similarly failed. Latin America could not have a common market because of economic nationalism. Early 1980s efforts to begin the process resulted in the creation of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). But this endeavor's motivations were far from commercial. The programme focused primarily on the strategic realities of the region because of the tight geopolitical environment at the time.

Additionally unfavourable to the goal of regional integration at the time was the state of the world economy. The prospects for cooperation were seriously harmed by the 1982 debt crisis. The deterioration of relations between Argentina and Brazil, the two continental powers, also hindered regional advancement.

The actions made to promote regional integration in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s served a distinct purpose than those done in the 1980s and 1990s. In the past, regionalism was used to advance policies that were essentially protectionist and inward-looking. The most recent plans, in contrast, have been consistent with the trade and investment policies of the liberal economic agenda. These regional agreements have been used to formalise such rules and raise the cost of refusing to participate.