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CHAPTER EIGHT. Conclusion
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The political importance of Latin America’s indigenous and popular movements lies in their capacity for collective action and their ability to link disparate claims into a powerful moral critique of neoliberalism (Jung 2008). The demands made on the state by popular resistance efforts provide an opportunity for deepening democracy. Enhancement of political rights in the context of growing socioeconomic exclusion has led to increasing citizen frustration not only with the neoliberal model, but also with the actors and institutions of representative democracy (Oxhorn 2008). The politicization of ethnic identities in the region marks a new potential period for the incorporation of the popular sectors into the political and economic life of their respective nations, the outcome of which will have far-reaching impacts on future political contests. Several conclusions can be drawn from the protest dynamics explored in the book. First, countries with weakly institutionalized or collapsed party systems (e.g., Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) experience higher levels of societal mobilization. Weakly institutionalized party systems tend to exaggerate the level of social conflict in a country by failing to absorb and address antagonisms. Second, ethnic identity has become a potent mobilizing framework for action only in those countries without strong historical class cleavages and left-wing parties (e.g., Ecuador and Bolivia). In such cases, indigenous movements were able to successfully move out from under the tutelage of the political left to develop their own agendas and proposals. Indigenous groups in these cases have been effective in interweaving ethnocultural CHAPTER EIGHT Conclusion Bridging Protest and Electoral Coalitions 117 demands with popular resentment toward neoliberalism to produce a new master frame of protest that has spurred massive, national-level protest movements. Third, market reforms have demobilized certain types of popular-sector actors while mobilizing new ones. Traditional political parties and labor unions have lost their relevance as the principal channels of popular-sector interest mediation and representation in the neoliberal era. As the eventcount data on major social protests in each of the country chapters indicated , the weakening of traditional social and political organizations has left a void that, in some cases, is being filled by new social actors, employing unprecedented forms of collective action. The new pattern of protest involves different social actors, such as the urban unemployed, the rural landless, and especially indigenous peoples, who lack institutionalized channels of social representation. The new protest coalitions are also different in terms of their demands, which tend to be local, defensive, civic, sectoral, and identity-based as opposed to primarily class-based. Taken together, the findings point to the importance of institutions and identities in shaping the nature, scope, and intensity of civil society’s reaction to neoliberalism. This concluding chapter takes up the remaining question of how antineoliberal protests have, or have not, translated into significant political change. An analysis of the institutional expressions of popular power is particularly pertinent at a time when both leftwing parties and social movements are gaining access to state power in the region (Roberts 2008). The chapter begins with an examination of the tensions between electoral competition and contentious politics. The next section offers a tentative assessment of the outcomes of indigenous peoples ’ struggles. The chapter then examines the recent electoral shift to the left in Latin America and the ambiguous relationship between the “leftturn ” governments and indigenous and popular movements. The chapter concludes with a note on the importance of protest movements in holding governments to account in Latin America’s emerging postneoliberal order. Protests and Party Systems How do social protests interact with formal political institutions? The relationship between democracy and protest has long been a matter of intense debate. On the one hand, the literature on democratic transitions assumed that democratization and institutional politics would lead to civil-society demobilization as social-movement struggles were subsumed or displaced by formal institutions (O’Donnell and Schmitter 1986; Oxhorn 1994, 1995).According to O’Donnell and Schmitter, social mobilization increases 118 chapter eight [34.229.223.223] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:24 GMT) at the early stages of the democratization process, and then decreases as the political dynamic shifts towards electoral contestation and political parties rise to the forefront of social struggles. Electoral politics are thought to pull activists out of civic arenas and movements and into partisan and electoral activities. This weakens and divides the popular sectors along partisan lines. On the other hand, scholars of the political process approach to the study of social movements suggest...