March 26, 2008
Annual Convention of the International Studies Association // Georgetown University
Abstract:
Under what conditions do communities resort to violence as a means of holding elected authorities accountable? What is the role of rule of law and civic association in preventing or facilitating the use of violence? This paper addresses these questions theoretically by drawing on existing literature on rule of law, civil society, and contentious politics, and empirically through a careful examination of the case of Peru. Using data drawn from the monthly Social Conflict Reports issued by the Peruvian Ombudsman from 2004-2006, it conducts a multi-method analysis to identify both key causal effects and causal mechanisms. It finds that when rule of law is weak, civic associations facilitate the use of violence by allowing protestors to maintain a confrontational stance over longer periods of time and overcome collective action problems....
May 31, 2007
Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity
Abstract:
A statistical regularity has been documented in several empirical studies: More unequal countries tend to show a higher degree of social disorder. Peru is a country with recurrent political instability and social disorder that also displays a pronounced degree of inequality. What is the role played by ethnicity in this relationship? In this paper we propose a new way of defining ethnic groups in Peru based on Peruvian geography and history, which corrects the standard view based on language differences alone. With this new definition we contrast the empirical hypothesis of three theoretical frameworks relating inter-group inequality and social disorder. We present empirical estimates of interethnic inequalities on human capital, labour market, and income. The econometric results show that the educational level of people depends upon ethnicity; moreover, there is exclusion, not discrimination, in the access to high skilled positions. We evaluate the roles of different social actors in the reduction of inequality. Although the indigenous populations have experienced significant gains in absolute terms, they have not experienced gains in relative terms. Therefore, horizontal inequalities in Peru are significant and persistent, and contribute largely to overall inequality. The role of horizontal inequalities in the instability of Peru seems to be important, but as a latent factor. Horizontal inequalities do contribute to the social disorder in Peru, but not much in a direct way. Ethnic conflict is not the prime mover of social disorder. This apparent paradox is explained by the fact that Peru is a multiethnic and hierarchical society, where the indigenous populations are second rate citizens. In sum, in explaining inequality in Peru, ethnicity matters. These empirical results are consistent with the predictions of Sigma Theory (Figueroa 2003) and with some of the predictions of Horizontal Inequality Theory (Stewart 2001), but inconsistent with Neoclassical Theory, even when social heterogeneity is introduced in its analysis (Becker and Murphy 2000)....
October 2, 2006
Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity
Abstract:
This paper explores violent and non-violent collective action in Peru through communitylevel
case studies. It tries to shed light on why widespread political violence emerged
only late in the day - the 1980s - and was limited to certain regions of the country. It
also asks why extreme inequality between groups has persisted for so long without
violence or remedial action, and whether a weak propensity to collective action is part of
the answer. The authors find significant evidence of constructive meso-level collective
action and leadership; but potentially interesting action is restricted by a corrupt, selfseeking
political system. In relatively fragile institutional systems, the poor find collective
action more difficult and costly while the relatively well endowed with capabilities can
manage it better, shedding some light on why inequality is often long lasting. When so
much collective action results in only modest gains, frustration is to be expected, and the
authors find that acts of xe2x80x98controlled violence' on the part of organised communities are
instruments to secure negotiation or dialogue and avoid the type of violence that is
destructive in intent and based on an anarchic ideology....
August 1, 2006
Royal Military College
Abstract:
The idea of xe2x80x98national security' is by no means static. If security is a response to such factors as fear, technology, culture and expectations, to name but a few, then it must be fluid in time and space, because of the way the two encompass these factors and render them variable. How a country defines its own concept of security can therefore be quite divergent from that of others, or even its own only a few years prior. Security's fluidity in time is self-evident. Much like the Hollywood horror flicks of 1950's, with all their stringed spaceships and werewolf makeup, would not spook a five-year-old today; the definition of national threat must also evolve with changes in technology and human expectations. While the threats of the past do not necessarily vanish, they may be pushed back in terms of priorities. The nuclear scare of the Cold War may be over, but the threat of apocalyptic nuclear war remains....
January 20, 2006
Elcano Royal Institute
Abstract:
As Democracy in Latin America points out, after a long period of oligarchic governments and military dictatorships that violently repressed popular demands and systematically violated human rights, almost all countries in the region today have legal mechanisms in place for public participation and political representation, as well as governments elected by popular vote. The same document also emphasises that these accomplishments are a great step forward towards peaceful political cohabitation among Latin Americans.
However, twenty-five years after the start of the xe2x80x98transitions to democracy' in Latin America, there has been no end to the criticism of how these #political systems are developing, since they not act in ways that meet the high expectations they once raised. They have not been successful in solving the problems dogging the region and the new concerns raised by capitalist globalisation. This is particularly true in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, countries that took their first steps towards democracy in the 1980s and now face a number of problems that are putting their accomplishments at risk....
Peru 
