| dc.description.abstract | In this article I review the literature on elites and inequality in Latin America with a focus on the
emergence of uneven state structures and how they came to foster the needs of elites for
protection. States in Latin America are traditionally thought of as facilitating processes of
top-down modernization that transformed traditional agrarian economies into complex urban
polities, while maintaining extreme inequality. The state is thus central in the genealogy of
inequality and elite privilege in Latin America. The synergy between states and elites continues
to mark Latin American societies, and it helps us to understand how major economic and
political changes occur without significant changes in inequality. For the most part, Latin
America’s current uneven states emerged as the result of exclusionary projects of citizenship
during the first half of the 20th century and were advanced by the advent of repressive regimes
during the 1960s and 1970s. After democratic transitions during the 1980s and 1990s, Latin
American states came to be characterized, on the one hand, by procedural democratic
institutions, and on the other by high levels of state violence, exclusion, and segmented
citizenship. The present situation is one of a problematic equilibrium between states, elites, and
inequality.In this article I review the literature on elites and inequality in Latin America with a focus on the
emergence of uneven state structures and how they came to foster the needs of elites for
protection. States in Latin America are traditionally thought of as facilitating processes of
top-down modernization that transformed traditional agrarian economies into complex urban
polities, while maintaining extreme inequality. The state is thus central in the genealogy of
inequality and elite privilege in Latin America. The synergy between states and elites continues
to mark Latin American societies, and it helps us to understand how major economic and
political changes occur without significant changes in inequality. For the most part, Latin
America’s current uneven states emerged as the result of exclusionary projects of citizenship
during the first half of the 20th century and were advanced by the advent of repressive regimes
during the 1960s and 1970s. After democratic transitions during the 1980s and 1990s, Latin
American states came to be characterized, on the one hand, by procedural democratic
institutions, and on the other by high levels of state violence, exclusion, and segmented
citizenship. The present situation is one of a problematic equilibrium between states, elites, and
inequality.In this article I review the literature on elites and inequality in Latin America with a focus on the
emergence of uneven state structures and how they came to foster the needs of elites for
protection. States in Latin America are traditionally thought of as facilitating processes of
top-down modernization that transformed traditional agrarian economies into complex urban
polities, while maintaining extreme inequality. The state is thus central in the genealogy of
inequality and elite privilege in Latin America. The synergy between states and elites continues
to mark Latin American societies, and it helps us to understand how major economic and
political changes occur without significant changes in inequality. For the most part, Latin
America’s current uneven states emerged as the result of exclusionary projects of citizenship
during the first half of the 20th century and were advanced by the advent of repressive regimes
during the 1960s and 1970s. After democratic transitions during the 1980s and 1990s, Latin
American states came to be characterized, on the one hand, by procedural democratic
institutions, and on the other by high levels of state violence, exclusion, and segmented
citizenship. The present situation is one of a problematic equilibrium between states, elites, and
inequality. | |
