State and Society in Conflict; Comparative Perspectives on Andean Crises by Paul W.

Drake;
Eric Hershberg
Review by: Ton Salman
Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe / European Review of Latin
American and Caribbean Studies, No. 85 (October 2008), pp. 137-140
Published by: Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika (CEDLA)
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European

Review of Latin American and Caribbean

Studies 85, October

2008

| 137

contemporary processes in other Latin American countries such as Bolivia. The

volume under review thus also raises some questions that require futureresearch.
Willem Assies
Universiteit van Leiden
Notes
1. Andres Guerrero, 'La desintegracion de la administration etnica en el Ecuador',
in Jose Almeida et
al (comp.) Sismo etnico en el Ecuador. Quito: CEDIME,
1993.
Abya Yala,
2. William Roseberry (1994) 'Hegemony and the Language of Contention',
inGilbert M. Joseph, and

3.

Daniel Nugent (eds), Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and theNegotiation
inModern Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press, 1994.
Gilbert M. Joseph and Daniel Nugent (eds), Everyday forms of State Formation: Revolution
Negotiation

of Rule

inModern Mexico.

Durham: Duke University Press,

of Rule
and the

1994.

- State
and Society in Conflict; Comparative Perspectives on Andean Crises, ed
ited by Paul W. Drake and Eric Hershberg. Pittsburgh,University of Pittsburgh
Press, 2006.
It is a promising way of capturing the contemporary political and social turbu
lences affecting theAndean region: coining itas a conflict between state and soci
ety. But at the same time, it triggers an important question the authors must also

have anticipated: is there such a thing as a clear-cut split, or even distinction, be

tween the state and society? There is, to begin with, theMarxian assertion that the
state is not the expression or institutional regulative system of thewhole of 'free

wills' in society, who collectively decided that some entity should adjudicate, gov
ern and secure each and everyone's liberties and activities. Additionally, there is
the idea that the state should be analysed as a plethora of agents, interests and
strife,and that,on the other hand, society should be analysed as co-constituted by
internalized and routinized
legislation, regulation, and legal identities and pre
for
or,
rogatives,
example, by state presence. Finally, there is the suggestion ex
in
pressed
Chapter 3 by Ann Mason and Arlene Tickner, that 'transnational flows
and processes slice through national spaces and connect a complex array of civil
society actors, religious and ethnic associations, business and finance organiza
tions, local government, and criminal structures' (p. 76). In their introduction, the
editors do not really address this issue of the alleged duality of state and society, but
clarify theirposition by interpretingthe state as, first and foremost, the executor of
policies (such as a security regime focused on anti-drugsmeasures, neoliberal re
forms, and establishing a political regime of [poorly installed] representative democ
racies) that often were imposed from abroad, leading to deteriorated relations with
society and 'a failure to incorporate, represent, and respond to vast segments of the
population forwhich the state is increasinglydistant, ifnot alien' (p. 2).
This, however, leaves the question of the societal sectors inducing and support
ing these policies unaccounted for.Additionally, itmisses, as one of the contribu
tors, Jo-Marie Burt proposes, 'a relational perspective on state and society [... pro
viding ...] insights about the nature of contestation over the forms and scope of
state and citizenship and [... helping to ...] illuminate themechanisms and proc
esses that shape political outcomes' (p. 223). The issue is
symptomatic for a not
somewhat
ambivalent
coherent,
fully
conceptually
compilation of contributions

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138

| Revista Europea

de Estudios Latinoamericanos

y del Caribe

85, octubre de 2008

contributionswhich nevertheless are very worthwhile and insightful.

The book consists of 10 chapters, of which the first one is an introduction by

the editors. In it the authors highlight the limited space formanoeuvre Andean
governments had during the last decades due to foreign pressures and influences,
and connect these to the traditionallyweak institutions and party systems, the en
during inequality and exclusion characterizing the continent, and the subsequent
increasing tendency to take semi-authoritarian ways out. They emphasize that the
crises in the Andean countries should not be addressed as individual cases, but
comparatively. Next, they identifythemain dimensions of the crises: the lack of a
national project, the absence of a convincing alternative economic model, and,
thirdly,a contemporary 'trend towards unorthodox modes of participation' (p. 17),
boosting social movements which, however, remain 'ratherblunt instruments,fre
quently incapable of representing their constituents to the state in an institutional

ized and enduring manner' (p. 19). This brings us to the fourth dimension: '[t]he
inadequacy of regular forms of political participation has enflamed the crisis of
governability and of democracy' (p. 20). They finalize with a caveat on the differ
ences between the northern and central Andes and with a brief sketch of the crises

in the countries covered in this volume: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and
Bolivia. One remarkable feature of the analytical contours sketched in the introduc
tion is the apparent aspiration to restore more regimented and 'calmer' forms of
political participation. The 'unmediated forms of participation' and 'uncontrolled
popular mobilization' (17) are, on the one hand, praised for increasing political
participation (p. 17) and for providing creative, necessary and valuable channels
for the expression of discontent (19), but they are on the other hand diagnosed as
having 'exceed(ed) new forms of institutionalization' (p. 20). There seems to be a
bit of ambiguity here: the pursuit of a new institutionalization is supported much
stronger

than

the unavoidable

mayhem

accompanying

such

a process.

The

authors

fear the process might 'elicit authoritarian outcomes' (p. 31). Should not the pre
sent, justified and forceful criticism towards the 'state's severely eroded ability to
carry out even itsmost basic functions' (p. 22) and the carving out of innovative
mechanisms to partake in decision-making be given a bitmore credit and should
more
not the 'creativity' be given a bit
credence? May 'the contemporary crisis of
representation [not be ...] a necessary condition for the creation of radically new
forms of political representation and participation [...]', as the book's contributor
Donna Lee Van Cott (p. 183) reminds us?
Due to space limits,not all remaining contributions can be discussed here. Ma
son and Tickner's Chapter 3 is a notable one, elaborating how transregional fea
tures, inparticular 'security', co-shaped the current crises. Drugs defined as a secu

a 're
rity threat, they argue, was one of the key elements in the configuration of
on
not
built
architecture
Andean,
U.S.,
objectives'
necessarily
[and]
gional security
(p. 79). They additionally address the spillover of theColombian conflict, transna
tional crime involving drugs, arms and money laundering, and the drug-related
increased U.S. military presence in the region, concluding that 'national-level
problems are made more intransigentas they are exacerbated and even transformed
by transregional security dynamic and the involvement of extranational nonstate
actors' (p. 92).
Chapter 5 by Eric Hershberg leftme somewhat puzzled. His account of how in

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

European

Review of Latin American and Caribbean

Studies 85, October

2008

| 139

the 'second-generation-reforms' in the 1990s were thwarted by popular

(political) opposition focuses on the fact that the first generation reforms of open
ing up to externalmarkets and the liberalization of trade and capital flows had been

Colombia

implemented 'with comparatively little open dispute' (p. 137) mainly because of
exclusionary policy-making (p. 150), whereas even themost modest second gen
eration reform 'is likely to prove highly conflictive' (p. 139). The point is elabo
rated in a curious way, inwhich on the one hand the 'stalemate' between honour
ing democracy and having to count with the expanded political space for domestic
actors (p. 134) versus the urgent pursuit of these reforms is spelled out, and on the

other hand these reforms are presented as considered by policy makers as 'essential
tomeet the challenges of globalization'(p.
135), as an 'ambitious agenda for re
to
the
institutions
that
fashioning
help
configure relations between state and soci
as
ety' (p. 137),
'carefully designed policies' (p. 139), and as fostered by 'techno

crats who plead, hardly without reason, for the need to enact painful reform
(p. 152). It is, to begin with, disputable whether the outcome of this stalemate can
and should be coined a 'policy paralysis [... which] may well have the unantici

pated consequence of furthereroding legitimacy' (p. 152. In the second place, have
the intentions and possible outcomes of these second generation reforms ('the dis
mantling of inheritedmechanisms for financing and delivering an array of public
goods, ranging from education to healthcare to retirementpensions', p. 138) really
been so imperative, so inoffensive for the poorer Colombians; were the pains fairly
distributed, and was the resistance to them inColombia really so mistaken?
Finally, Deborah Yashar's article (Chapter 7) is excellent. She focuses on ex
plaining the emergence of indigenous movements inEcuador and Bolivia, compar
ing them with Peru, highlighting three factors: changing citizenship regimes,
transcommunity networks and political associational space. She additionally delves
into the protagonism of these movements in recent political events in both coun

tries, and ends with arguing that these movements have proposed 'alternative
methods of implementing democratic accountability' (191) - instead of being co
constitutive of the current democratic crisis. In the first section of the chapter her
analysis is superb, so it is a pity that there are a few slips in her text.Her claim that
indigenous movements decisively contributed to the toppling of several presidents
(pp. 190, 209) is debatable where she includes the fall of Lucio Gutierrez of Ecua
dor in 2005; most observers agree that itwas, in themain, theQuito middle classes
that pulled this off. Her account of Bolivian developments, especially where she
discusses the networking and associational space, should have highlighted much
more the crucial impact of the Ley de Participation Popular, launched in 1994,
conspicuously by a neoliberal administration, resulting in an extensive decentraliza
tion of the country's political-administrative structuredue towhich themunicipality
became a significantpolitical arena. This law also allowed indigenous communities to
be represented by their traditional authorities, thus opening up local government to
indigenous participation.
Additional chapters cover a range of subjects. JeremyAdelman, in Chapter 2,
talks about the Andean states as 'unfinished', meaning that important swaths of
society still fail to accept 'underlying rules' of nationhood (p. 41). Chapter 4, by
John Sheanan, addresses poverty and economic dilemmas of theAndean countries,
and Chapter 6, by Donna Lee Van Cott, argues that indigenous movements have

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140

| Revista Europea

de Estudios

Latinoamericanos

y del Caribe

85, octubre de 2008

turned the current crisis into an opportunity to gain prominence in the countries'
political and public debates. In Chapter 8, by Jo-Marie Burt, a meticulous analysis
of how changing state-society/citizenship patterns have influenced theways socie
tal mobilization came about in Peru is presented. Francisco Gutierrez Sanin, in

Chapter 9, offers an analysis of why in particular national congresses in Ecuador

and Colombia are also critically evaluated inboth countries. Finally, inChapter 10,

Miriam Kornblith reconstructs the quest for 'genuine' democracy inVenezuela,

both explaining the rise of Chavez, and offering a critical assessment of his contri
bution to this goal.

All contributionsmake worthwhile reading, are written by scholars who know

their trade, and do not hesitate to take a stand.As a whole however, this compilation
is not balanced: not in the application of the conceptual point of departure, not in the
scope, and not in thevarying intentionsof thedifferentauthor's contributions.
Ton Salman

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

- Women
and Politics
ner (2005).

inChile, por Susan Franceschet. Boulder, CO, Lynne Rien

Latinoamerica ha avanzado en la inclusion de lasmujeres en la arena politica. Sin

embargo, vale la pena detenerse a mirar la forma y los contenidos que los distintos
contextos politicos permiten a lasmujeres en su ejercicio de la politica, para enten
der asi en que consiste dicha inclusion. En Women and Politics inChile, Frances
chet analiza desde la ciencia politica diferentes dimensiones socio-historicas que
ponen en contexto la participacion politica de lasmujeres en el Chile de hoy, don
de aun

falta mucho

por

avanzar.

Este libro se centra en la evolution la participacion en politica de lamujer en

Chile durante gran parte del siglo XX. La historia de participacion femenina que
revisa aqui Franceschet va desde 1932 hasta nuestros dias, dividiendo el periodo en
tres grandes etapas: la primera, revisa desde 1932 hasta el golpe de estado en 1973;
la segunda, aborda el periodo de la dictadura entre 1973 y 1990; y la tercera, anali
za el periodo democratico entre 1990 en adelante. La autora analiza y reconstruye
el periodo basicamente desde entrevistas a mujeres que han tenido algun tipo de
participacion en la historia social o politica en Chile. Tambien incluye en el anali
sis datos de information secundaria y una importante revision bibliografica sobre
politica y genero en Chile.
El libro destaca que si bien los cambios en la participacion femenina en Chile
evidencian un cambio sustantivo en la extension democratica hacia las mujeres,
este mismo cambio muestra que los avances en tal redefinition han sido lentos, y
no necesariamente incluyen, en la practica, un reconocimiento de lasmujeres como
actores politicos iguales. Las mujeres pueden entrarmas facilmente a la baja politi
ca, pero no asi a la alta politica. Y cuando ingresan como representantes de poder
ejecutivo o legislativo es mas probable que sean de clase media- alta y portadoras
de un discurso de modernization y cambio a nivel socio-institucional. En conse

cuencia, resulta pertinente preguntarse por el rol que juegan las mujeres cuando
ingresan en la politica formal. ^,Las mujeres estan ahi como un medio o como un

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