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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Interest Groups In Venezuela: Lessons From The Failure Of A “Model Democracy” And The Rise Of A Bolivarian Democracy, Leslie C. Gates
Interest Groups In Venezuela: Lessons From The Failure Of A “Model Democracy” And The Rise Of A Bolivarian Democracy, Leslie C. Gates
Sociology Faculty Scholarship
This article uses the Venezuelan case to shed light on the potential role of interest group systems in discrediting liberal democracies and to identify challenges the region’s democracies are likely to confront in constructing effective and fair interest group systems. It first analyzes the role Venezuela’s interest groups played in discrediting its forty-year two-party democracy. It argues that the discrediting of a system heralded by many as the region’s “model democracy” cannot be understood by merely assessing how the structure of the group system excluded certain groups. The study shows that the inclusion of certain business interests in visible positions …
Theorizing Business Power In The Semiperiphery: Mexico 1970-2000, Leslie C. Gates
Theorizing Business Power In The Semiperiphery: Mexico 1970-2000, Leslie C. Gates
Sociology Faculty Scholarship
This study explains why the power of neoliberal business over the Mexican state increased during the last three decades of the 20th century. It identifies three sources of increased neoliberal business power that occurred in conjunction with neoliberal reforms: (1) active mobilization by neoliberal business, (2) increased access to the state by neoliberal business, and (3) increased economic power of neoliberal business. It thereby contributes additional evidence that counters the view of Mexico’s state neoliberalizers as acting autonomously from business. It further outlines two conditions that were instrumental in bringing about the increased power of neoliberal business: the onset of …