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The present dissertation reconstructs the notion of legitimacy in Ecuador between 1996 and 2007 in order to re-think our measurements and understanding of Latin American democracies. Empirically, the analysis is centered on the country`s puzzling tendency to survive institutional volatility, bad economic performance and social unrest, while the theoretical section underlines the importance of the vertical and horizontal participatory components of legitimacy. After exploring different plausible explanations of Ecuador`s puzzling mixture of political turmoil and regime endurance, this dissertation concludes that legitimacy helped democracy to endure in Ecuador. The main conclusion is that the horizontal components of political participation and the enactment of democratic values by social movements as well as new political parties played a key role in the survival of democracy. The dissertation contributes to the democratization literature by encompassing the normative elements of democracy, while at the same time contributes to democratic theory by pushing further the boundaries of a notion and a case that requires further attention.

This thesis is an investigation of the evolution of economic inequality in Guatemala. High inequality and poverty levels in the country are two widespread social problems, almost defining characteristics of Guatemalan society. Although some research has been done in an attempt to understand poverty, far less has been done with respect to inequality. Aggregated measures of both phenomena do not reveal much change, although it may well be the case that different and countervailing forces are acting behind summary indices, providing a misleading interpretation of stagnation over time. Using data from two living standards measurement surveys (LSMS) in 2000 and 2006, this investigation applies a household income generation model and a series of microeconomic decomposition techniques in order to explain some of the factors driving economic inequality. Those factors are grouped into three types of effects: price, occupational choice and endowment. The results show that three structural conditions segment the population: geographical location, gender and ethnic origin. However, they also indicate that over the course of six years, those characteristics have reduced their negative influence on the standard of living of the population. In other words, over time they show a mild equalizing effect, probably the result of changes in market conditions, state actions or a combination of both. Regarding the three types of effects identified above, the results show how market returns to individual attributes (price effects), such as years of education, can act as an equalizing force, particularly for women in the 4th and 5th quintiles of the distribution. Occupational choice effects reflect changes in the structure of the labour force, moving from the inactive to the self-employed, thus generating higher household income. Endowment effects, simulated as changes in household size and stock of education of income earners, are consistent with mild changes in fertility rates and higher public investment in education. Finally, the results leave ample room for social policy. However, for that to occur it will be necessary to increase the capacity of the State to intervene in specific areas, thus requiring higher government revenues while also addressing other institutional challenges such as better targeting of social programs, improving the quality of primary health and education, and investing in secondary schools and hospitals. A third round of LSMS survey would help corroborate whether observed reductions in expenditure and income inequality are truly a trend or just a temporary phenomena or simply a statistical artefact.

This study explores slave agency and slave abolitionism during amelioration in Jamaica. The amelioration period was chosen because it offered the slave opportunities to acquire their freedom and improve their condition. Therefore, slave agency and abolitionism occurred more frequently after the start of amelioration, which officially began in Jamaica in 1797 when the planters embarked on a programme designed to improve slavery and prolong its existence. Amelioration continued until the British Parliament voted to abolish slavery in 1833.

During the eighteenth century, the Chocó became an area of great importance to the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The region's sources of precious metal not only contributed to the economic recovery of the neighbouring cities of the Cauca Valley, but also enriched immensely the individual owners of the Chocô's mines and slaves gangs, the merchants who traded with them, and the royal officials and priests who served there. Despite the region's economic importance, it remained badly underdeveloped: a combination of climate and terrain discouraged Spanish settlement. While Spaniards were not attracted to the Chocô f or the purpose of settlement, slaves were nevertheless introduced in large numbers to exploit its gold deposits, and these were supported by the labour of the region's native inhabitants. This thesis will show, however, that it took the Spaniards nearly 300 years effectively to bring the Chocó under Crown control. Although the region had been known since the earliest days of conquest - Balboa, Almagro, and Pizarro had been among the first to explore the area - Indian resistance prevented the Spaniards from establishing a firm and lasting foothold in Indian territory until the 1660s. By the 1670s, a Franciscan mission had been established for the purpose of converting the Indians of the Chocô to the Christian Faith. Even at this stage, however, Spanish control was far from secure. By the 1680s, one of the Indian groups inhabiting the region - the Citarâ - had rebelled against the colonists and their increasing demands, and massacred as many Spaniards as they were able to surprise. It was the defeat of the rebel leaders which marked a turning point in the fortunes of the Chocó peoples. After the region had been finally pacified, Spaniards began to settle the area in growing numbers, the size of the slave population grew at a rapid rate, and the exploitation of gold deposits began in earnest. But while the Spaniards had undoubtedly established control of the native peoples by the beginning of the eighteenth century, the latter continued to resist both resettlement and conversion by fleeing from their settlements and refusing to accept the teaching of Christian Doctrine. Their continuing resistance was facilitated by the ineffective methods of administration introduced in the Chocó, controlled by corrupt tenientes, corregidores, secular priests, and Franciscan missionaries. These are the main themes that will be taken up in this study.

This thesis examines the experiences of the inhabitants of St. Vincent during the first fifty years of freedom. It examines social changes, work opportunities and areas of conflicts that developed during the period. It also details the effects of the declining economy on the islanders. The main subjects of the thesis are the agricultural labourers who were freed from slavery. It investigates their working lives, their attempts to achieve independent status as freeholders and their family and religious experiences. It also examines the changing attitudes towards them that were held by the planter class, the clergy and colonial officials, and how these views influenced the formation of a free society. In particular, the thesis investigates how perspectives of race, class and gender differed within the island, and how these divergencies created hostilities between different social groups often leading to unrest. While the main focus of the thesis is St. Vincent, it also compares conditions in St. Vincent with other Caribbean islands and Britain. This has helped illustrate how some local conditions, such as the lack of available land, ineffective plantation management and economic factors, reduced the opportunities for the freed people of St. Vincent. However, it also illustrates a commonality of experiences among the poor in both the Caribbean and Britain. It illustrates how the lives of the poor in the Caribbean were often restricted by the same class and gender biases experienced in Britain, as well as by racial prejudices held by the ruling authorities. The thesis relies on a variety of source material. Most of the primary sources were official Colonial Office dispatches, newspapers and Wesleyan missionary letters and reports. Throughout the thesis, I have questioned the motivations of the writers of these documents and interpreted the discourses they employed. I have also attempted to place the findings of my research within current debates among Caribbean historians of the postemancipation period to illustrate the importance of further gender analysis and research.

This study provides a first approach to the economic and social history of the Valley of Tulancingo in the late colonial period. In examining the development of this agricultural area of central Mexico, the author discusses the broader transformations that affected the country as a whole during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: population growth, migration, urbanization, and the commercialization of agriculture. On this score, the study participates in the current debate on the best way to characterize the Mexican agricultural sector at the end of the colonial rule. Most modern historiography tends to emphasize that demographic growth transformed the traditional balance between population and resources and was a major cause of economic and social disruption in the countryside. The author combines new evidence with recent findings from the specialist literature, to argue that Tulancingo fully participated in the roster of economic and social changes of the period. The work begins with a description of Tulancingo's population trends and an analysis of the spatial distribution of the population. It goes on with an analysis of the Valley's agricultural economy, describing the complementary rural elements of Indian communities and haciendas, and examining a series of related transformations in landholding, marketing, and social relations. This study will be of interest to anyone concerned with Mexican economic and social history, or the history of agriculture.

This research was prompted by the questions 'What is being Chilean?, Who are tile Chileans? Do all those born in the country feel the same about their nationality and about their fellow nationals? A large number of Chileans will describe their country as culturally and ethnically homogenous, probably because they do not include the native peoples in their description; least of all would they acknowledge that mestizo blood runs in their veins. Therefore, my objective has been to deconstruct the myth homogeneity in the Chilean identity. Moreover, this research, which started as an exploration into tile complex terrain of tile Chilean identity, finally turned into a rather painful soul-searching process. It is obvious that having been born in Chile, it was impossible for me not to become involved, not to feel touched more than once, not to feel guilty more than once. The identities of the indigenous peoples and the descendants of Spanish colonisers have been profoundly transformed during 500 years of social, cultural and political change. Tile rise of the nations states and tile construction of national identities after the wars of Independence were key moments for Latin America, but although no longer tinder colonial rule, the social and cultural differences between 'Indians' and Spaniards continued into the republic, based on the imagined superiority of the Spanish culture, language and religion. Currently Chile, where in recent times - and in the past as well - the military played a crucial role, is in a process of globalisation and reconstruction of the national identity. The research was framed by the understanding that the imagined community of the nation is formed by 'us' and 'them', and a distinction which does not indicate a binary opposition but a complex articulation which both supports and fractures tile nation. In the imagined community of tile Chilean nation identities are multiple and cultures are multiple too. They are constituted in relation to dimensions such as history, place and culture. Geography, in Chile, is also a defining marker of national identity that does not imply inert geography, but an essential dimension in the cultural and social dynamics of tile nation. I challenge the view, long sustained by many Chileans that their country is culturally and ethnically homogeneous. In order to achieve this end I explore the 'skeleton in the cupboard' of the Chilean identity, that is to say, their mestizo origin. With that objective in mind, this research was conceived as a contribution to make Chileans come to terms with the fact that they have some amount of 'Indian' blood in their veins. Only when they are able to take that step, will they be able to appreciate and take pride in the ancient cultures they descend from because in that way they will shed light into that dark comer of their identity. National communities are not only in people's heads or in the imagination of a nation of citizens, but are projected and articulated through channels like the media and educational practice; they are also embodied and practised. From the moment that identity is conceived, not as a fixed ethos formed in a remote past, but as a future project, Chileans great challenge now is to define what they want to be. There may be different projects, alternative proposals and different versions of national identity that will lead on to different roads, but they must include a notion of collective identity that is open to alterity, invention and transgression and also a diversity that Chileans have so far refused to accept.

This study examines what effect the presence of the Chinese in the West Indies had on understandings of belonging in terms of nation. It examines the construction of the category "Chinese" across different modes, particularly literary texts, from the nineteenth century to the present, and from the positions of colonial, creole and Chinese spaces. The results of this research challenge the common view that the Chinese have had a marginal impact on the perception of nationhood in the West Indies. Instead, images of the Chinese were, and continue to be, a key means of exploring the ambiguities, potentialities and limitations of nation as it developed in the West Indies. In particular, they reveal that neither "nation" nor "belonging" are static positions; rather, they signify continuing renegotiations of power relationships and cultural identities. Several factors impact on representations of the Chinese. In the nineteenth century, such images were molded by the specific aims of colonial enterprises, entangled at the intersection of the discursive constructs of "East" and "West" during a period of mass migrations and the peculiar tensions of post-emancipation West Indian societies. In the twentieth century, "the Chinese" have been created in response to a need to assert ownership of what was once colonised space and to perform nation before a global audience. Of late, Chinese West Indians have taken a more visibly active role in the construction and dissemination of images of themselves and their communities. In the process they have sometimes radically redefined the imaginative nation space of the West Indies and, in the process, challenge established boundaries of belonging, and contest "belonging" itself.

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