The developmental histories of Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, and South Korea are examined through historical-structural analyses integrating elements from evolving Modernization, Dependency, and World-System perspectives. The notion that Latin American and East Asian industrialization can be understood in terms of monolithic 'development models' defined by contrasting economic policies is rejected. The view that Latin American development has been undermined by protectionist import-substituting industrialization programs while East Asian countries have implemented more effective 'free market' policies is a distortion of the long-term historical facts. The cases' developmental trajectories reflect their participation in competitive historically-conditioned socio-economic and political relations at the state, sub-state, and supra-state levels. Actors seeking to structure the flow of financial, technological, military, labor, and other resources in their favor construct institutions that link actors at the various levels, regulate their interactions, and establish the general parameters of developmental possibilities. State and their aparata are complemented at the sub-state level by classes' and status groups' political parties, unions, religious institutions, business associations, and other organizational resources. At the supra-state level developmental parameters are established by international organizations and regimes. The rise of the Latin American and East Asian NICs is better understood within the context of their long-term incorporation into a globalizing capitalist world-economy, the United States' ascent to world hegemony, the consolidation of competing socialist and capitalist political-economic blocs, and the end of the Cold War. The theories of development that have attempted to explain these transformations have necessarily been influenced by this social context / acase@tulane.edu

The Congress Party has governed India for most of its post-independence existence. As the dominant party, its internal processes are determined by examining the interaction between the organization's hierarchy. The intermediate elite forms a vital part of this internal process. At the national level, they interact with the high command; at the local level, they work in the state and district party organizations. Intermediate elites' may be constrained by party discipline imposed by the high command. They find opportunities for individual initiative at the local and regional levels. Intermediate elites display ideological and pragmatic behavior tendencies. They view the political arena as an open competitive forum. Elites generally embrace the notion of the political entrepreneur. Elites play the role of ombudsmen and as factional leaders in party affairs. In most instances, the intermediate elite is unable to resolve basic social conflicts caused by rapid social change. The primary mode of behavior is the distribution of patronage. Elites strive to build linkages beyond their constituency and groups upwards in the party and outward in society in an effort to control the very competitive political environment / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation examines the articulation of macro and micro processes in relation to the pan-Maya movement in Guatemala. I argue that the form of the pan-Maya movement is not determined solely by its internal structures, as theories of nativism and revitalization would suggest, nor solely by global processes, as a world system approach would predict. Rather, the pan-Maya movement is shaped through the articulation of national, local, and global systems The pan-Maya movement operates at a national level in Guatemala, and the actions of the Guatemalan state, particularly its security forces, restrict the range of pan-Mayanist activism. Nonetheless, pan-Maya activists have taken advantage of changes in the post-Cold War global political economy to colonize a space for themselves in the competitive Guatemalan political arena. Pan-Maya leaders promote an ideology of cultural and ethnic pride, hoping to unite the diverse Maya groups into an effective political constituency. The cultural goals of pan-Mayanists fall outside of the confrontation between the Guatemalan Left and Right, and thus are largely seen by political and military leaders as innocuous The urban-based, educated leaders of the pan-Maya movement have been seen by many analysts as far removed from the realities of daily life in Maya communities. In comparing local cultural forms in Patzun and Tecpan to the national ideology of pan-Mayanism, however, I find many points of convergence. I explain these findings by postulating the existence of certain essential paradigms of Maya culture, shared by urban pan-Mayanists and rural Maya agriculturalists alike. These persistent paradigms provide the foundation for cultural innovation at the local as well as the national level, and result in the pan-Maya ideology being consistent with local cultural strategies The fact that culture can provide the basis for mobilization at various levels of aggregation is particularly relevant to the field of development. The pan-Maya movement shows that cultural issues can act to vertically integrate segments of a population, thus allowing development strategies formulated at a national level to harness cultural energy through grassroots participation / acase@tulane.edu

This is a study about institutional structures, social movements and policy change in the Mexican authoritarian regime. It is commonly believed that the Mexican authoritarian regime is the corollary of a passive society, and that the decision-making process is free from societal pressures. I hypothesized that the Mexican society is fairly active and that the authoritarian regime hinders society from participating in decision-making. As a closed political system, the authoritarian regime lacks the appropriate institutional channels to convey political participation. It is the absence of adequate structures for political participation what pushes mobilized groups to rely on unconventional strategies to get solution to their demands. It is also the closed structure of the regime what explains that the government uses repressive strategies to face protesting groups, and at the same time enacts policy changes to assuage social unrest and reinforce the closed structure of the political system Two case studies and the examination of 207 cases of social protest in Mexico between 1946 and 1994 were designed to test this hypothesis. This study demonstrates that the institutional structure of the regime pushes challenging groups to perform direct actions, such as demonstrations, road blockades, and armed actions to pursue their goals. The narrowness of conventional politics stresses the need for contentious means of struggle. Complementarily, the government heavily relies on negligence, threats, discrediting and repression to prevent challenging groups from consolidating as legitimate representatives of their constituencies, and full-fledged members of the political system. The paradox is that despite its repressive response, the government enacts policy changes to assuage social protest and to reinforce the authoritarian structure of the political system. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that it is the closed nature of the authoritarian regime, which prevents challenging groups from participating in the decision-making process, creating the misleading image of a passive society and a policy-making process free from societal pressures The study demonstrates that for a better understanding of the Mexican authoritarian regime it is necessary to analyze the interaction between institutional structures, social mobilization and government responses / acase@tulane.edu

The 'Washington Consensus' over Neoliberal reform has fallen significantly short of a consensus, at least among some Latin American nations maintaining vestiges of state-led development strategies. Instead, this study shows how Venezuela is fashioning a 'hybrid' strategy, incorporating elements of statist theories of regional development with free market principles of economic reform such as privatization and decentralization. It examines the extent neoliberal principles have been adopted, assesses the social impacts of different approaches to development, and uncovers social and political forces complicating a shift from state to market-led development Three dimensions of the impacts of retreating states and a strengthening market are analyzed: regional planning, firm performance, and political participation. I conducted in-depth interviews, archival research, and content analysis where the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) built a planned city and Latin America's largest state-owned industrial complex. Legacies of state intervention in Ciudad Guayana were a context for examining how the State, firms, and civil society are negotiating industrial restructuring, increased global competition and political decentralization. My own face-to-face household survey, focus groups, participant observation, and annual survey data reveal impacts of these processes and provide evidence of and reasons for resistance to change My results challenge key assumptions about both statist and market-based development models, and in doing so indicate that neoliberalism's hegemony is subject to reexamination. First, despite origins in competing ideologies, both approaches advocate exploiting comparative advantages in natural resources. Second, contrary to empirical evidence from other resource-based development projects, residents' standard of living was very adequate, indicating long-term returns on public investment associated with state-led capitalism. Third, regardless of global universality and uniformity of neoliberalism, locally implemented policies stopped short of structural reform. Fourth, global economic restructuring has wrought enormous local change independent of neoliberal reform. Industries struggle with global oversupply of commodities, debt, and technological shortcomings; unemployment is increasing; wages are stagnant; and the service sector is growing. Finally, while local actors agree that they must look beyond public enterprise for a development strategy, the centralization associated with state-led development makes it difficult for local government, led by 'La Causa R', to foster participatory democracy / acase@tulane.edu

Based on my rejection of the social relations/personal relations dichotomy and on information obtained in field work done from 1993 to 1995 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, I describe and analyze the way in which social actors form microgroups or networks of social relations made up of the dyadic relations they form with other individuals. These networks, in turn, are the basic components of social groups, or networks of networks After discussing the nature of and determining the personal ties which link a small business entrepreneur to other members of his personal ego network, I extend this analysis to include the personal networks of each member of ego's network. These eight additional networks bring the total number of relationships among 59 other small business entrepreneurs to the 91 dyads which they have formed among themselves. I show how the creation, preservation and modification of these relationships correspond to the successively broader geographical, social and historical contexts in which they are immersed, especially the immediate context of the Mexican-U.S. border, as well as the industrialization process in Mexico and official development policies for the border from World War II till the present On the way to proving the relevance of the hypothetical presuppositions in this study, I obtained certain important results: (a) I conceived, applied and proved the utility of a procedure for studying the social behavior and social personalities of specific actors; (b) I designed and applied a dynamic analytical model for studying personal relations from a sociological point of view, rather than from the traditional psychological perspective; (c) I sketched the basic elements of a sociological theory of personal relations; and (d) I suggested a research agenda which would allow me to complete the theory and refine the ideal procedures for testing it / acase@tulane.edu

Ethnographic interviews (n = 62) in the congregations of Huntsville, Texas provide a basis to interpret religious statements in a small American community. These statements were found to contain coding devices which function primarily to distinguish denominational groups from one another rather than functioning to represent what a group 'believes.' Analysis of the interview tape recordings revealed 28 rhetorical coding devices which were used on 14 binary continua. Each rhetorical coding device had an opposite coding device which occurred in a group with a different denominational identity. The most prevalent coding devices related to baptism. The 14 coding device continua used tangible symbolic distinctions related to the human body, including gender, or group customs much more often than they used abstract theological distinctions. The coding devices functioned to maintained community social solidarity to support the institutional aims of the local law enforcement sub-culture operating eight area prison units / acase@tulane.edu

This study examines health services utilization in two rural areas of eastern Bolivia, both of which are inhabited primarily by recent migrants from other Bolivian communities. The major objective of the research is to propose a model of utilization for each area which includes both individual and community level predictors. Multilevel logistic regression techniques are used The data were collected through a cross-sectional household survey and through focus group interviews of community leaders in each of the colonies surveyed. In the first region, San Julian, 1258 individuals living in 267 households were surveyed. In the second area, Mineros, 1808 individuals residing in 300 households were interviewed. After a brief description of the characteristics of these samples, the subsamples of recently ill respondents in each region are selected for further analysis. Those who have been ill represent the potential users of formal health services The models differed substantially between San Julian and Mineros. In San Julian, the multilevel model showed that individuals were more likely to use health services if they had a severe illness, had lived in the community longer, and were of a higher socioeconomic status. At the community level accessibility and presence of a community health promoter were positively associated with use. In Mineros, likelihood of use of health services increased among individuals who felt that community health services were adequate, were of a higher socioeconomic status, had a severe illness, spoke an Indian language, and participated more in community activities. Availability of drugs and demographic stability were positively associated with use at the community level. Two interaction terms between a community and an individual level predictor were significant in Mineros: availability of drugs and attitudes toward local health services formed one interaction term and demographic stability and language spoken formed another The study concludes that both individual and community factors condition the health seeking behavior of people who are sick. Even after controlling for individual differences between users and non-users of health services, the community environment was shown to influence health services. Over the long term, as socioeconomic status of colonists in eastern Bolivia improves, use of health services is likely to increase. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / acase@tulane.edu

Who were the southern antisuffragists? Why would these women oppose their own enfranchisement? How did they differ from 'northern' antisuffragists? Did they differ in same fashion from their opponents in the southern suffrage movement? These are the primary considerations of this monograph. An examination of these questions not only brings into the light a group of previously ignored women, it also helps to inform our understanding of some of the forces at work in the southern suffrage movement as well. Suffragists and antisuffragists were locked in something resembling an organizational ping-pong game: each was forced to respond to actions by the other. To understand completely the strategies and activities of the suffragists, we must look simultaneously at the activities of their opponents (and vice-versa). Therefore southern suffragists appear as prominent actors in an account of the antisuffragists This dissertation examines the prosopography, the ideology, and the organizational activities of the southern antisuffragists. It concludes that, in contradiction to past assumptions, suffragists and antisuffragists did not come from the same social and economic class, nor did they have similar experiences of 'social feminism.' Instead, their backgrounds and experiences differed significantly, the product of their differing economic positions Southern antisuffragists created a conservative countermovement intended to prevent the changes which they contended woman suffrage would impose upon the family structure, class relations, gender roles, and racial settlement of the South at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Southern ' antis' believed that they benefitted the most from contemporary race, class, and gender constructs and would consequently suffer the most as a result of any tampering with the status quo A final chapter gives separate treatment to the 'states' rights' faction of the southern suffrage movement. By opposing the federal woman suffrage amendment, the states' rights suffragists effectively became allies of the antisuffragists at times. The emergence of the states' rights faction meant that the southern suffrage campaigns were three-sided, which not only complicated the suffrage contests in the South, but also has hindered historians' efforts to analyze and interpret the southern suffrage movement / acase@tulane.edu

Despite trends toward proletarianization, urbanization and the dominance of large-scale export oriented agribusiness in the third world, peasant farming, and its attendant forms of familial and social organization, have persisted throughout the twentieth century. While a number of factors have left the peasantry in a precarious economic situation, the importance of the small family farm as a source of cheap and readily available seasonal labor, encourages interventions designed to contribute to its survival. In the past, these interventions have often focused on the use of chemical products shown to increase crop yields in the agricultural sectors of industrialized nations. Many of these recommended practices have proven to be both personally and environmentally risky. Development programs have now begun to focus on the practices more appropriate to 'sustainable development' in the third world. As we move toward new development strategies it is important to reexamine the results of previous efforts so that the lessons learned from them can be carried forward into the newer models This study utilizes data from the Basic Village Education Project to reexamine the relationship between a peasant farmer's age and his tendency to adopt recommended agricultural practices within the context of the specific economic and social conditions extant in Guatemala in the mid-1970s. Findings based on multivariate analyses indicate that the age/practice adoption relationship is much more complicated than often assumed. Younger farmers are advantaged in terms of literacy skills and cosmopolitanism which tend to encourage practice adoption. Older farmers, however, are advantaged in terms of control of the economic resources often necessary for practice change. When these age-related factors are controlled, younger farmers are more likely than their elders to adopt the most personally and environmentally risky practices more consistent with the recommendation of programs based on the 'sustainable development' model. It is concluded that given these findings it would be wise for change-agents utilizing the 'sustainable development' model to specifically design educational strategies to reach the older farmers who have been the traditional decision makers in peasant communities / acase@tulane.edu