Claire Wright

Conflicts Over Natural Resources and Activation of Indigenous Identity in Cusco, Peru

This study considers the activation of indigenous identity during episodes of collective action in Peru. There has been a sharp increase in social conflict in the country in recent years, particularly over natural resources which tend to be found in territories belonging to Perus native peoples. Several recent studies have suggested that, in this context, both Amazon and Andean Indians self-identify as indigenous. Starting from the premise that identity is a social construction, we seek to answer the following research questions: do communities involved in conflicts over natural resources in the Peruvian Amazon and Andes self-identify as indigenous; do these discourses reflect an awareness of an external context or potential allies that are favourable to indigenous demands; and how are these claims to indigenous identity received and reflected by local opinion? To answer these three questions, we study conflicts over natural resources throughout the Department of Cusco in 2008, using original data from official declarations made by social organisations, in-depth interviews, and local press archives. Our analysis stresses the importance of a contextual understanding of political identities and the perception of a favourable Political Opportunity Structure in the activation of indigenous discourses in the Andes.

Going beyond the Roman dictator: a comprehensive approach to emergency rule, with evidence from Latin America

The aim of this article is to contribute to the debate on emergency rule, a practice that democratic theory has struggled to conceptualize. Accordingly, this article differs from existing approaches, which mainly focus on the constitutional design of regimes of exception and tend to identify the institution of the Roman dictator as their source. In contrast, we offer a comprehensive approach, considering other historical sources of emergency rule, going beyond the dichotomy of constitutional and de facto emergency, and focusing specifically on the types of emergency powers involved: executive, legislative and judicial. We propose a different way of conceptualizing emergency rule, following a political rather than a constitutional logic, and we illustrate this different conceptualization by offering evidence from Bolivia, Chile and Guatemala to demonstrate how this comprehensive approach works in practice.