Eduardo Dargent

PERÚ 2011: CONTINUIDADES Y CAMBIOS EN LA POLÍTICA SIN PARTIDOS

La eleccion de Ollanta Humala en mayo del 2011 hizo pensar que este ano podrian darse cambios sustanciales en la politica peruana. Si bien en el 2011 el Peru si experimento cambios politicos que dejan algunas preguntas abiertas sobre el futuro, la imagen que presentamos en este reporte es fundamentalmente una de continuidad, tanto en la forma de hacer politica como en los factores que afectan la misma. En este reporte nos centramos en la politica peruana en el 2011, aunque en algunos casos que lo ameriten revisamos eventos del 2010. Resaltamos aquellos aspectos que creemos hacen interesante al caso peruano desde una perspectiva comparada.

Respuesta estatal por presiones externas: los determinantes del fortalecimiento estatal frente al boom del oro en el Perú (2004-2015)

In the context of the current commodity boom, informal and illegal mining have become acute challenges to the Peruvian state. This article documents and explains the state’s response to these challenges. After a stage of inaction (2004-2008), the Peruvian state initially reacted with a disarticulated response (2008-2011) before mounting a more coherent and organized response (2011-2015). Although the state’s response to the challenge has been limited, it is has nevertheless resulted in an observable increase in state capacity. We propose that this phenomenon is better explained by factors external to the state (international pressures and domestic demands) rather than by processes triggered from within.

Cycle of Abundance and Institutional Pathways

This introductory chapter presents a theoretical proposal to explain the patterns of institutional state construction during the recent commodity boom in Peru. To do so, this chapter is organized into five sections. The first one describes the new cycle of economic development based on natural resources and the main conflicts/tensions that it has produced in Peru. The second section documents the significant institutional state change produced in the country during the boom thanks, we argue, to the abundance cycle. This section shows how some institutions have emerged to manage the (distribution of the) benefits of resource extraction, while other institutions have emerged to manage the (distribution of the) cost of resource extraction. These institutional developments have different timing, and some are considerably more contested than others. The third section introduces the research questions and literature that explain the relevance of resource abundance cycles for institutional state development. The fourth section, the main one of this chapter, presents the arguments developed in conjunction with our findings. We propose that three dimensions explain these different pathways of institutional development in resource-abundant Peru: (a) preceding power distribution of state and society actors, (b) historical repertoires (legacies) of state and society action, and (c) the entrepreneurship of actors embedded in transnational networks . This framework aims to provide a comparative road map for similar analysis in Latin American countries affected by the recent commodity boom . The final section describes the book’s methodology and organization.