Kenneth M. Coleman

Neoliberal Economic Policies and the Potential for Electoral Change in Mexico

Se utilizan encuestas nacionales efectuadas por Prospectiva Estrategica en 1989 y 1991 para examinar los determinantes y las consecuencias electorales de las actitudes de los ciudadanos mexicanos hacia las politicas neoliberales y el Tratado de Libre Comercio. La transicion politicas neoliberales ha dividido al pueblo mexicano segun clases sociales y partidos politicos. El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) todavia dispone de amplios recursos politicos para atraer a los votantes mas independientes. Sin embargo, la apertura de la economia hace al PRI mas vulnerable a los efectos politicos de los impactos economicos.

Labor and the State Union Incorporation and Working-Class Politicization in Latin America

To assess corporatist interest intermediation as a mechanism of social control in Venezuela and Mexico, we compare the political attitudes and behavior of workers exposed to corporatist controls to those of other workers. Specifically, the politicization of workers who belong to unions dominated by hegemonic political parties is compared to that of workers affiliated with “autonomous unions” and to that of nonunionized workers. Using survey data collected in 1979 and 1980, it is found that workers who belong to official unions are not more likely to be system supportive than other workers. This pattern holds in both regime settings and for both strategic and nonstrategic industries. We discuss the implications that these findings have on the renegotiation of incorporative bargains between labor movements and hegemonic parties.

Citizen response to regional integration in the Americas: The cases of Costa Rica and El Salvador

This study examines public opinion in Costa Rica and El Salvador regarding regional integration in Central America. Recent efforts at regional integration as well as the response of the governments of the above countries to those efforts are reviewed. Public opinion toward regional integration is significantly more positive but less structured in El Salvador than in Costa Rica. Differences in the international and domestic contexts help to explain the differential responses in these two countries. Likewise, contextual factors help to account for differences between Central American and European publics in attitudes toward regional integration.