Mario Sznajder

The legacy of human rights violations in the Southern Cone : Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

Introduction Repression and the Discourse of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone Shaping the Public Sphere and the Legacy of Human Right Violations National Reconciliation and the Disruptive Potential of the Legacy of Human Rights Violations Restructuring the Realm of Human Rights in the Southern Cone The Multiple Refraction of the Various Institutional Paths Memory and Oblivion in the Redemocratized Southern Cone The Transformation of Collective Identities in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay Conclusions

Electoral engineering in Chile: the electoral system and limited democracy

Abstract On the eve of Chiles transition from military to elected government, the outgoing regime enacted an electoral engineering project intended to conserve the constitutional order it encoded in 1980. An analysis of 1989 and 1993 general elections shows that the way votes are translated into seats favors, as intended, the second largest electoral block, the Chilean Right. This bias, along with the number of appointed senators and the special majorities required for constitutional amendments, gives the Right a minority veto power on any reform initiative. Moreover, the electoral system produces incentives for parties, candidates and voters that enhances this balance of power. The role that the electoral system plays in Chile therefore consolidates a limited form of democracy, rather than a liberal one.

The politics of exile in Latin America

1. Defining the Exilic Condition 2. Forceful Displacement, the Construction of Collective Identities and State Formation 3. The Format of Exile 4. Sites of Exile 5. Widening Exclusion and the Four-Tiered Structure of Exile 6. Exile Communities, Activism and Politics 7. Presidents in Exile 8. Is Return the End of Exile?

From Argentina to Israel: Escape, Evacuation and Exile

During the last military dictatorship in Argentina, between 350 and 400 citizens who feared for their life managed to find shelter in Israel. This article traces the evolving procedures, institutional mechanisms and routes of escape operated by the Israeli diplomats and representatives stationed in Argentina and the neighbouring countries, against the contradictory background of lack of clear-cut official policies in Israel, the latters cordial relationships with the military government, and an ethos of helping persecuted Jews evinced by some of those Israelis stationed in Argentina. In parallel, the article presents the social and political background of those who chose to appeal for Israeli help and finds – on the basis of a specially designed database covering between fifty-seven and sixty-five per cent of the fleeing individuals – that many were not associated with Israel or Zionism and a minority were not Jews, as defined by religious criteria or even by broader criteria. The broader significance of these contradictory trends is discussed.

Exile Communities and Their Differential Institutional Dynamics: A Comparative Analysis of the Chilean and Uruguayan Political Diasporas

Resumen es: El articulo se concentra en la pluralidad de las experiencias de exilio politico tal como se manifiestan en las comunidades de exiliados chilenos y urug...

Political Exile in Latin America

Political exile is a major constitutive feature of Latin American politics. It has contributed to the establishment of the rules of the political game on a transnational basis, both before and after the consolidation of states. It is linked to the tension between the hierarchical structure of these societies and the political models that predicated participation, the process of fragmentation and conflictive territorial boundaries, and the evolution of factionalism into modern politics, spurring civil wars, political violence, and polarization. This article analyzes exile as a selective elite mechanism, its transformation into a mass phenomenon, and the creation of communities of Latin American exiles and expatriates, influential in the framework of transnational politics.

A cuarenta años del golpe militar en Chile: una visión lejana

El articulo presenta los hechos de aquella epoca como fueron vistos desde un pais lejano a Chile, Israel, pero tambien afectados por la Guerra Fria y la necesidad de un modelo de desarrollo sostenible. La hipotesis es que pese a la distancia y las diferencias, temas de universal interes como la democracia, los derechos humanos y el rol del Estado en la economia, afectaron a ambas sociedades y despertaron en Israel el interes por el golpe militar en Chile, el gobierno militar y la posterior democratizacion que conservo el modelo economico y social implantado por Pinochet y sus colaboradores, tanto militares como civiles.

The Politics of Exile in Latin America: Widening Exclusion and the Four-Tiered Structure of Exile

In polities of restricted political participation, exile was mostly a privilege reserved for a segment of the political elite ostracized by those in power. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, a process of ‘massification’ of exile was manifest, as growing numbers of exiles with a middle- or lower-class background were affected by their purposeful or unwilling involvement in politics and the public arena. Widening exclusion led to a dynamic of dispersion of exiles, allowing them to increasingly focus the attention of an evolving international public sphere, in which former themes of internal politics found an echo on the basis of growing awareness and care about human-rights violations, political persecution, and exile. The transformation of the early three-tiered structure of exile into a four-tiered structure constitutes the core of this chapter. Massive Exile: The Counterface of Political Inclusion This process of massification of exile occurred in tandem with the changing nature of the political and social conflicts in the region. Latin American countries underwent processes of population growth, modernization, migration, and urbanization at different paces. Within each of them, the uneven pace of transformations was replicated, shaping strong internal asymmetries. Still, beyond differences, the entire region was a scenario of changes in the 20th century: from traditional into modern lifestyles, from rural into urban settings, and from Catholicism into religiously diversified and, at times, secular frameworks. From both socioeconomic and political perspectives, these societies were transformed under the aegis of population growth, immigration, and internal migration.

The Politics of Exile in Latin America: Index

1. Defining the Exilic Condition 2. Forceful Displacement, the Construction of Collective Identities and State Formation 3. The Format of Exile 4. Sites of Exile 5. Widening Exclusion and the Four-Tiered Structure of Exile 6. Exile Communities, Activism and Politics 7. Presidents in Exile 8. Is Return the End of Exile?

The Politics of Exile in Latin America: Frontmatter

1. Defining the Exilic Condition 2. Forceful Displacement, the Construction of Collective Identities and State Formation 3. The Format of Exile 4. Sites of Exile 5. Widening Exclusion and the Four-Tiered Structure of Exile 6. Exile Communities, Activism and Politics 7. Presidents in Exile 8. Is Return the End of Exile?