Nora Hamilton

The Limits of State Autonomy: Post-Revolutionary Mexico

In a historical treatment of Mexico beginning with the pre-Revolutionary period and focusing on the administration of Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940), Nora Hamilton explores the possibilities and limits of reform in a capitalist society.Originally published in 1982.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Export promotion in a regional context: Central America and Southern Africa

Abstract This article examines the export-led growth model currently proposed for developing countries by major lending institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and US Agency for International Development (USAID), from a regional perspective. It focuses on Costa Rica and Zimbabwe within the context of regional cooperation in Central America and Southern Africa, respectively. The findings suggest that problems resulting from this model can be reduced if the promotion of nontraditional exports is addressed within the context of broader development strategies and regional cooperation.

The Sanctuary Movement and Central American Activism in Los Angeles

The Sanctuary movement of the 1980s combined religious faith and social activism to provide refuge for Central Americans fleeing violence and persecution and to raise awareness of the responsibility associated with U.S. policy in the region. Features of the Los Angeles area, such as its large Latino population, provided support and a sense of community; in this sense the city itself was a sanctuary. The presence of many Central Americans who brought their experience and skills in organizing in their home countries to the development of solidarity and refugee organizations in Los Angeles were also an important resource for the Sanctuary movement. The development of the Sanctuary movement was characterized by the interaction of spiritual ethics and religious practice with activism in raising consciousness and providing legitimacy. The strength of the movement lay particularly in the profound experiences and narratives of refugees, shared through personal connections that spanned cultures and countries.

The State and the National Bourgeoisie in Postrevolutionary Mexico: 1920-1940

Studies of the private sector of contemporary Mexico generally go back no further than the 1940s when the promotion of industrialization began to take precedence in the policy of the Mexican government. Presumably because the national bourgeoisie-economically weak and politically on the defensive-had only a marginal role in the historic struggles of the immediate postrevolutionary period, there have been very few systematic studies of the Mexican bourgeoisie during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite this neglect, an understanding of the development of the national bourgeoisie and the role of the state in its formation in the two decades following the revolution is of critical importance. It was during this period that many of the major institutions of contemporary Mexican capitalism-banks and industrial firms, chambers of commerce and industry as well as other business institutions-were established, and important patterns of collaboration were developed between private capitalists and between them and the state (or certain factions within the state). Thus an examination of the process of capital accumulation in this early postrevolutionary period helps to explain the model of development which has emerged in Mexico today. Among the components of this model are a prominent role for the state in what is essentially a capitalist economy; a strong injection of foreign capital and technology, primarily in the form of multinational corporate investments but also through loans, machinery imports, and other technology transfers; and a tendency toward concentration of control in all sectors of the economy (and toward monopolization in some sectors) by the state, foreign capital, and dominant groups among the national private sector. In Mexico, as in other third world countries, the state1 has had a

State-Class Alliances and Conflicts

The world economic recession that began in the late 1970s has had devastating effects on the economies of most Third World countries. The drop in prices of primary commodities exported by Third World states, the decline in purchasing power of advanced industrial states, and in some cases protectionist measures enacted by the latter led to sharp declines in export earnings. The burden of Third World debt repayment for loans granted and in fact promoted by international banks during a period of excess liquidity was exacerbated by the subsequent contraction of financial resources and a 300 percent increase in interest rates in U.S. and London markets between 1977 and 1981. The external crisis has further debilitated weak internal economic structures, in many cases leading to cutbacks in production, unemployment, and the closing down of firms. Several countries have been forced to resort to loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to maintain their credit standing, which has required the implementation of a series of austerity measures resulting in further economic contraction and general misery for the population of these countries. The crisis inevitably raises questions regarding the models of economic development pursued by peripheral states, which, on the one hand, may be seen as causes of the crises (particularly in their vulnerability to external influences) and, on the other, may be jeopardized by it (for example, through enforced contraction of the role of the state, often a primary actor in peripheral economies). This raises the possibility of

ON THE CRISIS OF BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY IN ARGENTINA

crisis of all types of democracy but of its liberal-bourgeois version. More precisely, it is the crisis of the reformist fractions of the bourgeoisie which have sought to promote a stable process of democratization in the face of the opposition of the capitalist oligarchs and the historical advance of the popular classes. It is useful to recall that democracy does not exist in general or in the