Populist Mobilization: A New Theoretical Approach to Populism*

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112280/1/j.1467-9558.2011.01388.x.pd

16th Annual Environmental Law Institute

Materials from the 16th Annual Environmental Law Institute held by UK/CLE in May 2000

Populism in world politics: a comparative cross-regional perspective

Populism has become more salient in multiple regions in the world, in developed as well as developing countries. Today it is largely a reaction to social dislocations tied to processes of neoliberal globalisation. As a concept, populism has had a long and contentious history. We suggest that populism has been on the rise alongside new imaginings of what constitutes the ‘people’ and ‘elites’, as the meanings attached to these labels are continually reshaped in conjunction with new social conflicts. These conflicts are intensifying across the globe together with new kinds of social marginalisation, precarious existence and disenchantment with the broken promises of liberal modernity. The article introduces a special issue on Populism in World Politics that seeks to understand general processes involved in the emergence of populist politics along with specific circumstances that affect how it is expressed in terms of identity politics, political strategies and shifting social bases

Cidadania mediada : processos de democratização da política municipal no Brasil

This article discusses the notion that the persistence of &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; political practices weakens Brazil&rsquo;s democracy.Drawing on the cases of three Brazilian municipalities administered by the Workers&rsquo; Party (PT), the author examines the space between &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; and &ldquo;modern&rdquo; and argues that successful democratization does not eradicate practices such as clientelism and patronage, but it tends to incorporate and build on these traditional political elements. Moreover, the article maintains that the democratization of municipal politics is inextricably bound up with the eradication of poverty and the construction of a responsive, state-based social safety net.<br /

Black Labor on a White Canal: West Indians in Panama, 1904-1980

As a crossroads for world commerce, Panama has always attracted outsiders. Traders, laborers, and adventurers swarmed to the Isthmus whenever new projects began. Between 1850 and 1950, as many as 200,000 West Indian blacks traveled to Panama, the most voluminous trans-Caribbean movement of people ever . The high tides of migration occurred in 1850-55 (the Panama Railroad), 1880-89 (the unsuccessful French canal), 1904-14 (the U.S. canal), and 1940-42 (the third locks project). West Indians saw Panama as a promised land with abundant jobs for the robust and easy money for the clever. They hoped that the journey to Panama would be the end of the Diaspora. In black history, the Diaspora--or dispersal of Africans to many parts of the world--continues. The first stage saw tens of millions enslaved and sent from their homeland. In the second stage, their descendants won freedom and became citizens of new countries. Yet another stage came, when poor blacks had to move again due to depressed economies, civil wars, droughts, and overpopulation. Those who migrated to Panama between 1850 and 1950 formed part of this new dispersion, because poor harvests and competition from Cuba, Brazil, and beet sugar had ruined the island economies. Did black West Indians who went to Panama escape the Diaspora? Some did not, for they pushed on from there to other parts of the Americas in search of better jobs and acceptance by the native populations. Tens of thousands came to the United States. The majority did remain in Panama, however, constituting the single largest immigrant community in the country