The Great Gap: Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Latin America

Published by Penn State University Press 2011

The Great Gap

Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Latin America

Edited by: Merike Blofield

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271073910

Overview
Contents

About this book

The relationship between socioeconomic inequality and democratic politics has been one of the central questions in the social sciences from Aristotle on. Recent waves of democratization, combined with deepened global inequalities, have made understanding this relationship ever more crucial. In The Great Gap, Merike Blofield seeks to contribute to this understanding by analyzing inequality and politics in the region with the highest socioeconomic inequalities in the world: Latin America. The chapters, written by prominent scholars in their fields, address the socioeconomic context and inequality of opportunities; elite culture, public opinion, and media framing; capital mobility, campaign financing, representation, and gender equality policies; and taxation and social policies.

Aside from the editor, the contributors are Pablo Alegre, Maurício Bugarin, Daniela Campello, Anna Crespo, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, Fernando Filgueira, Liesl Haas, Sallie Hughes, Juan Pablo Luna, James E. Mahon Jr., Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Adriana Cuoco Portugal, Paola Prado, Elisa P. Reis, Luis Reygadas, Sergio Naruhiko Sakurai, and Koen Voorend.

Author / Editor information

Blofield Merike :

Merike Blofield is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami.

Reviews

“Blofield’s outstanding volume is a major contribution to our understanding of the relationship between inequality and politics. In addition to showing how inequality is reproduced, it persuasively demonstrates how pervasive inequality is in Latin America, how elites, the media, and the public perceive inequality, and how inequality affects taxation and social policies. . . . [It] deserve[s] a wide audience, and not only among Latin Americanists.”
—Benjamin Goldfrank, Perspectives on Politics

“Blofield’s volume is itself a wake-up call that democracy is only as strong as the level of equality it can help to produce.”
—Darryl McLeod, Americas Quarterly

“Inequality encompasses diverse aspects of social, political, and territorial relations that commonly elude even learned discussions and debates. The Great Gap sets a high standard for Latin Americanists as well as comparativists in terms of both the breadth and depth of its analyses of this fundamental issue.”
—Richard Tardanico, Florida International University

“Social scientists have long assumed that political democracy will reduce social and economic inequalities. Thus, they have been puzzled by the persistence of extreme inequalities under democratic regimes in Latin America. Merike Blofield and her co-authors shed new light on this question by exploring how inequalities shape group interests, political power, and democratic processes, often in ways that reproduce those very inequalities. This provocative and insightful text breaks new ground in the study of the political economy of inequality, in Latin America and beyond.”
—Kenneth M. Roberts, Cornell University

“In The Great Gap: Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Latin America, University of Miami political scientist Merike Blofield assembles a distinguished group of social scientists to look at why democracies tolerate high inequality. Blofield concludes that a ‘window of opportunity’ may be opening for more redistributive policies as populist regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia offer a wake-up call to the region’s elite about the perils of not acting. This may help persuade the middle and upper classes to invest in a new social contract where more public expenditures target the ‘unincorporated’ poor. . . . Blofield’s volume is itself a wake-up call that democracy is only as strong as the level of equality it can help to produce.”
—Darryl McLeod, Americas Quarterly

“Interdisciplinary attempts to understand the increasingly complex relationships between continuing inequality and politics in Latin America are somewhat thin on the ground. Merike Blofield's excellent edited volume, prepared under the aegis of the Observatory on Inequality in Latin America at the University of Miami, represents a welcome contribution in this regard.”
—Anthony Hall, Journal of Latin American Studies

“I find The Great Gap to be the best and most important contribution to the study of Latin America written for quite some time.”
—Guillermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: In equality and Politics in Latin America Merike Blofield Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART 1: THE SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXT
Chapter 1. Fault Lines in Latin American Social Development and Welfare Regime Challenges Fernando Filgueira Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2. In equality of Opportunity in Latin America: Economic Well- Being, Education, and Health Anna Crespo and H. G. Ferreira Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
PART 2: ELITE CULTURE, FRAMING AND PUBLIC OPINION
Chapter 3. Elite Perceptions of Poverty and In e quality in Brazil Elisa P. Reis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Chapter 4. Media Diversity and Social In equality in Latin America Sallie Hughes and Paola Prado Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Chapter 5. Public Opinion on Income Inequalities in Latin America Merike Blofield and Juan Pablo Luna Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
PART 3: AGENDA SETTING AND THE POLITICS OF INEQUALITY
Chapter 6. The Politics of Redistribution in Less Developed Democracies: Evidence from Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela Daniela Campello Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Chapter 7. Inequality and the Cost of Electoral Campaigns Maurício Bugarin, Adriana Cuoco Portugal and Sergio Naruhiko Sakurai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Chapter 8. Shallow States, Deep Inequalities, and the Limits of Conservative Modernization: The Politics and Policies of Incorporation in Latin America Fernando Filgueira, Luis Reygadas, Juan Pablo Luna and Pablo Alegre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Chapter 9. Gender Equality Policies in Latin America Merike Blofield and Liesl Haas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	278
PART 4: TAXATION AND SOCIAL POLICIES
chapter 10. Tax Reforms and Income Distribution in Latin America James E. Jr. Mahon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
chapter 11. Are Coalitions Equally Important for Redistribution in Latin America? The Intervening Role of Welfare Regimes Juliana Martinez Franzomi and Koen Voorend Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	348
Conclusion: In equality and the Politics of Redistribution Merike Blofield Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	377
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	391
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397