Constructing Democracy: Human Rights, Citizenship, And Society In Latin America

This pathbreaking contribution to debates about human rights and democracy moves beyond questions of state terror and other violent abuses to embrace broader concepts of human rights: citizenship, identity, civil society, racism, gender discrimination, and poverty. In particular, contributors analyze the impact of past human rights violations on the consolidation of new democracies, examine the emerging international network of human rights organizations, and explore notions of citizenship, linking them to debates about definitions of rights. Case studies shed light on enduring patterns of discrimination against marginalized groups. }In this pathbreaking contribution to debates about human rights, democracy, and society, distinguished social scientists from Latin America and the United States move beyond questions of state terror, violence, and similar abuses to embrace broader concepts of human rights: citizenship, identity, civil society, racism, gender discrimination, and poverty. Following an introduction that sets forth the conceptual framework, the first section of the book analyzes the impact of past human rights violations on the consolidation of new democracies, highlighting unresolved issues of civil-military relations and the need to maximize accountability for past violations. Contributors then consider the international context for contemporary debates about human rights, focusing on the emergence of an international network of human rights organizations and on the strategic responses of Latin American militaries to respond to international pressures to respect human rights. A third section examines notions of citizenship and links them to debates about definitions of rights and about the relationship between democracy and capitalism. Finally, the book features case studies of rights-related concerns in light of enduring patterns of discrimination against a variety of groups, including indigenous peoples, women, and racial minorities. This section concludes with an essay on a new kind of state-sanctioned rights violationthe assault on the human rights of common criminals, which has followed in the wake of public outcry for a more vigorous response to growing crime rates in urban areas. }

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Human Rights and the Construction of Democracy; (Elizabeth Jelin and Eric Hershberg.); Settling Accounts With The Past: Human Rights In Processes Of Regime Transition; Adjusting the Armed Forces to Democracy: Successes, Failures, and Ambiguities in the Southern Cone; (Carlos H. Acua and Catalina Smulovitz.); Human Rights in Democratization Processes; (Manuel Antonio Garretn.); The International Scene: Networks And Discourses; The; Emergence, Evolution, and Effectiveness of the Latin American Human Rights Network:; (Kathryn Sikkink.); The Looting of Democratic Discourse by the Guatemalan Military: Implications for Human Rights; (Jennifer Schirmer.); Citizenship In Democracy: Some Conceptual Issues; Citizenship Revisited: Solidarity, Responsibility, and Rights; (E. Jelin.); The State, the Market,; and Democratic Citizenship; (Fbio Wanderley Reis.); Structures Of Discrimination: Individual And Collective Rights; Indigenous Rights: Some Conceptual Problems; (Rodolfo Stavenhagen.); Racial Inequalities in Brazil and Throughout Latin America: Timid Responses to Disguised Racism; (Carlos Hasenbalg.); Women, Gender, and Human Rights; (E. Jelin.); Crime and Individual Rights: Reframing the Question of Violence in Latin America; (Teresa P.R. Caldeira.;); Conclusion; Convergence and Diversity: Reflections on Human Rights; (E. Jelin and E. Hershberg.).