June 27, 2008
Posner authors book on Chilean democracy
Clark University political scientist Paul W. Posner released his first book, "State, Market, and Democracy in Chile" (Palgrave Macmillan) last month.
"State, Market, and Democracy in Chile" assesses the quality of Chilean democracy by examining the impact of free market reforms on the urban poor's incentives for political participation and capacity for collective action. Using in-depth analysis of labor market, social welfare, and state reforms, along with extensive interviews with party officials and shantytown residents, Posner's study reveals the manner in which neoliberal reform has undermined the urban poor's incentives and ability to hold public officials accountable. In so doing, he demonstrates how economic liberalization has negatively affected the quality of Chilean democracy.
Posner argues that the adoption and perpetuation of a neoliberal economic model in Chile, and the changes in state structure and policies which have accompanied it, have greatly enhanced the economic and political leverage of business elites while simultaneously erecting substantial impediments to political participation and collective action among the working and middle classes."
With the guidance of free-market technocrats and support and input from the business community, the military dictatorship which took power in 1973 radically redesigned the Chilean state in a manner which undermined the ability of the poor and middle sectors to press their interests before the state.
"Opponents to General Pinochet's military regime succeeded in reestablishing democracy in 1990," Posner notes. "However, the manner in which Chile restored democracy ensured that many of the Pinochet dictatorship's reforms would remain intact. In addition, the business community would continue to have privileged access to policymakers and privileged influence over policy formation.
"Consequently, labor market and social welfare policies continue to exacerbate already high levels of social stratification, deprive the public of vital resources, and reinforce workers' severe vulnerability to the vagaries of the market," said Posner. "Party and electoral reforms which accompanied Chile's democratic transition have reinforced the impact of economic reforms by severely restricting the representation of the popular sectors in the political arena."
Posner observed that the public's disenchantment with economic and political institutions, and political parties in particular, is having a negative impact on electoral politics in Chile. Voter turnout and voter registration have fallen significantly and the casting of spoiled or blank ballots, noncompliant abstention and nonregistration have become highly common.
"These electoral trends, and the high levels of social and economic inequality that have precipitated them, raise serious concerns about the quality and legitimacy of Chilean democracy," he notes.
"Chile's experience should serve as a cautionary example to those who advocate neoliberal policies as a panacea for economic and political development," he writes.
Jorge Nef, director of the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of South Florida calls the book "a first-rate work that will be a most important contribution to the democracy/democratization debate" and praised the work as "one of great quality and intellectual significance…."
Posner received his doctorate in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined Clark University as assistant professor of political science in 2003. Posner's current research focuses on democratization and political participation in developing regions, particularly Latin America. He also studies the impact of economic globalization and related state reforms on social organization and collective action in both developing and developed countries. He has published in the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Democratization, Latin American Politics and Society, and Political Power and Social Theory.
Posner is a resident of Worcester.