Tulane University

Please join us this Friday, March 11, for the Tulane University Political Science Seminar, sponsored by the Political Science Department and CIPR. Our speaker will be Kenneth Roberts (Cornell University) and he will be presenting a paper entitled: “(Re-)Politicizing Inequality: Movements, Parties, and Social Citizenship in Chile” (paper attached).

Although most of Latin America‘€™s left-leaning governments are facing new political pressures from conservative forces, in Chile political pressures are coming primarily from the left, where students and other social movements have increasingly ‘€œpoliticized‘€ existing inequalities and demanded more far-reaching redistributive reforms. The focal point of mass protest has been Chile‘€™s largely-privatized education system, one of the ‘€œsocial pillars‘€ of the country‘€™s vaunted neoliberal development model. This paper explains how Chile‘€™s free market reforms and pacted democratic transition largely removed inequality from the political agenda for the better part of two decades, and how social movements have challenged established parties and returned inequality to the forefront of political debate over the past five years. Analysis of survey data sheds light on the social and political correlates of protest at the micro-level.
You can read Kenneth Roberts’ paper here.