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AUTHOR
Mélany Barragán
showing 2 related works from this author
PELA-USAL: A Methodological Tool for the Study of Elites
2020
This introductory chapter presents the Parliamentary Elites of Latin America (PELA-USAL) project, which has conducted interviews with Latin American legislators in the lower chambers of political representation for more than 20 years. The following emphasizes the PELA-USAL project’s methodology, as well as its most important inputs and future challenges. Based on the experience of researchers from the project, our aim here is to re-think several issues (such as data mining) that arise during the research process, taking into account the wealth of available information (after two decades of development) and the particularities that parliamentary elites present as an object of study. First we…
Two Cases from Central America: Attitudes of Political Elites in Panama and Guatemala
2020
Panama and Guatemala represent two very different political experiences in the Central American region. Also their political elites show different patterns. The disparities in their recent histories, their economies, and their formal and informal institutions have impacted on their representation and composition of their elites. Both countries are characterized by the influence of economy on politics. However, while in Panama the wealth of the canal has contributed to political stability, in Guatemala the old oligarchies have preserved its power by preventing the strengthening of institutions. Nonetheless, in spite of the issues that affect each country, there may be some similarities. One …