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Social Movements and Their Impact on Modern-Day Democracies: A Comparative Case Study of Guatemala and Peru
Shauna N. Gillooly
Florida State University
Executive Summary
The indigenous populations in both Peru and Guatemala have long suffered as periphery groups after the colonization of Latin America and the subsequent often-militarily focused dictators. Indigenous persons, more than any other sub-national group in Latin America, have suffered from human rights abuses and issues with land repatriation. In Peru, the indigenous community is comprised of fifty-one distinct ethnic groups and makes up approximately forty-five percent of the nation’s population (Minority Rights Group International, 2007). Likewise, there are twenty-seven unique indigenous groups in Guatemala, comprising approximately forty-five to fifty-one percent of the total populace (Minority Rights Group International, 2008). The question then remains that if the indigenous population in both of these countries are so large, why is political representation so minimal, and in the case of Peru, nonexistent?
This comparative case study sets out to examine the differences between the indigenous social movements in Peru and Guatemala, and how the Winaq party in Guatemala successfully transitioned from an indigenous social movement to a municipally and nationally representative political party, while the indigenous interests of Peru remain without official political advocacy and national representation. During the course of this investigation, social movement and political psychology theories such as the framing theory, coalition building/primary base of support, identity politics, and resource mobilization are analyzed in reference to the success of the Guatemalan movement and the weakness of the Peruvian movement. This paper also analyzes the historical and political events that may have contributed to the applications and successes in relation to the same theories previously named.
In conclusion, this investigation makes the claim that the commodification of experience, made possible through the efforts of Rigoberta Menchú, in combination with the shared trauma that the majority of the Guatemalan populace had experienced previous to the signing of the Peace Accords in 1999 allowed for the re-formation of identities, leading to a broader coalition of support for the indigenous social movement in Guatemala than in Peru. This identity re-formation is partially made possible by the nature of bottom-up, grassroots social movements as opposed to top-down movements attempted without popular support. This increase in coalition size allowed for a more substantial and sustainable mobilization of resources, making the transition from social movement to political party possible for Winaq.
Abstract
This paper examines the similarities and differences between indigenous social movements in Guatemala and Peru and how they have led, or not led, to the formation of indigenous political parties, renewed support from the general population in regards to their political and social interests, and a call to action for indigenous representation at the national and local levels. The analysis of this comparative case-study takes an in depth look at how social movements can create impact within modern day democracies through examining the social movement theories of framing, collective identity along with identity politics, coalition building, and resource mobilization. This study examines how social movements can gain enough momentum to affect change despite substantial political, social, and geographical obstacles. The social movements in both Guatemala and Peru have faced opposition from existing bureaucratic institutions, and have dealt with additional issues such as a lack of physical infrastructure and a deficit of centralized organization within movements. This study compares the successes of Guatemala’s movement in transitioning from a social movement to a nationally and municipally representative political party in contrast with a lack of mobilization and overall representation in Peru. Lastly, this paper theorizes how some aspects within social movement theory that made the Guatemalan movement successful may be applied to the Peruvian in order to create a representative change. Social movements are the first indication that some sort of representative change needs to be made, and modern day democracies can respond to that demand and continue to evolve in order to create the most accurate forum of representation for their populace.
Introduction
O'Donnell, Fox, Cohen and Arato, among many others, argue in their work that through the process of democratization, emerging and/or weak democratic institutions have restricted political access and participation, particularly to those groups that are already marginalized. Indigenous social movements have emerged to demand territorial autonomy, political representation in the main forums of government, reparations for previous land seizures and human rights abuses, and bicultural/bilingual education, among other things, resulting in varying degrees of success and strength within respective Latin American countries technically classified as at the very least, “thin” democracies (Diamond or Carothers, cite). This study will compare the impact that indigenous social movements have had in Peru and Guatemala, the utility of bottom-up versus top-down movements in these countries, as well as the role that educational reform and infrastructure of the existing institution plays in these respective democracies. Peru will serve as the central comparison, as its political history includes a failed top-down movement under the presidency of Alejandro Toledo, and a currently emerging bottom-up movement. Guatemala will serve as a success story, due to a bottom-up, grassroots movement that has lead to municipal, and on a smaller scale, national representation of indigenous interests in the form of a left-leaning political party dedicated to indigenous interests, founded by indigenous politicians. This paper will acknowledge the social, political, and geographical obstacles that exist in both of these countries, but the main goal is to indicate the necessity of educational reform, as well as determine the effects that the social movement theories of framing, coalition building, resource mobilization, and group identity contribute to the success of a social movement of a marginalized group, as well as to argue why a bottom-up, grassroots movement has proven to be more effective than a top-down movement.
Research Methods and Pertinent Definitions
The main design of this project lays in the components that a comparative case study provides. A comparative case study “refers to the methodological issues that arise in the systematic analysis of a small number of cases, or a small N” (Collier, 1993, p. 105). Using a comparative case study has value, particularly in the field of political science, by allowing one to focus on a particular political phenomenon that may occur in a very selective number of cases. The comparative method allows for an isolation of that phenomenon, in order to investigate the causes surrounding it, and allows for a certain amount of controls (Collier, 1993, p. 106). This approach also allows for diverse techniques, which this study also implements through comparative historical analysis and qualitative interviews.
Other important methodological terminology includes top-down and bottom-up, in reference to social movements. They will be elaborated on briefly in this section, in order to allow for clarity of reading throughout the remainder of the investigation. When referencing a top-down movement, it is typically thought of as a change indicated from above, whether that be a body of corporate management or political legislative. Top down movements tend to be seen as irrespective to other perspectives on how to implement a change, and often fail due to a lack of support from a primary coalition of support (Barry et al, 2006, p. 445). Bottom-up movements, also referred to in this article as grassroots movements, refers to the idea of building at a movement at the citizen level, gradually building a base of support large enough to enact change at the local, and later national or international level (Hemmer, 2006, p. 136-138). Both present unique obstacles to the development of a social movement’s progress that will be examined in this study, in tandem with social movement and political psychology theory. The theories and frameworks present in this analysis are addressed in the theory framework section.
Background
Peru is a constitutional democracy with universal suffrage beginning at the age of eighteen. The legislative branch is a unicameral house, with a total of one hundred and fifty seats (CIA World Factbook, 2015). Peru has received a 2.5 measurement of overall freedom from Freedom House, a measurement of 1 is an indicator that a country is designated as most free, seven as a designation of least free (Freedom House, 2015). However, there has been a historically deplorable mismanagement of Peru’s foreign debt, resulting in a consistent lack of economic stability and employment opportunities, and less opportunities for social mobility, despite consistent platform promises from politicians to solve issues of inequality, infrastructure, and social welfare in Peru. Several presidents of Peru have campaigned on the platform of having goals to reduce social inequalities for the marginalized populations of Peru, starting with Fernando Belaúnde Terry in 1963, and including the current president of Peru, Ollanta Humala.
Time and time again, these promised agendas have been pushed aside in favor of what is perceived to be more pressing national issues. In the case of Fernando Terry, the first Peruvian presidential candidate who campaigned while promising reforms, an unenthusiastic Congress blocked his plans. During Alan García’s tenure as president, dealing with the huge threat of terrorism from the Maoist radical group The Shining Path, as well as a crushing national debt perpetrated by his administration’s mismanagement pushed promised social welfare reforms to the side of the national agenda. While he rallied minority populations and the urban poor during his campaign, the presidency of Alberto Fujimori was initially consumed with diminishing the sizable and continuing threat of The Shining Path. After the threat was neutralized, he proceeded to grasp power with an iron fist, utilizing threats like the secret police against the populace, and running for unconstitutional successive terms, eventually having to flee the country, and was recently found guilty on several counts of human rights abuses (cite). After an emergency election in 2001, Alejandro Toledo became president, as the first elected president of indigenous ancestry in Peru. Once again, the economy and national debt of Peru overshadowed all other national discourse, and indigenous supporters were disappointed by a lack of implementation of promised social welfare programs. These events illustrate a consistent inefficiency of top-down movements in Peru, especially when paired with a complicated geopolitical positioning.
Peru: Bottom-up versus Top-down
Peru has had democratically elected presidents that identify as indigenous, so why has the Peruvian indigenous movement been cited time and time again as one of the weakest in the region? This paper argues that the lack of existing educational infrastructure in Peru, and the unique geographical challenges posed to getting education to isolated communities in Peru, as well as the challenge of enacting legislature that is efficient and again, reaches out to the isolated communities most in need of it, makes top-down movements, even those efforts headed by an indigenous president, inefficient in this region.
In his book Democracy and Education (2010), John Dewey discusses how the existence of society, and subgroups within a society, can be almost entirely attributed to transmission; transmission via education from the mature to the newborn into a society, creating members of the group that are “cognizant and actively interested in the aims of the group”, from “beings that are born not only unaware of, but quite indifferent to” the interests of a particular group (Dewey, 2010, p.16). The educational system is lacking in Peru, particularly for indigenous people, many of who live in isolated areas, days away by boat on the Amazon River, or isolated pockets high in the Andes Mountains. Primary education and secondary education, which lasts from ages 7 to 16, is free to all children, and theoretically available via a public education system, but largely inaccessible to rural and even non-rural indigenous communities due to geographical hardships and a language barrier between Spanish and the native language of whichever ethnic group students may belong to.
After Alejandro Toledo’s presidency and the lack of changes for indigenous peoples, there was a return to a grassroots movement, as Peru looked at its neighbors and the network of support for indigenous social movements that existed in Bolivia, Ecuador, and the fierce fight for indigenous rights in parts of Colombia. This has inspired the return of organizations like AIDESEP, weak regional movements striving to advocate for indigenous rights that emerged in the nineties, but are again gaining popularity, particularly in isolated communities. The goals of AIDESEP are to create an educational program that sponsors people from isolated communities, sending them to school to become teachers, with the provision that they will return to their communities to teach there (Interview with AIDESEP employee, July 2015). Currently, the majority of teachers are educated in large cities, and the ones who score the lowest are sent to the communities, in effect providing the indigenous communities with the most ill equipped teachers. In the majority of cases these teachers do not live in the community; they take boats or travel several hours every day. In extreme cases this gives children living in some communities a forty-five minute school day before the teachers return to the nearest city. This does not equip the next generation of indigenous persons with the knowledge or basic organizational skills to correct the lack of political representation in their country; in many communities there is a sense of hopelessness, and that the breach is too wide for any movement to make an effect (Interview with AIDESEP organizational member, July 2015).
Guatemala, which serves as the comparative case study for this investigation, is defined as a democratic constitutional republic; there is also universal suffrage for all citizens over eighteen years of age. The legislature is a unicameral house, with one hundred and fifty-eight seats in total. Out of these one hundred and fifty-eight seats, at the time of writing, fifteen of them are held by Winaq, which is the political party that initially began as a grassroots movement to gain more national support for the rights and interests of the forty-five to fifty-one percent of Guatemala’s population that identify as indigenous (Minority Rights International, 2007). While there is still a huge disparity between the representation of the populace in the national assembly, this paper will examine the successful transition of Winaq from social movement to representative political party.