Contesting Citizenship In Latin America: The Ri... Apr 2026

: The villagers already had deep, pre-existing connections through the Church or previous unions. These networks allowed them to organize quickly.

One day, the government changed the rules. It adopted , aiming to treat everyone as individual, equal citizens. While this sounded like "democracy," it actually stripped away the collective protections the villagers relied on for their local autonomy. Suddenly, their lands were at risk, and the "peasant" unions that once protected them were dismantled. Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Ri...

In contrast, villages in places like might have had the same grievances, but they lacked the strong social networks or the political space to turn their frustration into a national movement. The "Postliberal Challenge" : The villagers already had deep, pre-existing connections

is available at retailers like Barnes & Noble and Strand Book Store . It adopted , aiming to treat everyone as

The story doesn't end with a protest. These movements are now posing a . They are asking the state: "Can you be a democracy if you only recognize individuals, or must you also recognize our collective rights and autonomy as indigenous peoples?" .

According to Deborah Yashar , this village—and real movements in countries like and Bolivia —succeeded because of three specific things: