Friendly Liquidation of the Past, The

Reviews / Votes

Donna Lee Van Cott has written a thought-provoking book on constitutional reforms and ethnic politics in the 1990s. Drawing on original fieldwork in Colombia and Bolivia, she compares constitutional reforms in each country that articulated a commitment to more local, participatory, and multicultural institutions. Her work pays particular attention to how ethnic movements in each case differentially set the stage for and responded to these reforms. This informative empirical discussion of key developments in Colombia and Bolivia is framed by an important set of theoretical questions about the terms, stages, and depth of the democracy in the region. * Deborah J. Yashar, Princeton University * This carefully researched and well-written study is a pioneering contribution to the debate over and comparative analysis of the prospects, dilemmas and impasses of Latin America's emerging multiculturalist constitutionalism. Taking the perspective of democratic transformation it draws attention to the problems of consolidation once formal democratization has been achieved and seeks to highlight the normative aspects of the effort to shore up state legitimacy. * <i>European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies</i> * A sophisticated analysis of the push to recognize indigenous rights in Bolivia and Colombia . . . Placing her analysis in a broad comparative framework, Van Cott makes clear that these issues resonate profoundly wherever the traditional model of a culturally homogenous nation-state is under challenge. * <i>Foreign Affairs</i> * The book offers a rare and valuable insight into the complexities of democratization in countries whose national political institutions were predicated on ethnic exclusion. It is of considerable interest not only to those who are trying to understand ethnic resurgence but also to students of Latin America's democracies and democratization. * <i>Canadian Journal of Political Science</i> * With this ambitious book, Van Cott firmly establishes herself as one of the foremost authorities on constitutional change and indigenous politics in Latin America. . . . The volume fairly bursts with important empirical detail and carefully crafted analytical considerations. It is at once one of the best English-language accounts of the pathbreaking reforms undertaken by Colombia and Bolivia in the early 1990s and one of the most thought-provoking recent analyses of the content, course, and outcomes of the latest wave of constitution building in Latin America. * <i>Latin American Politics and Society</i> * . . . a refreshing contribution to the literature on democratization and indigenous rights. * <i>Latin American Research Review</i> *