Globalization, namely the neoliberal economic policies and democratic decentralized market oriented state, is considered to be both a positive and negative development. Globalization intends to improve the conditions of developing countries so that they may experience all the benefits of technology that the industrialized world experiences. However, the conditions globalization causes in countries where the environment is not conducive to neoliberal economic policies or a democratic decentralized market oriented state can be harmful to the people of those countries. Are these harms strong enough to produce people to mobilize in opposition to them? I argue that globalization triggers social movements, as it is evident in the case of the women's movement in Chile during the post-transition period from an authoritarian government to a democracy.The women's movement in Chile is relevant to the theoretical model our class developed as through previous case studies we hypothesized that globalization, as defined by neoliberal economic policies, increased communication and information and the democratic decentralized, market-oriented state, was a trigger for social movements emergence in Latin America.
[...] In Chile, the women's movement against Allende's socialist government in the 1960s and 1970s and Pinochet's military dictatorship in the 1980s deserves mention as the movement was triggered by the role of the state and many of the economic policies put in place at the time are still impacting Chile today. Power (2004) contends that the Pinochet dictatorship had the most impact on Chilean women today as she describes how the Pinochet dictatorship “pledged to modernize Chile . it meant neoliberalism and the privatization of the Chilean economy.”[6] The result of this modernization included the introduction of computers and this led to a “rapid decline in men's traditional sources of employment, along with the trade union movement that had defended the opened up new areas of work, many of which women now occupy.”[7] Because more and more women are working, the previous view of the dictatorship that women's traditional roles are to be mothers and caretakers is blurred. [...]
[...] (2002): “Carving Out Space: Civil Society and the Women's Movement in South Korea, The Journal of Asian Studies, v n Putnam, Robert. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP Richards, Patricia. Pobladoras, Indigenas, and the State Conflicts Over Women's Rights in Chile. New York: Rutgers UP Schild, Veronica. "‘Gender Equity' Without Social Justice: Women's Rights in the Neoliberal Age." NACLA Report on the Americas 34 (Jul/Aug 2000): 25- 29. Stahler-Sholk, Richard. "Resisting Neoliberal Homogenization: The Zapatista Autonomy Movement." Latin American Social Movements in the Twenty First Century Resistance, Power, and Democracy. [...]
[...] The neoliberal policies brought on by globalization triggered women in Chile to mobilize as the policies, which initially assured to improve the living conditions, but rather increased the level of poverty. The case study of women's movement in Chile has illuminated the great role globalization has played in triggering social movements in Latin America. While democracy brought an opening for these women to mobilize, globalization has shrunk that window of opportunity through the focus on a decentralized market- oriented state, in which the social programs have been cut and citizens are expected to improve their living conditions through no help of the state. [...]
[...] Similar to the women's movement in Chile which mobilizes in order to highlight the gender inequalities in the labor force and the political realm, Casa Amiga adopts a view of feminism to accomplish this. “Feminism for Casa Amiga means struggling for equality—‘not for me to be more than he is'—but rather for the same rights regardless of sex, for equity.”[13] The case of Cuidad Juarez illuminates how globalization and the state's response to it is a trigger for social movement's emergence. [...]
[...] We derive our hypothesis concerning the role globalization plays in increasing the level of technology and communication from Putnam's variables for social capital. Social capital is thought to be a key part in building and maintaining democracy. There needs to be a strong enough government in place in order to produce change and make an impact. However, Fox (1996) states that if the government is too strong, it can hinder a social movement. Strong networks were formed because the decentralized state, a result of globalization, hindered the movement. [...]
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