Indigenous Movements, Legacies of State Formation, and Local Land Governance in Argentina

• In Event: How Movements Matter: Indigenous Mobilization and Social Innovation

Abstract

This paper pursues a subnational comparative analysis in Northwestern Argentina to explore how and when indigenous movements make a difference with respect to their core demands, the implementation of constitutionally guaranteed indigenous land rights. The three neighboring provinces of Tucumán, Salta, and Catamarca are surprisingly similar in their geography, political economy, and their relative levels of human development. Yet, they vary dramatically in the implementation of a new national law, which requires all Argentine provinces to survey indigenous land claims, a crucial first step in establishing communal land rights. Based on this comparison the paper develops an innovative theoretical framework that calls attention to the specific mechanisms by which indigenous movements might influence the capacity of states to implement policy. It further argues that indigenous movements are more likely to affect state capacity if they have the organizational infrastructure to sustain collective action, and operate in a political space free of major veto players, which is in turn the historical outcome of distinct state institutions built in response to prior episodes of protest.

Author

• Matthias Vom Hau, Princeton University