Deborah Yashar analyzes the contemporary and uneven emergence of Latin American indigenous movements--addressing both why indigenous identities have become politically salient in the contemporary period and why they have translated into significant political organizations in some places and not others. She argues that ethnic politics can best be explained through a comparative historical approach that analyzes three factors: changing citizenship regimes, social networks, and political associational space--providing insight into the fragility and unevenness of Latin America's third wave democracies.

Deborah J. Yashar is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s-1950s (Stanford University Press) as well as articles and chapters on democratization, ethnic politics, collective action, and globalization.

Part I. Theoretical Framing: 1. Questions, approaches, and cases; 2. Citizenship regimes, the state, and ethnic cleavages; 3. The argument: indigenous mobilization in Latin America; Part II. The Cases: 4. Ecuador: Latin America's strongest indigenous movement; 5. The Ecuadorian Andes and ECUARUNARI; 6. The Ecuadorian Amazon and CONFENAIE; 7. Forming the National Confederation, CONAIE; 8. Bolivia: strong regional movements; 9. The Bolivian Andes: the Kataristas and their legacy; 10. The Bolivian Amazon; 11. Peru: weak national movements and subnational variation; 12. Peru. Ecuador, and Bolivia: most similar cases; 13. No national indigenous movement: explaining the Peruvian anomaly; 14. Explaining subnational variation; 15. Conclusion: 16. Democracy and the postliberal challenge in Latin America.