Environmental Politics in Latin America

Based on case-studies in eight Latin American countries, this book investigates the extent to which there have been elite shifts, how new governments have related to old elites, and how that has impacted on environmental governance and the management of natural resources. New groups are emerging related to political and economic shifts, and the rise of new cadres of technocrats, while old economic and political elites struggle to remain influential. However, the combination of opposition from old elites, the commitment to social distribution of resource-rents, and the prerogative of state construction has often hampered initiatives to ensure a more sustainable and equitable governance of natural resources. Yet, in other cases constraints related to structural inequalities and entrenched elites have been overcome.