In 2010, an impressive group of 12 scholars, most from Peru but with Canada and the United Kingdom also represented, came together for a conference on the state of Peruvian democracy at St Anthony's College, Oxford. They also gathered to honour the universally acclaimed long-time peruanólogo Julio Cotler, who gave the keynote address. This volume, carefully edited by St Anthony's College Latin American Centre research associate John Crabtree, is the product of that gathering.
The unifying theme of the book is drawn from Cotler's now classic study of the development of the Peruvian state, Clases, Estado y nación en el Perú (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1978). His central concern was with the degree to which the extended Spanish colonial experience scarred Peru with a deep legacy of inequality that has had significant negative effects on the country's institutional development from independence in 1821 to the present. Although the efforts of the military government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968–75) to overcome elite domination and inequality through significant structural reforms were widely recognised at the time, they were only partially successful and did not survive for long the transition to full formal democracy in 1980. When combined with a prolonged guerrilla war led by Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path, SL, 1980–95), hyperinflation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the increasingly authoritarian project of President Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000), it comes as no surprise that Peru's democratic institutions remain weak and shallow to this day.
The book's title, Fractured Politics, perfectly captures this reality, and provides the core focus of the individual chapters. Political parties have become little more than personalistic electoral vehicles without deep connections to the wider society. Social groups marginalised by the lack of institutionalised connections to central authority have turned to protest and violence to articulate their concerns. Major outside investors, fully supported by successive Peruvian governments for more than two decades, have stimulated sustained economic growth and a dramatic expansion of exports even as political organisations have failed to incorporate the multiple concerns of local social actors at the national level. True enough, procedural democracy with regular national, regional and local elections has become standard operating practice in Peru since Congress dismissed President Fujimori in the midst of major corruption and electoral manipulation scandals in November 2000. Nevertheless, this electoral democracy has perpetuated rather than reduced the social, political and economic inequalities so prevalent throughout Peru's often turbulent political history.
The nine chapters of Fractured Politics capture different aspects of the limitations and challenges in Peru's contemporary political dynamics, which reflect in different ways the impact of the ‘weight of history’. Max Cameron of the University of British Columbia analyses the negative effects on social cohesion from the exclusionary politics long practiced by the dominant elites which have kept most of the rest of the population, largely indigenous or mestizo, both separate and subordinate. Julio Cotler, a founder and the intellectual backbone of the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, focuses on the paradox of recent economic success in tandem with significant social and political protest, traceable to centuries of structural inequality and a concomitant lack of national identity. Rafael Roncagliolo, an active figure in NGOs and politics and most recently Peru's foreign minister, traces his country's party system and its multiple limitations, with questions about the compatibility of democracy in the absence of strong parties.
Complementing these political analyses is Aldo Panfichi, professor of sociology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, PUCP), who addresses the dynamics of local social protests and the degree to which they have filled the political space with ‘contentious representation’ in the absence of responsive parties and in opposition to policies pursued by state authorities. One specific example, Peru's cocaleros, is the subject of LSE PhD candidate Ursula Durand's chapter, in which she highlights the diametrically opposed objectives of coca producers and government and contrasts this experience with the ability of their Bolivian counterparts to build a movement based on alliances with other social and political actors. Another contrasting case, analysed by Oxford PhD candidate Maritza Paredes, is that of the limited role of indigenous ethnicity as a significant basis for popular organisation in Peru, in sharp contrast with developments in both Ecuador and Bolivia.
PUCP professor of anthropology Carlos Monge and colleagues Gustavo Ávila and Claudia Viale then provide a broader economic context with their examination of the recent rapid expansion of mining and the challenges this poses for sustainability and social inclusion. Their contribution is followed by two contrasting case studies highlighting both challenges and success. One is by Centro de Estudios y Promoción de Desarrollo (Centre for the Study and Promotion of Development, DESCO) principal researcher Eduardo Ballón, who explores recent political decentralisation initiatives and their inability thus far to foster local participation. NYU Law School research fellow and Oxford DPhil Thomas Pegram's chapter, on the other hand, offers an important success story of the significant ombudsman role played by the independent government office Defensoría del Pueblo in addressing human rights issues and conflict resolution over the past two decades.
Editor John Crabtree, a well-known Andean scholar in his own right, ties everything together with a brief introductory preface and a more substantial conclusion providing an incisive summary analysis of why Peru's democracy continues to suffer from significant institutional weakness. He emphasises deeply embedded historical patterns of exclusion which continue to separate state and society, the guerrilla war and economic crisis under democracy which contributed to political party system collapse, and the crass manipulation of democratic procedures by the oncenio of President Fujimori in a context of growing economic liberalisation.
While no single book on Peruvian politics can capture all of the complexities that explain contemporary realities – full treatments of the devastation caused by SL and its recent revival or the often negative role of key political leaders would have been particularly welcome additions, for example – Fractured Politics stands as a major contribution to the field. It deserves a prominent place on the shelves of scholars and practitioners alike as a cautionary tale of the ongoing weight of history on modern social, economic and political dynamics.
