Economic Dependence and Political Violence in Latin America: A Cross-National Analysis Using Causal Modeling

Abstract

在社會科學的領域裡，政治暴力的研究途徑相當的多；近年來，經濟依賴的概念逐漸地被運用於低度發展國家，尤其是拉丁美洲國家的政治經濟分析。本研究的主要目的，即嘗試建構一個因果模型，以研究拉丁美洲國家經濟依賴與政治暴力的互動關係。藉著跨國資料的統計分析，我們發現只有前期的政治暴力規模及政府強制程度兩者，對於目前的政治暴力規模具有顯著且正面的影響，而其他獨立變項如經濟依賴、經濟扭曲、經濟成長與社經不平等，皆對同時期的政冶暴力規模缺乏顯著的影響力。此外，針對拉丁美洲國家的經濟依賴與政冶暴力間的互動關係，為了建構一個更為涵蓋性的理論模型，我們也提示未來研究的可能方向。In the discipline of social sciences, there are many approaches in the study of political violence. In recent years, the concept of economic dependence has been applied to the less developed countries, especially the Latin American countries. The purpose of this study is trying to construct a causal model linking economic dependence and political violence in the study of Latin American Politics. Using cross-national data, this statistical analysis showed that only the previous magnitudes of political violence and the levels of governmental coercion significantly positive effects on the present magnitudes of political violence. Other independent variables-economic dependence, economic distortion, economic growth, and socioeconomic inequality－do not have significant effects on our dependent variable. In constructing a more comprehensive model, we suggested some directions for the further study of the relationships between economic dependence and political violence in the Latin American countries.