Panel abierto coordinado por miembros de la AECPA que ha sido aceptado para el XXIII congreso internacional de la IPSA.

Emerging Middle Class and socio-political claims

Chair: Prof. Ludolfo Paramio

Co-Chair: Dr. Esther Del Campo García

Discussants: Prof. Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida

The improvement of public services deepening political and civil rights as the right to information and the fight against corruption seem to be the engines of recent social movements in countries such as Latin America where the middle class has increased in the recent years. With reference to the protests occurred in Latin America: Chile(2011)and Colombia(2011) in pursuit of a better education, in Mexico 2012) for transparency and information and in Brazil (2013) in order to improve public services and expose corruption, this panel seeks to reflect on two related questions: first, participation and the role of the new middle classes in social movements, second, the object of the challenges and demands of the new middle classes.
In parallel, we observed -mainly in Europe and USA since the crisis of 2008- a decline and impoverishment of sectors of the middle class. As a result, a large fragment of the angry middle class in Spain, Greece and Portugal moved against political actors and the way in which they handled the economic crisis. We wonder about:Are the new middle classes claims in Latin America similar with the emerging and declining middle class claims? Are the claims of the new middle classes and the traditional middle class the same? Converge the interests and perceptions of both strata of the middle class? What political effects have the emergence and mobilization of these new middle classes? What are the answers given by governments to such claims?

http://ipsa.org/my-ipsa/events/montreal2014/panel/emerging-middle-class-and-socio-political-claims