Capitalist Democracy & Resistance: Contextualizing Honduran Counter-hegemony.
Date Issued
2013-05-02
Author(s)
Balzano, James
Abstract
In this thesis, I evaluate the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) in
Honduras as a counterhegemonic movement. In order to do so, it is necessary to
contextualize the political-economic history of the territory that has come to define the
material basis from which modem Hondurans derive their ideological and material
actuality. As one will see through the regional Honduran context, separating political
sociological analysis from capitalism and the material basis from which ideas and
institutions are constituted by and through can offer only partial analysis. Thus, I reject
conventional political sociological theories such as "political opportunity theory" and
"new social movement theory" on the grounds that social movements that seek to alter
the social system in which they operate cannot be adequately understood without
referring to the material and historical underpinnings that have contributed to and
continue to shape their existence. In lieu of conventional theories, I offer that a neo-Gramscian
understanding of counter-hegemony more accurately explains the current
resistance movement in Honduras, and may be more useful in elucidating the alternative
developments in progressive Latin American societies.
Honduras as a counterhegemonic movement. In order to do so, it is necessary to
contextualize the political-economic history of the territory that has come to define the
material basis from which modem Hondurans derive their ideological and material
actuality. As one will see through the regional Honduran context, separating political
sociological analysis from capitalism and the material basis from which ideas and
institutions are constituted by and through can offer only partial analysis. Thus, I reject
conventional political sociological theories such as "political opportunity theory" and
"new social movement theory" on the grounds that social movements that seek to alter
the social system in which they operate cannot be adequately understood without
referring to the material and historical underpinnings that have contributed to and
continue to shape their existence. In lieu of conventional theories, I offer that a neo-Gramscian
understanding of counter-hegemony more accurately explains the current
resistance movement in Honduras, and may be more useful in elucidating the alternative
developments in progressive Latin American societies.
Subjects