The Politics of Moral Sin: Abortion and Divorce in Spain, Chile and Argentina

Front Cover
Taylor & Francis, 2006 - Family & Relationships - 245 pages
This book analyzes the problems that arise when women's rights conflict with the views of conservative organized religion. Specifically, it addresses the legalization - or lack thereof - of divorce and abortion in three recently democratized Catholic countries: Spain, Chile, and Argentina. Offering a vital and timely contribution to political debates on democratic consolidation, social policy, gender and politics as well as religion and politics. It challenges many of the accepted assumptions and conclusions in these fields, arguing that to understand the political dynamics and policy trajectories on these issues we must first analyze the distribution of both economic and political power. Merike Blofield moves the debate away from a (unitary) focus on values and public opinion to an analysis of how economic, social and political structures give certain actors more power than others. The topics covered should appeal to a broad readership interested in the difficulties of democratic consolidation in Latin America, and the obstacle to social policy reform in a region with such high levels of inequality. The analysis presented in The Politics of Moral Sin also deepens our understanding of why and how European countries have been so successful in limiting the indulgence of organized religion and in promoting women's rights.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter 1 Moral Politics in a Global Era
17
Chapter 2 Economic Resources and Political Access on a Domestic Level
33
Chapter 3 Social Equality and Social Reform in Spain
63
Chapter 4 Moral Fundamentalism in Chile
95
Chapter 5 The Interaction of Inequality and Delegative Democracy in Argentina
121
Chapter 6 Abortion Reform across Catholic Western Europe and Latin America
157
Conclusion
187
Appendix
195
Notes
197
Bibliography
213
Index
237
Back cover
247
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2006)

Merike H. Blofield is Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University.