ABSTRACT

This chapter looks critically at some of the key formations and transformations of citizenship in Latin America through the twentieth and first part of the twenty-first century, focusing on the Andean region in particular. In Latin America, citizenship and the constitution of a ‘citizenry’ have been key elements of post-independence nation-building projects since the nineteenth century. Despite efforts to institutionalize ‘modern’ liberal versions of citizenship, the boundaries of citizenship in the region have been circumscribed by racial, spatial, class-based, and gendered hierarchies. The realization of formal political and civil rights continues to be limited by weak democratic institutions and rule of law, and the limits to social rights are starkly evident in persistent poverty, extreme inequality, and lack of access to basic social services for significant proportions of the population (Tulchin and Ruthenburg 2007 ).