MRI: The Political Economy of the Informal Sector in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Costa Rica, Mexico, and Nicaragua

非正规经济部门是指在国家监管范围之外发挥作用的经济部门，在那里类似的活动受到监管。例如，个人从事所有行业的个体户，只为现金工作，不向国家报告收入或经济活动，将被归类为非正规部门工人。相比之下，在符合国家监管规定的管道服务公司工作的个人，将被归类为正规行业工人。在这份少数民族研究计划补助金中，调查员对中美洲和墨西哥非正规部门工人的政治态度和行为进行了初步审查，重点是该区域的三个不同国家。选择这些国家是为了最大限度地扩大政权类型的差异。就本研究而言，哥斯达黎加是一个拥有稳定、相对长期的民主政权的国家。尼加拉瓜可以说是一个较新的、尚未完全巩固的民主政权。最后，墨西哥是一个准民主政权。它正在缓慢地向更正式的民主制度迈进。最一般的假设是，由于不同的政权类型，这三个国家的非正规部门工人的政治态度和行为存在显著差异。因此，非正规部门工人寻求影响其政治世界的政治目标和相关战略将因国而异。考虑到社会科学家对非正规部门工人总体政治性质的认识差距，即使是初步的规划研究也对社会科学家起到了宝贵的作用。调查者采用开放式的结构化访谈，以便收集数据并预先测试调查工具项目，以便在更广泛的未来研究中使用。这项研究有望填补与拉丁美洲城市非正规部门相关的政治学文献的空白。

The informal sector of the economy is that which functions outside of the regulatory reach of the state, where similar activities are regulated. For example, an individual who works as a self-employed jack of all trades, working solely for cash, and not reporting income or economic activities to the state would be classified as an informal sector worker. By way of contrast, an individual who worked for a plumbing service that complied with state regulation, would be classified as a formal sector worker. In this Minority Research Planning Grant the investigator undertakes a preliminary examination of the political attitudes and behavior of informal sector workers in Central America and Mexico, by focusing on three different countries in the region. The countries are chosen in order to maximize differences in terms of regime type. For purposes of this study, Costa Rica serves as a country with a stable, relatively long term democratic regime. Nicaragua serves as a country that can be characterized as a newer, not yet fully consolidated democratic regime. Finally, Mexico serves as a quasi-democratic regime,. which is slowly moving toward a more formal democratic system. In the most general terms, it is hypothesized that political attitudes and behaviors differ significantly between informal sector workers in the three countries because of the different regime types. As a result, the political goals and relevant strategies by which informal sector workers seek to influence their political world will vary from country to country. Given the gap of knowledge that social scientists have regarding the political nature of informal sector workers in general, even a preliminary planning study serves a valuable role for social scientists. The investigator employs open-ended structured interviews in order to collect data and to pre-test survey instrument items to then be employed in a broader future study. The research promises to fill a gap in the political science literature relating to the urban informal sector of Latin America.