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2. The Argentine Implosion
- Author:
- Luigi Manzetti
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- In December 2001, Argentina recorded the world's largest default ever, as it failed to honor payments on its US$132 billion foreign debt. Since then, five presidents have been in power, the Argentine peso has been devalued by 120 percent, and the banking system has virtually collapsed, dragging the economy into a depression. The gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 16.3 percent in the first quarter of 2002. Argentina's per capita income has become one of the worst in Latin America, and, as a result, more than one-third of its people live under the poverty line. 1 Argentines' confidence in their elected officials has disappeared. By most accounts, the country has literally imploded to a degree that has no precedent in Latin America's contemporary history. This is particularly bewildering, considering that only 10 years ago Argentina was hailed around the world as a model of successful economic reforms, with standards of living that were not only the highest in the region but comparable to those of some southern European countries. How could Argentina go from role model to international outcast so quickly? Some place the blame on external shocks created by the financial crises in Mexico (1995), Indonesia (1997), Thailand (1998), and Russia (1998). Others say the cause of the problem was misguided policy advice from the International Monetary Fund (Stiglitz 2002). Yet, most analyses ascribe much of the trouble to the Convertibility Law's fixed exchange rate policy adopted in 1991.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Indonesia, Argentina, South America, Latin America, Mexico, and Thailand
3. The Dominican Republic's 2000 Presidential Election: The U.S. Role in Supporting the Process
- Author:
- Kevin Michael O'Reilly
- Publication Date:
- 04-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- Dominicans elected Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez their president on May 16, 2000. He took office on August 16, 2000. Mejía, the candidate of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano — PRD), won 1,593,231 votes or 49.87 percent of the ballots cast in an essentially three-way race with Danilo Medina of the Party of Dominican Liberation (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana — PLD) and former President Joaquín Balaguer of the Social Christian Reformist Party (Partido Reformista Social Cristiano — PRSC). Medina won 24.94 percent of the vote (796,923) to finish second, with Balaguer only fractions of a percentage point behind, at 24.60 percent (785,926). Turnout, at just over 76 percent, was high by historical standards. Although two shooting deaths marred the campaign's closing days, relatively little violence accompanied the voting compared to previous Dominican elections. Since 1994, Dominican electoral law had called for a runoff between the top two vote winners if no candidate passed the 50-percent-plus-one mark, but Medina conceded on May 17, after Balaguer acknowledged that he could not deliver the entire PRSC vote to the PLD in a second round of voting. Balaguer announced, “For the good of the country, we waive our right to participate in a second round.” The country's Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electoral — JCE) certified Mejía's victory on May 18, 2000.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Law
- Political Geography:
- United States, Latin America, and Caribbean
4. The U.S. Engagement with Colombia: Legitimate State Authority and Human Rights
- Author:
- Gabriel Marcella
- Publication Date:
- 03-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- September 11, 2001, reshaped international relations and had a profound impact on the strategic equation in Colombia. The challenge of what U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called “draining the swamp” of terrorism with global links resonated deeply in Bogotá and among the insurgent forces: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia — FARC), the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional — ELN), and the paramilitaries, among them, the United Self- defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia — AUC). Though these groups already appeared on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations, as of 9/11 they formed part of a broader international threat assessment. Two weeks into 2002, an ill-conceived “peace process,” initiated by President Andrés Pastrana with the FARC in 1999, was r esuscitated at the last minute before an impending military offensive by the government against the FARC was started. President Pastrana, “risking all for peace,” had extended himself, his negotiators, and his government's credibility as far as he could for three years — with nothing to show for such extensive efforts other than his administration's and the Colombian citizens' frustration and virtual surrender to the FARC of national sovereignty over a demilitarized zone ( despeje ) the size of Switzerland, located in San Vicente del Caguán, an area south of Bogotá.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, and International Law
- Political Geography:
- United States, Colombia, South America, and Latin America
5. Evolution of Coastal Management in Panama
- Author:
- Daniel Suman
- Publication Date:
- 09-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- A window of opportunity for integrated coastal management (ICM) may exist in Panama as the new century begins. Panama emerged from a period of political instability in the 1990s and began the new century with full political control over its most important resource – the Panama Canal. A major institutional reorganization in the late 1990s merged a number of agencies with authority in the coastal and marine areas into the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) and expanded the responsibilities of the marine resource directorate to include marine and coastal resources. This reorganization occurred with the adoption of new legislation that clearly recognizes the importance of ICM. Concurrent with the formation of the Maritime Authority, the Legislature of Panama passed the General Environmental Law and created the National Environment Authority (ANAM). Despite these positive developments, institutional change has been slow. Sectoral management of coastal resources continues. Interagency coordination remains deficient, and no formal coastal coordination mechanism exists. Legislation is contradictory and confusing, and the new laws only add to the confusion. As coastal environmental quality continues to degrade and conflicts between sectors increase, the AMP's marine and coastal directorate must strengthen its institutional role and take the initiative in the development of a meaningful ICM effort in Panama. This manuscript analyzes the evolution of Panamanian institutions and legal frameworks related to coastal areas and highlights themes that are ripe for future action.
- Topic:
- Environment and Government
6. Democracy and the Future of Civil-Military Relations in Chile: An Exercise in Historical Comparison
- Author:
- Felipe Agüero
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- The years since the return of democracy in Chile in 1990 have been quite stressful in the area of civil-military relations. How will these relations develop in the future, and how will they affect the quality of Chilean democracy? While it is safe to say that tension in these relations will eventually subside, the manner in which this happens and the specific path that these relations take will heavily influence the nature of Chile's democratic regime. To address this question, I propose to focus on trends that emerged before the disquieting circumstances of the past decade and the immediate present. I submit that, in the domain of civil-military relations, an approach grounded in historical comparison is the proper strategy for a sound assessment of future trends.
- Topic:
- Democratization and Government
7. The Effectiveness of Special Interventions in Latin American Public Primary Schools
- Author:
- Joan B. Anderson
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- In pursuit of improved quality and more equity in education, public primary schools in Latin America have utilized several compensatory educational policies that include special interventions such as food aid programs, distribution of free textbooks, classroom libraries, in-service teacher training, extra classes and extra school sessions, tutors and mentors, and scholarships. Using data on children and schools in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, this paper presents the results of cross-country, empirical estimates of the effects of these interventions on language and math achievement and on the likelihood of promotion, both at the school level and at the level of individual children. Language and math achievement was measured by scores on UNESCO-developed language and math examinations administered to each of the 2,048 children in the sample. In addition, the paper addresses whether a particular intervention is equally effective in poor and non-poor environments and whether these compensatory interventions in fact target those who need them most. Empirical findings suggest that the most effective programs are classroom libraries, distribution of textbooks, distribution of food, and teacher training. For programs to be compensatory, the research indicates that better targeting of scarce resources toward low-income schools and children is needed
- Topic:
- Development, Education, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Mexico, and Chile
8. Making and Unmaking Authoritarian Peru: Re-election, Resistance, and Regime Transition
- Author:
- Catherine M. Conaghan
- Publication Date:
- 05-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- One of the time-honored constitutional traditions of Latin America—the ban on immediate presidential re-election—gave way to political change in the 1990s. Cloaked in controversy, the trend began in Peru. In 1992, President Alberto Fujimori led an auto-coup (auto-golpe) that closed Congress and suspended the 1979 Constitution. The auto-coup eventually led to a new Constitution in 1993. The new Constitution lifted the ban on immediate presidential re-election, allowing a president to stay in office for two consecutive five-year terms.
- Topic:
- Democratization and Government
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Peru
9. When Democracy Isn't All that Democratic: Social Exclusion and the Limits of the Public Sphere in Latin America
- Author:
- Philip Oxhorn
- Publication Date:
- 04-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- During much of the 1970s and 1980s, the principal political struggles throughout Latin America revolved around the creation of democratic political regimes based on the right to vote. Now that this right has been effectively established in virtually every country of the region, 1 the limits of political democracy as traditionally defined are becoming increasingly apparent (Oxhorn and Ducatenzeiler 1998; Agüero and Stark 1998; Chalmers et al. 1997). These countries are indisputably political democracies, yet the quality of democratic rule leaves much to be desired. Recent studies of the democratic deficits in Latin America have focused on a variety of dimensions (including extremes of economic inequality, poverty, growing levels of criminality, limits on citizenship rights, the weakness of civil society, problems of representation, and the weakness of political parties, among others)
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Caribbean
10. Moving Beyond Privatization in Latin America: The Government/Business Relationship
- Author:
- Robert Grosse
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- The outcomes of regulatory policies and regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico since 1990 in the telecommunications, electric power, and banking sectors are explored in this paper. How should governments regulate these oligopolistic industries, once ownership of the sectors has been passed to private hands? How can governments manage these relationships successfully and see that the greatest benefits accrue to the country? What institutional structures can best handle the problems that arise in these situations? The paper addresses these questions and concludes that, while privatizations in these sectors have been predominantly positive in the 1990s, there is still considerable room for more competition.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, Central America, and Mexico