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681. Latin America and the Catholic Church: Points of Convergence and Divergence (encontros e desencontros) 1960–2005

Author:
Luiz Alberto Gómez de Souza
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The author aims at uncovering points of convergence and divergence in the relationship between the Catholic Church and society. He begins by analyzing the challenges facing the Church in modern times, using the case of the United States and the traditional political relationship between Church and State in Latin America until the rise of the social-Christian options in the 1960s. He then describes Vatican II, which opened the Church to the influences of modern times. Subsequently, the author explains what he calls the “glorious period” of the Latin American Church, from the conference of bishops in Medellin (1968) to the meeting in Puebla (1979), with the Church's critique of “social sin,” its option for the poor, and liberation theology. Concurrently, the author shows the contradictory effects of the military regimes in the region. Looking at the relationship between Christians and politics, he analyzes in particular the case of Brazil, later expanding his analysis to Latin America and the world. The author then addresses social participation and politics in ecclesiastical practices and the slow building of democracy in the region, offering methodological criticisms of some static and nonhistorical analyses. He delineates how democracy has challenged the Church and, looking ahead, explores the present dynamism of society, especially the virtuosity of social movements and ecclesiastical communities when facing future transformation. The author ends by describing the current situation in Latin America, highlighting the pressing need for the Church to face issues that are presently frozen (such as sexuality, celibacy, and women as priests), in the hopes of a possible Council process in the future.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:
United States, Brazil, South America, and Latin America

682. The Strategic Triad: Form and Content in Brazil's Triangular Cooperation Practices

Author:
Adriana Erthal Abdenur
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Triangular cooperation, in which two countries form a partnership to lend technical assistance to a third country, is a growing model of technical cooperation in the developing world. Why do developing countries participate in triangular cooperation, and how are these arrangements different from bilateral and multilateral linkages? An analysis of Brazilian triangular cooperation arrangements reveals that, in addition to offering pragmatic solutions, triangular cooperation is a tactic for national self-promotion within a broader strategy of foreign relations. The spread of triangular cooperation marks a shift in both the configuration and politics of international cooperation networks.
Topic:
International Relations, International Cooperation, and Politics
Political Geography:
Brazil and Latin America

683. Latin America and the Caribbean: Domestic and Transnational Insecurity

Author:
Arlene B. Tickner
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the end of the Cold War coincided with transitions to democracy in Brazil and the Southern Cone, and the peaceful resolution of armed conflict in Central America. These developments, along with the intensification of globalization processes worldwide, inaugurated a hopeful era of “democratic peace” or “no war” suggesting a decreasing importance for traditional security matters. Although a series of bilateral border disputes continue to simmer in the region, the most intransient ones have been resolved. Indeed, since the 1995 war between Peru and Ecuador, interstate conflict has been all but erased, and military competition has been reduced dramatically. With the exception of Colombia's entrenched civil war and Haiti's faltering state, internal conflicts characterized by significant episodes of political violence have also become a distant memory.
Topic:
Security and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Brazil, Colombia, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, Haiti, Peru, and Ecuador

684. The Politics of Patents and Drugs in Brazil and Mexico: The Industrial Bases of Health Activism

Author:
Ken Shadlen
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the politics of intellectual property (IP) and public health in Brazil and Mexico. Both countries introduced pharmaceutical patents in the 1990s, to comply with their international obligations. Indeed, both countries' IP systems were markedly similar in being favorable to the interests of the transnational, innovation-based pharmaceutical sector. Yet since the late 1990s the two countries have diverged in dramatic fashion. In Brazil the response to the high price of drugs and societal demands to reform the IP system has been to make obtaining private ownership over knowledge more difficult and to increase the rights of third parties to access and use knowledge. In Mexico, the response to similar demands has been to raise impediments to third parties' rights of access and use and effectively extend the periods of protection granted to patent-owners.
Topic:
Government, Health, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Brazil and Mexico

685. Brazilian Counterterrorism Efforts: Legislative Progress, But Little Action on the Ground

Author:
David Jacobson and Matther Levitt
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
In March, Brazilian authorities drafted a new antiterrorism law instituting stiff penalties for a variety of violent acts committed by both individuals and organizations. The new legislation, expected to pass Brazil's congress in a modified form, will likely be used to target criminal gangs from Brazil's indigent favela neighborhoods, not Middle Eastern terrorist groups operating in the Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay Tri-Border Area (TBA). Brazil denies that illegal terrorist activities are being conducted in the TBA, and it does not regard groups like Hizballah or Hamas as terrorist organizations. Much of the legal foundation needed to successfully combat international terrorism is already in place in Brazil, but the government has not demonstrated the will to confront the problem.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, and South America

686. Macroeconomic and Welfare Effects of Public Infrastructure Investment in Five Latin American Countries

Author:
Carlos Gustavo Machicado
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
It has been widely documented that investment in infrastructure is important for economic growth, but little work has been done in relation to the impact of infrastructure investment among other macroeconomic variables. This paper develops a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model of a small open economy to study the effects of public investment in infrastructure on output, consumption, private investment, trade balance and welfare. The model is parameterized and solved for five representative countries from The Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), which include: Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. I also analyze the growth effects on GDP by increasing or decreasing the effectiveness index of infrastructure in each of these countries. Naturally output will grow at a larger rate, if infrastructure is handled with greater efficiency.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Economic Growth, Macroeconomics, Welfare, and Public Investment
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, Venezuela, Chile, and Bolivia

687. A Millennium Learning Goal: Measuring Real Progress in Education

Author:
Lant Pritchett, Amer Hasan, and Deon Filmer
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
The Millennium Development Goal for primary schooling completion has focused attention on a measurable output indicator to monitor increases in schooling in poor countries. We argue the next step, which moves towards the even more important Millennium Learning Goal, is to monitor outcomes of learning achievement. We demonstrate that even in countries meeting the MDG of primary completion, the majority of youth are not reaching even minimal competency levels, let alone the competencies demanded in a globalized environment. Even though Brazil is on track to the meet the MDG, our estimates are that 78 percent of Brazilian youth lack even minimally adequate competencies in mathematics and 96 percent do not reach what we posit as a reasonable global standard of adequacy. Mexico has reached the MDG—but 50 percent of youth are not minimally competent in math and 91 percent do not reach a global standard. While nearly all countries' education systems are expanding quantitatively nearly all are failing in their fundamental purpose. Policymakers, educators and citizens need to focus on the real target of schooling: adequately equipping their nation's youth for full participation as adults in economic, political and social roles. A goal of school completion alone is an increasingly inadequate guide for action. With a Millennium Learning Goal, progress of the education system will be judged on the outcomes of the system: the assessed mastery of the desired competencies of an entire age cohort—both those in school and out of school. By focusing on the learning achievement of all children in a cohort an MLG eliminates the false dichotomy between “access/enrollment” and “quality of those in school”: reaching an MLG depends on both.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and Education
Political Geography:
Brazil and Mexico

688. Roaring tiger or lumbering elephant?

Author:
Mark P Thirlwell
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
In the past, there has been plenty of scepticism about India's economic prospects: for many, Charles De Gaulle's aphorism regarding Brazil, that it was a country with enormous potential, and always would be, seemed to apply equally well to the South Asian economy. While the 'tiger' economies of East Asia were enjoying economic take-off on the back of investment- and export-led growth, the lumbering Indian elephant seemed set to be a perpetual also-ran in the growth stakes. Yet following a series of reform efforts, first tentatively in the 1980s, and then with much more conviction in the 1990s, the Indian economic model has been transformed, and so too India's growth prospects. High profile successes in the new economy sectors of information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO), along with faster economic growth, triggered a widespread rethink regarding India's economic prospects, and a wave of foreign portfolio investment flowed into Indian markets. Perhaps India was set to be a tiger after all.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, East Asia, Asia, and Brazil

689. The Politics of Senatorial Confirmations: A Comparative Study of Argentina and Brazil

Author:
Mariana Llanos and Leany Lemos
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Though an important function of the Latin American senates, the confirmation of presidential nominations has drawn little academic attention. This paper assesses empirically the way in which two Latin American upper chambers – the Argentine and Brazilian senates – made use of their confirmation prerogatives between 1989 and 2003, namely, if one of deference to the executive proposals or a more active role including both consultation and oversight. To do this, the article first analyses all nominations regarding outcome (confirmed, rejected and withdrawn) and length of process. Then, the similarities and differences are used to advance some explanatory hypotheses. Special attention is paid to the impact of political factors, mainly divided government, and institutional features, mainly the senates' internal rules for the organization of the legislative work.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, South America, and Latin America

690. Brazil's Nuclear Policy. From Technological Dependence to Civil Nuclear Power

Author:
Daniel Flemes
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Since March 2006 Brazil has been the ninth country to control the full nuclear fuel cycle. While the U.S. government bashes the uranium enrichment activities in Iran, it has come to an arrangement with the uranium enrichment in its backyard after transitional diplomatic tensions. As signer of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Brazil has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful use. This article focuses on the political motives and objectives connected with the domination of this key technology. Brasilia has been striving for regional leadership and participation in international decision making processes. In historical perspective the Brazilian enrichment procedure marks the liberation from the technological U.S. dependence. Brazil seems to be on the way to establish itself as a civil nuclear power in international relations.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Energy Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, Brazil, and South America