Search

Begin New Search Political Geography South America Publication Year within 10 Years

231. The Brazilian Rise and the Elusive South American Balance

Author:
Luis Leandro Schenoni
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Within the last 50 years, the Brazilian share of South American power has increased from one‐third to one‐half of the overall material capabilities in the region. Such a significant change in the regional power structure cannot have gone unnoticed by Brazil's neighbors. The article addresses the main question related to South American unipolarity (1985–2014): Why have most countries in the region not implemented any consistent balancing or bandwagoning strategies vis‐à‐vis Brazil? Drawing on neoclassical realism, the article proposes that certain domestic variables – government instability, limited party‐system institutionalization, and powerful presidents – have diverted the attention of political elites and foreign policy executives from the challenges generated by a rising Brazil. Crisp‐set qualitative comparative analysis is used to test this hypothesis and other alternative explanations for the regional imbalance.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

232. Building up a peace infrastructure for Colombia: lessons from implementing the Victims Law

Author:
Silke Pfeiffer
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:
Whether a potential peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will translate into the necessary transformations on the ground will depend, among other things, on the quality and legitimacy of its implementation system. Colombia will need to set up a peace infrastructure that not only facilitates formal compliance, but helps to transform the state, particularly at the local level, as well as citizens’ interactions with it. Tasked with implementing the 2011 Victims and Land Restitution Law, the National System for Comprehensive Attention to and Reparations for Victims provides important lessons for the architects of a future peace infrastructure. In order to have an impact on local dynamics, such an infrastructure will need to be developed in cooperation with regional and local actors and allow a degree of flexibility and autonomy for setting up cooperative spaces, while establishing clear standards and effective accountability systems. In the long run these spaces can only become vehicles for peace and confidence-building if power asymmetries and security risks facing community leaders are addressed. Finally, the success of a peace infrastructure will depend on the degree to which it is woven into existing institutional processes and logics, and manages to introduce good management practices instead of creating parallel, partly competing systems.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Institutionalism, Peace, and Reparations
Political Geography:
Colombia and South America

233. L’insécurité énergétique en Amérique du Sud : développement des réseaux et intégration sectorielle entre le Pérou et le Chili (Energy Insecurity in South America : Network Development and Sectoral Integration in Chile and Peru)

Author:
Alvaro Artigas
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
The South American continent has experienced a robust economic growth presently overshadowed by an uneven energy integration that fails to meet both an ever-growing industrial and metropolitan demand. Several integration mechanisms co-exist, but a poor integration layout threatens the energy security of the region and individual countries. Several factors contribute to this. Firstly, the very template of regional integration has failed to deliver a valid set of supranational coordination mechanisms aimed at coordinating and sorting out disputes among individual countries. Secondly, national States tie security to self-sufficiency in the face of mutual distrust, thus rendering potential advantages of market and networks integration a less desirable choice. The example of Chile and Peru integration drive reveals many of these dynamics while showing at the same time the windfalls of a transversal sectoral coordination over diplomatic exchange by individual states. What is the potential for an alternative template where the State will play a less intrusive role while consigning territorial disagreements backstage?
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Political Economy, Natural Resources, and Regional Integration
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, Chile, and Peru

234. From Financial Repression to External Distress: The Case of Venezuela

Author:
Carmen M. Reinhart and Miguel Angel Santos
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
Recent work has supported that there is a connection between domestic debt level and sovereign default on external debt. We examine the potential linkages in a case study of Venezuela from 1984 to 2013. This unique example encompasses multiple financial crises, cycles of liberalization and policy reversals, and alternative exchange rate arrangements. The Venezuelan experience reveals a nexus among domestic debt, financial repression, and external vulnerability. Unlike foreign currency-denominated debt, debt in domestic currency may be reduced through financial repression, a tax on bondholders and savers producing negative real interest rates. Using a variety of methodologies we estimate the magnitude of the tax from financial repression. On average, this financial repression tax (as a share of GDP) is similar to those of OECD economies, in spite of much higher domestic debt-to-GDP ratios in the latter. The financial repression "tax rate" is significantly higher in years of exchange controls and legislated interest rate ceilings. In line with earlier literature on capital controls, our comprehensive measures of capital flight document a link between domestic disequilibrium and a weakening of the net foreign asset position via private capital flight. We suggest these findings are not unique to the Venezuelan case.
Topic:
Debt, Finance, Capital Flows, Inflation, and Interest Rates
Political Geography:
South America and Venezuela

235. The origin of the South American Defense Council. An Argentinean perspective from two models in friction / El origen del Consejo de Defensa Suramericano. Modelos en pugna desde una perspectiva argentina

Author:
Nicolás Comini
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on International Security Studies (RESI)
Institution:
International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
Abstract:
The South American Defense Council creation was a gradual, complex and multidirectional process. From the beginning, two organizational models marked the negotiations pulse. The forum of politic dialogue and coordination was in constant friction –direct and indirect, depending of the momentum- with the collective security alliance option. The first one was promoted by Brazil and the second one by Venezuela. The article examines Argentina’s position during the work group negotiation of the Council facing both models. In addition, it also analyzes how that position affected the Council’s profile. Argentina went through an unconfident position to an explicit support to the new institution. The main reasons are in this paper.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Regional Cooperation, Integration, and South American Union (UNASUR)
Political Geography:
South America and Latin America

236. Contracting, Contesting, and Co-Optation: Civil Society Organizations’ Strategies under New Institutional Arrangements in Brazil

Author:
Brian Wampler and Michael Touchton
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Civil society has exploded in Latin America as democratization has continued over the last 30 years. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are thought to improve governance and oversight and to increase social capital. Nonetheless, we have limited knowledge about what motivates CSOs’ politi- cal strategies, which include participating in formal political institutions, attending demonstrations, and providing services. We build knowledge here by evaluating data from a unique survey of nine hundred CSOs across seven Brazilian cities. Our findings showcase several parallel processes: poorer CSOs continue to rely on the state and actively participate in political pro- cesses despite protesting at greater rates than wealthier CSOs; therefore, we contend that institutional and political process arguments better explain poorer CSOs’ behavior. We also argue that relatively wealthy CSOs’ disen- gagement reflects greater resource mobilization, more professionalization, and an increase in social capital. Our results show that multilayered explana- tions improve our understanding of CSO behavior and state-society rela- tions in Brazil and Latin America.
Topic:
Civil Society, Inequality, and Social Capital
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, and Latin America

237. Political Corruption and Partisan Engagement: Evidence from Brazil

Author:
Matthew S. Winters and Rebecca Wietz-Shapiro
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
In long-standing democracies, the partisan attachments of most citi- zens are stable and not responsive to short-term political events. Recent studies from younger democracies, however, suggest that partisanship may be more malleable in these contexts. In this paper we develop hypotheses about how political corruption might affect voter attachment to the parties of corrupt offi- cials or to the party system as a whole. Using data from an original survey exper- iment in Brazil, we show that prompts about political corruption shift patterns of partisan attachment for highly educated respondents – specifically, that cor- ruption associated with one political party reduces nonpartisanship and signifi- cantly increases identification with other political parties. In contrast, we find that information on corruption has no consistent measurable effect on partisan- ship for less educated respondents. We conclude by discussing the implications of malleable partisanship for democratic accountability.
Topic:
Corruption, Democracy, Accountability, and Participation
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, and Latin America

238. Rethinking Democratic Governance: State Building, Autonomy, and Accountability in Correa’s Ecuador

Author:
James David Bowen
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper argues that rather than theorize state building and democracy separately, we should direct our attention to studying the dual construction of democratic states. To do so, we must understand the contradictory relationship between the concentration of power needed to build state institutions and the constraints on this power dictated by the norms of liberal democracy. I present an outline for studying state build- ing and democratic governance and illustrate my argument with a study of Ecuador. I argue that stable democracy must rest on three pillars: effective state institutions, the autonomy of these institutions from other powerful actors, and the existence of meaningful institutions of account- ability. The challenge is that efforts to strengthen one or more of these pillars are likely to undermine the others. I argue that Ecuador, particu- larly under the Correa administration, has experienced substantial achievements in the area of institution building, has a mixed record with regards to autonomy, and offers little in the way of accountability.
Topic:
Governance, Democracy, Accountability, State Building, and Autonomy
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, and Ecuador

239. Presidential Elections and Corruption Perceptions in Latin America

Author:
Joel W. Johnson
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper argues that perceptions of corruption in Latin America exhibit predictable fluctuations in the wake of presidential turn- over. Specifically, presidential elections that result in the partisan transfer of power are normally followed by a surge-and-decline pattern in per- ceived corruption control, with initial improvements that fade with time. The causes are multiple and stem from the removal of corrupt admin- istrations, public enthusiasm about administrative change, and the rela- tive lack of high-level corruption scandals in the early phases of new governments. A statistical analysis of two widely used corruption percep- tions indices demonstrates the pattern for eighteen Latin American de- mocracies from 1996 to 2010. Both indices exhibit a temporary surge (of about two years) after turnover elections, while no such change follows reelections of incumbent presidents or parties. The theory and results are relevant for understanding public opinion in Latin America and for the analysis of corruption perceptions indices.
Topic:
Corruption, Elections, and Democracy
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, and North America

240. The Evolution of Theories about the Brazilian Multiparty Presidential System

Author:
. Arnaldo Mauerberg Jr, Carlos Pereira, and Ciro Biderman
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
n recent years, four approaches about executive–legislative relations in Brazil have emerged: i) the perspective that points out limita- tions and constraints of multiparty presidential systems; ii) the building of government coalitions; iii) coalition management; and iv) the role played by institutions including the prerogatives of party leadership in- side the House. In this paper, we review the literature on these ap- proaches, offering a guide for studies about the Brazilian multiparty pres- idential system.
Topic:
Governance, Elections, Democracy, and State Building
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, and Latin America