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11. Justicia y decisión en el discurso presidencial argentino sobre la memoria (2003-2007)

Author:
Ana Soledad Montero
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
The claim for “memory” and “justice” regarding the crimes of the last military dictatorship took a central place in the agenda of Argentina's former president N. Kirchner (2003 - 2007). The purpose of this work is to analyze the tensions and complexities entailed in any process of construction of a collective memory within democracy: What is the role of the authority and the political decision? How can we find common tolerance principles to establish the limits of the political community? Finally, we wonder about the theoretical and practical possibility of justice, tolerance and pluralism in democracy and, particularly, about the main challenges faced by the Argentinean democracy in order to become a consolidated political community.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Argentina, South America, Latin America, Central America, and Spain

12. Correcting Course: Victims and the Justice and Peace Law in Colombia - Latin America Report N°29

Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The more than 155,000 victims of Colombia's conflict registered to date with the attorney general's Justice and Peace Unit (JPU) – mostly those who suffered from the paramilitaries – are mainly onlookers to, not actors in, a lagging transitional justice process. Over three years after passage, implementation of the Justice and Peace Law (JPL) is stymied by the relative disinterest in promoting victims' rights of the Uribe government and much of political and civil society. The problems are exacerbated by serious operational and financial bottlenecks in the judicial process and assistance and reparations to victims, as well as the persistence of armed conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents and the emergence of new illegal armed groups (NIAGs) and paramilitary successors.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Civil Society, Government, Human Rights, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Colombia and South America

13. Transitions from Charismatic Rule: Theories of Leadership Change and Cuba's Post-Fidel Succession

Author:
Bert Hoffmann
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
For theories of political succession and charismatic authority, the almost half‐century long rule of Fidel Castro presents an extraordinary test case since Fidel in July 2006 handed over power 'temporarily' to his deputy and brother Raúl. On the background of Max Weber's work on charismatic rule, the paper analyzes the way in which the Cuban leadership has responded to the succession question and identifies four aspects in which it differs from the succession problems typically attributed to charismatic rule: Cuba's longstanding exceptionalism regarding the 'second man' behind the leader; the succession during the life‐time of the leader with a sui generis modus of 'cohabitation' between the outgoing and the incoming leader; the routinization of charisma which domestically allows a bureaucratic succession model with the Communist Party, rather than any individual, being postulated as Fidel Castro's heir; and as a correlate to the latter, the ritual transmission of Fidel's charisma to a heir beyond the nation‐state, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, as the new charismatic leader to continue Fidel Castro's universal revolutionary mission.
Topic:
Communism, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
South America and Venezuela

14. Patronage-Preserving Federalism? Legislative Malapportionment and Subnational Fiscal Policies in Argentina

Author:
Jorge Gordin
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This paper builds on institutional analysis to generate new conclusions about the economic viability of federalism. It does so by suggesting that Weingast´s seminal model of marketpreserving federalism falls short of accounting for the poor fiscal performance of multitiered systems in the developing world. This theoretical deficiency stems to a large extent from the insufficient attention paid by this model to the institutional complexity of federal systems, particularly the public policy effects of legislative malapportionment. Subsequent to an analytical discussion of the potential public spending and distributive politics distortions resulting from overrepresentation, we offer preliminary empirical evidence from Argentina, a federation exhibiting one of the most decentralized fiscal systems in the world and severe imbalances in the territorial distribution of legislative and economic resources. The findings show not only that said imbalances lead to sub‐optimal fiscal results but also that they have a mutually‐reinforcing relationship with regionalized patronage.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
Africa, Argentina, and South America

15. The Quality of Democracy in Small South American Countries: The Case of Paraguay

Author:
Diego Abente Brun
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper addresses the issue of the low quality of democracy in Paraguay. It defines the quality of democracy in terms of regime performance rather than regime nature, i.e. not in terms of how intense or weak its democratic characteristic are, but rather in terms of how legitimate, effective, and efficacious the regime is. The theoretical argument rests on the need to shift from the prevailing agency- paradigm to a structural paradigm. Thus, it focuses on the socio-economic matrix of an invertebrate society lacking vigorous collective actors as the cause of the persistence of widely clientelistic parties. In turn, it sees the hegemony of these parties as the cause of the prevalence of an extreme particularistic, pork-barrel, and volatile pattern of public policy which has produced since the beginning of the transition twenty years of stagnation, high levels of poverty and profound popular disenchantment. It ends with a brief examination of the emergence of Fernando Lugo as a chiliastic upsurge that could tatter the clientelistic structure and describes the current moment as kairotic.
Topic:
Democratization and Government
Political Geography:
South America and Paraguay

16. From Patronage to Program: The Emergence of Party-Oriented Legislators in Brazil

Author:
Frances Hagopian, Carlos Gervasoni, and Juan Andres Moraes
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper explains the unanticipated emergence of party - oriented legislators and rising party discipline in Brazil since the early 1990s. We contend that deputies in Brazil have become increasingly party - oriented because the utilities of party - programmatic and patronage - based electoral strategies shifted with market reforms, which created a programmatic cleavage in Brazilian politics and diminished the resource base for state patronage. Based on an original survey of the Brazilian Congress, we introduce new measures of partisan campaigns, party polarization, and the values legislators attach to party program and voter loyalty. Regression analysis confirms that deputies who believe voters value party program run partisan, programmatic campaigns, and those in polarized parties and those who believe voters are loyal to the party are willing to delegate authority to party leaders and do not switch parties. Party polarization and the proximity of deputies' policy preferences to their party's mean explain discipline on 236 roll - call votes in the 51st legislature (1999 – 2001).
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

17. Prestando acuerdo: El Senado frente a los nombramientos del Poder Judicial en la Argentina democrá¡tica (1983-2006)

Author:
Mariana Llanos and Constanza Figueroa Schibber
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Este trabajo intenta evaluar en que medida el Senado argentino cumplio su papel consti-tucional de contralor del Poder Ejecutivo en torno a los nombramientos del poder judicial entre 1983 y 2007, como tambien los factores que afectaron el cumplimiento de este rol. Para ello, se analiza el tramite parlamentario de los pliegos girados por el Ejecutivo para el nombramiento de todos los jueces federales, los pertenecientes a la llamada "Justicia Na-cional" de la Capital Federal y los miembros del Ministerio Publico. A partir de los mis-mos se concluye que los poderes del Senado dependen de varios factores, a saber, los re-cursos institucionales de los presidentes al interior de esta camara (medidos no solo a par¬tir de las mayorias legislativas sino tambien de su poder en la Comision de Acuerdos), la categoria del cargo a ser ocupado (si se trata de miembros de la Corte Suprema o de otros tribunales), las ambiciones presidenciales en otras areas de politica (como la reeleccion al cargo) y las reglas que regulan la selection y confirmation de candidatos (como el secreto o la publicidad del tramite legislativo).
Topic:
Government and Politics
Political Geography:
Argentina and South America

18. 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

19. Argentina on Kirchner's Time

Author:
Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Since its financial crisis six years ago, Argentina has faded somewhat from the headlines. This is no doubt due in large part to the disproportionate space our media outlets now devote to Iraq and Iran, but also to the fact that other Latin American news stories—particularly Fidel Castro's surgery and the antics of Venezuela's clownish president Hugo Chávez—have dominated coverage of the area. Argentina is not, however, a negligent regional actor.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Iraq, Iran, Argentina, South America, Latin America, and Venezuela

20. When Dictators Die

Author:
Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The recent passing of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the events surrounding his last illness, death, and burial remind us that we are living through the last moments of a Latin American drama which began nearly a half-century ago with the Cuban Revolution. The only thing lacking to bring the curtain down once and for all is the disappearance of Fidel Castro, who began the whole business. Though no one knows precisely when that eventuality will occur, the Cuban strongman's unprecedented decision last July to transfer effective power to his younger brother Raúl and his failure to reappear publicly after abdominal surgery after nearly six months suggest it cannot be far off.
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:
South America, Cuba, and Latin America