The feeling of insecurity is a little known phenomenon that has been only partially explored by social sciences. However, it has a deep social, cultural and economic impact and may even contribute to define the very structures of the state. In Latin America, fear of crime has become an important stumbling block in the region's process of democratization. After long spells of dictatorships and civil wars, violence in the region was supposed to be under control yet crime rates have continued to skyrocket and citizens remain fearful. This analytical puzzle has troubled researchers and to date...
The feeling of insecurity is a little known phenomenon that has been only partially explored by social sciences. However, it has a deep social, cul...
Populism in Venezuela analyses the emergence, formation, reproduction and resistance to a left-wing populist project in a major world oil producer. For readers who seek to understand the historical, economical and sociological contexts that gave rise to a 38 year-old mestizo-mulato Lieutenant Colonel who stormed the presidential palace in a bloody oup d'etat in 1992, subsequently returned to the same palace in 1998, but this time, as a democratically elected President, and has been in power since, this book is the right place to start. In spite of opposition attempts to oust President Hugo...
Populism in Venezuela analyses the emergence, formation, reproduction and resistance to a left-wing populist project in a major world oil producer. Fo...
Democratic institutions should promote accountability of government officials to the needs of citizens. Civil society plays a role in exposing corruption as well as in communicating the needs of low-income residents to officials. Neither the institutions of representative democracy nor the presence of civil society, however, appears to automatically guarantee adoption of social benefits for the poor. Can democratic institutions be created to address social challenges?
Scholars, development practitioners, donors, and activists propose participatory governance institutions as...
Democratic institutions should promote accountability of government officials to the needs of citizens. Civil society plays a role in exposing corr...
During the 1990s, as widespread perception spread of declining state sovereignty, activists and social movement organizations began to form transnational networks and coalitions to pressure both intergovernmental organizations and national governments on a variety of issues. Research has focused on the formation of these transnational networks, campaigns, and coalitions; their objectives, strategies and tactics; and their impact. Yet the issue of how participation in transnational networks influences national level mobilization has been little analyzed. What effects has the experience of...
During the 1990s, as widespread perception spread of declining state sovereignty, activists and social movement organizations began to form transna...
Legislatures, the judiciary and civil society are important actors in representative democracies. In what ways and how well do they represent? And how effectively do they carry out their institutional and social roles? Both questions refer to the key dimensions of democracy analyzed in this book: representativeness and effectiveness, respectively. While they have been developed separately in scholarly work on institutions and regimes, there is little work considering them simultaneously, and on their interaction. Using quantitative and/or qualitative methods, contributions from top...
Legislatures, the judiciary and civil society are important actors in representative democracies. In what ways and how well do they represent? And ...
While scholars, activists and pundits from around the world have heralded the Lula years as a breakthrough for poverty reduction and the forthcoming emergence of Brazil as a dynamic economic superpower, many of their counterparts in the country as well as a number of Brazilianists elsewhere, have expressed great disappointment.
Tracing back the trajectory of Brazilian Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT), Hernan F. Gomez Bruera explores how holding national executive public office contributed decisively to a pragmatic shift away from the party's radical...
While scholars, activists and pundits from around the world have heralded the Lula years as a breakthrough for poverty reduction and the forthcomin...
The international trade negotiations that were launched throughout Latin America in the 1990s created significant challenges for developing countries because of their complexity. In order to make informed decisions and successfully legitimize negotiating positions, governments and stakeholders required research, evidence and data from knowledgeable sources such as local technicians and academics. This book provides empirical-based analyses on the role of this research in the policymaking process. Each case study is based on primary fieldwork - either at the national or sectoral level - which...
The international trade negotiations that were launched throughout Latin America in the 1990s created significant challenges for developing countries ...
Hugo Chavez won re-election in the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election, despite a closer margin between candidates than in previous elections. The results were puzzling for those who believed that Chavez's government had long ago reached its limits, while Chavez's supporters were struck by the growth of the opposition vote. Thus understanding the Venezuelan election of 2012 has proved to be challenging, with various recent studies focused upon it. Luis F. Angosto Ferrandez's book advances two ideas not previously discussed: the relationship between electoral behavior in Venezuela and...
Hugo Chavez won re-election in the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election, despite a closer margin between candidates than in previous elections. Th...
In recent years, the spotlight of international attention on Brazil has often been in the area of logistics infrastructure for example, on its capacity to deal with the high demand expected during the World Cup and the Olympics. However, neither competitiveness nor infrastructure concerns are new for Brazil. In the 1990s, Brazilian policy-makers adopted a series of liberalizing economic reforms that exposed the poor condition of logistics infrastructure and inadequate investment in Brazilian ports, roads, railways and airports. Over twenty years later, the implications of those reforms...
In recent years, the spotlight of international attention on Brazil has often been in the area of logistics infrastructure for example, on its capa...
In this work, Rafael R. Ioris critically revisits the postwar context in Brazil to reexamine traditional questions and notions pertaining to the nature of Latin America's political culture and institutions. It was in this period that the region lived some of its most intense and successful experiences of fast economic growth, which was paradoxically marred by heightened ideological divisions, political disruptions, and the emergence of widespread authoritarian rule. Combining original sources of political, diplomatic, intellectual, cultural, and labor histories, Ioris provides a comprehensive...
In this work, Rafael R. Ioris critically revisits the postwar context in Brazil to reexamine traditional questions and notions pertaining to the natur...
