Presidents, Parties, and Referenda in Latin America

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1159-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angélica Durán-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
The Past ◽  
Setting Process

Over the past two decades the use of referenda has spread throughout Latin America, and 39 referenda have taken place since 1990. For some observers, referenda can improve accountability, promote participation, and reduce corruption. For others, given the strong tradition of Latin American presidentialism, referenda can be manipulated by populist presidents attempting to bypass unpopular representative institutions such as congresses or to bolster their popularity. This article provides a more nuanced view of referenda, arguing that presidents cannot always manipulate referenda to increase their power. The effect of referenda on executive power varies depending on the scope of the referenda, that is, whether they aim at institutional change or, alternatively, at policy change. Moreover, the agenda-setting process and the role of political parties in referenda campaigns also mediate the effect of referenda on executive power. Although referenda do not necessarily enhance executive power, the risks of presidential manipulation are strong, and thus referenda should be carried out taking sufficient precautions.

Genetic non-discrimination policy in Canada: Assessing windows of opportunity for policy change

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 293-297
Author(s):  
Adriana V. Caggiano ◽  
Said Y. Al Kindi ◽  
Glen E. Randall
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Diagnosis And Treatment ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Windows Of Opportunity ◽  
Setting Process

As the ease of obtaining genetic information for both the diagnosis and treatment of diseases has become increasingly common, so have concerns about the misuse of such information. The obstacles Canada faces in adopting genetic non-discrimination legislation have left health leaders with a lack of clear direction. Using the Kingdon agenda-setting framework, this article will identify lost opportunities for policy change and will analyze the potential for the adoption of a genetic non-discrimination policy in Canada. Windows of opportunity for policy change have existed in the past, but these windows have closed prior to a policy being adopted. More recently, the alignment of problem, policy, and politics streams in the agenda-setting process has resulted in a new window of opportunity. The adoption of a clear and coherent policy will provide the public with protection and health leaders with greater direction around genetic information.

Presidential Instability in Latin America: Why Institutionalized Parties Matter

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Survival Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Linear Relation ◽  
Legislative Support ◽  
Party Institutionalization ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Pedro P. Kuczynski (Peru 2018) and Evo Morales (Bolivia 2019) are the most recent cases in a long list of Latin American presidents who have been forced out of office. We seek to contribute to understanding why some presidents fail to fulfil their terms by analysing the role of an actor overlooked by the extant literature on presidential failures: political parties. We hypothesize a non-linear relation between party institutionalization and the risk of presidential failure. That is, when parties are weakly or highly institutionalized, the hazard of presidential failure is lower than when parties are moderately institutionalized. We test this and other hypotheses with a survival analysis of 157 Latin American administrations (1979–2018). We also qualitatively explore how the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of certain events affects the risk of failure in three countries with different levels of party institutionalization. We find that party institutionalization – as well as legislative support, anti-government demonstrations, presidential scandals and economic growth – significantly affects the risk of presidential failure.

Latin American Realities

Worldview ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 4-7
Author(s):  
William V. Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vice President ◽  
The United States ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Qualities

In 1943, Vice President Henry Wallace made a triumphal goodwill tour of Latin America and received tumultuous acclaim from large audiences everywhere. In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon made a comparable trip through Latin America and his reception ranged from indifference to indignity.The marked contrast between the two journeys is a fact of major concern for Americans. The decisive difference does not lie in die respective personal merits of Mr. Wallace and Mr. Nixon, although these personal qualities have some importance. Nor is it that Latin America in the past fifteen years has entered a quickened state of revolutionary change, although that is also true. The fundamental difference is not that Latin America has changed in the past fifteen years but that the world role of the United States has changed.

The Constitutional Adjudication Mosaic of Latin America

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio Navia ◽  
Julio Ríos-Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Habeas Corpus ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication

This article maps current constitutional adjudication systems in 17 Latin American democracies. Using recent theoretical literature, the authors classify systems by type (concrete or abstract), timing (a priori or a posteriori), and jurisdiction (centralized or decentralized). This approach captures the richness and diversity of constitutional adjudication in Latin America, where most countries concurrently have two or more mechanisms. Four models of constitutional adjudication are currently in use. In the past, weak democratic institutions and the prevalence of inter partes, as opposed to erga omnes, effects of judicial decisions, prevented the development of constitutional adjudication. Today, democratic consolidation has strengthened the judiciary and fostered constitutional adjudication. After discussing the models, the authors highlight the role of the judiciary in the constitutional adjudication bodies, the broad range of options existing to initiate this adjudication process, and the prevalence of amparo (habeas corpus) provisions.

scholarly journals Anti-Black Racism in Latin America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Pineda G
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Black Population ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Symbolic Annihilation ◽  
Nation States ◽  
American Blacks ◽  
American Nation

This article address the racialization phenomenon of the African population and their descendants, born in America from a socio-historical perspective; including: their kidnapping, transfer and slavery in the American continent during the colonial period. Also the article address the construction of imaginaries and narratives that allowed their exploitation, favored rejection and resistance to the abolition of slavery, and excluded the black population from the process of construction of the emerging Latin American Nation-States. The research investigates the role of Latin American blacks in the independence processes and problematizes the phenomenon of structural racism from a critical sociological perspective, as a factor for the physical and symbolic annihilation of the black and Afro-descendant population in the past and in Latin America today.

Electoral Rules and Democracy in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia McClintock
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Freedom House

During Latin America’s third democratic wave, a majority of countries adopted a runoff rule for the election of the president. This book is the first rigorous assessment of the implications of runoff versus plurality for democracy in the region. Despite previous scholarly skepticism about runoff, it has been positive for Latin America, and could be for the United States also. Primarily through qualitative analysis for each Latin American country, I explore why runoff is superior to plurality. Runoff opens the political arena to new parties but at the same time ensures that the president does not suffer a legitimacy deficit and is not at an ideological extreme. By contrast, in a region in which undemocratic political parties are common, the continuation of these parties is abetted by plurality; political exclusion provoked disillusionment and facilitated the emergence of presidents at ideological extremes. In regression analysis, runoff was statistically significant to superior levels of democracy. Between 1990 and 2016, Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy scores plummeted in countries with plurality but improved in countries with runoff. Plurality advocates’ primary concern is the larger number of political parties under runoff. Although a larger number of parties was not significant to inferior levels of democracy, a plethora of parties is problematic, leading to a paucity of legislative majorities and inchoate parties. To ameliorate the problem, I recommend not reductions in the 50% threshold but the scheduling of the legislative election after the first round or thresholds for entry into the legislature.

Agenda-Setting Dynamics during the Campaign Period

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Partheymüller
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Memory Decay ◽  
The Media

It is widely believed that the news media have a strong influence on defining what are the most important problems facing the country during election campaigns. Yet, recent research has pointed to several factors that may limit the mass media’s agenda-setting power. Linking news media content to rolling cross-section survey data, the chapter examines the role of three such limiting factors in the context of the 2009 and the 2013 German federal elections: (1) rapid memory decay on the part of voters, (2) advertising by the political parties, and (3) the fragmentation of the media landscape. The results show that the mass media may serve as a powerful agenda setter, but also demonstrate that the media’s influence is strictly limited by voters’ cognitive capacities and the structure of the campaign information environment.

Latin America and the League of Nations

1926 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-30
Author(s):  
Percy Alvin Martin
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Treaty Of Versailles ◽  
Post War ◽  
International Status

To students of international relations it has become almost a commonplace that among the most significant and permanent results of the World War has been the changed international status of the republics of Latin America. As a result of the war and post-war developments in these states, the traditional New World isolation in South America, as well as in North America, is a thing of the past. To our leading sister republics is no longer applicable the half-contemptuous phrase, current in the far-off days before 1914, that Latin America stands on the margin of international life. The new place in the comity of nations won by a number of these states is evidenced—to take one of the most obvious examples—by the raising of the legations of certain non-American powers to the rank of embassies, either during or immediately after the war. In the case of Brazil, for instance, where prior to 1914 only the United States maintained an ambassador, at the present time Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Japan maintain diplomatic representatives of this rank.Yet all things considered one of the most fruitful developments in the domain of international relations has been the share taken by our southern neighbors in the work of the League of Nations. All of the Latin American republics which severed relations with Germany or declared war against that country were entitled to participate in the Peace Conference. As a consequence, eleven of these states affixed their signatures to the Treaty of Versailles, an action subsequently ratified in all cases except Ecuador.

Party Matters

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
National Party ◽  
Strategic Responses ◽  
British Labour ◽  
Real Picture ◽  
The Relationship

This article addresses the relationship between political decentralization and the organization of political parties in Great Britain and Spain, focusing on the Labour Party and the Socialist Party, respectively. It assesses two rival accounts of this relationship: Caramani's `nationalization of politics' thesis and Chhibber and Kollman's rational choice institutionalist account in their book The Formation of National Party Systems. It argues that both accounts are seriously incomplete, and on occasion misleading, because of their unwillingness to consider the autonomous role of political parties as advocates of institutional change and as organizational entities. The article develops this argument by studying the role of the British Labour Party and the Spanish Socialists in proposing devolution reforms, and their organizational and strategic responses to them. It concludes that the reductive theories cited above fail to capture the real picture, because parties cannot only mitigate the effects of institutional change, they are also the architects of these changes and shape institutions to suit their strategic ends.

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