bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diogenes Laertius and the Apostolic Succession
Authors: Brent Allen
Published: February 2009

The cultural and historical location of the concept of ςιαςοϰή in second century claims about the apostolic succession has been widely debated. In England, under the influence of Ehrhardt, the term is generally taken to be used by analogy with the sacerdotal succession of Jewish high priests, and to derive from the influence of James the Just on Jewish Christianity. In Germany, on the other hand, following Campenhausen, ςιαςοϰή has been understood in terms of continuity of doctrine, in which references to James in the sources are regarded as pure legend constructed to make the point of such continuity in a picturesque way. Both Ehrhardt and Campenhausen, and their respective followers, regard the ςιαςοχή of teachers in the literature of the Hellenistic philosophical schools as quite incidental, without any close relation to the Christian usage. In this article I will argue the contrary, that there are in fact integral connections between the Hellenistic literature of the philosophical successions, and the development of the idea of the apostolic succession in the late second century, where perhaps the true origin of the Christian concept is to be found.
Strategies in Jacobean Polemic: The Use and Abuse of St Augustine in English Theological Controversy
Authors: Dodaro Robert , Questier Michael
Published: February 2009

It is well known that following the Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559 English Catholic and Protestant polemicists turned to the Church Fathers, and particularly to St Augustine, for source material with which to bolster their doctrinal arguments. Augustine's works were, of course, the basis for so many Reformation controversies, yet the theological disputes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were entirely different from those of the Early Church. Further development and refinement of doctrine had created a wide gulf between the two periods. Early modern polemic was therefore relying on patristic sources which at times were patently inappropriate. It might therefore be thought that there would be little to be gained from an examination of its use of the Fathers, particularly as there was no reason for bitterly opposed polemicists to take a restrained, objective, or even particularly discerning approach to the patristic sources in order to refute the ‘errors’ of the other side. Historians of the English Reformation have indeed shown little interest in the seventeenth century's preoccupation with St Augustine, the most widely cited of the patristic writers. Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote that in this period ‘the true meaning of St Augustine was the object of as much unprofitable speculation as has ever been expended on the equally inscrutable mind of God’. Those historians who have dealt briefly with polemical technique in this period have suggested that seventeenth-century uses of patristic texts were likely to be primitive. J. C. H. Aveling argued that both Catholic and Protestant writers were afflicted by the same weaknesses: their understanding of source texts was undermined by a ‘cult of great erudition’ which was essentially shallow.
A Case Without Parallel: The Bishops of London and the Anglican Church Overseas, 1660–1748
Authors: Yeo Geoffrey
Published: February 2009

‘For a bishop to live at one end of the world, and his Church at the other, must make the office very uncomfortable to the bishop, and in a great measure useless to the people.’ This was the verdict of Thomas Sherlock, bishop of London from 1748 to 1761, on the provision which had been made by the Church of England for the care of its congregations overseas. No Anglican bishopric existed outside the British Isles, but a limited form of responsibility for the Church overseas was exercised by the see of London. In the time of Henry Compton, bishop from 1675 to 1713, Anglican churches in the American colonies, in India and in European countrieshad all sought guidance from the bishop of London. By the 1740s the European connection had been severed; the bishop still accepted some colonial responsibilities but the arrangement was seen as anomalous by churchmen on both sides of the Atlantic. A three-thousand-mile voyage separated the colonists from their bishop, and those wishing to seek ordination could not do so unless they were prepared to cross the ocean. Although the English Church claimed that the episcopate was an essential part of church order, no Anglican bishop had ever visited America, confirmation had never been administered, and no church building in the colonies had been validly consecrated. While a Roman Catholic bishopric was established in French Canada at an early date, the Anglican Church overseas had no resident bishops until the end of the eighteenth century. In the words of Archbishop Thomas Seeker, this was ‘a case which never had its parallel before in the Christian world’.
The Protestant Enlightenment Revisited: Daniel Coit Gilman and the Academic Reforms of the Modern American University
Authors: Hart D. G.
Published: February 2009

An exchange took place at the end of the nineteenth century between William Rainey Harper and Dwight L. Moody that makes little sense to those who study American intellectual life at the end of the twentieth. What is remarkable about this incident is not that Harper, the president of the University of Chicago, a new institution dedicated to promoting science, advanced research and graduate education, invited Moody, the leading revivalist of the Gilded Age, to speak at one of America's most promising new universities. To be sure, our understanding of the educational reforms associated with the founding of research universities rarely encompasses the transatlantic revivals of Moody and his song leader, Ira Sankey. And Harper's invitation to Moody could reasonably be compared to the contemporary practice of conferring honorary degrees on civic leaders and celebrities not known for their interest in higher education but whose reputation could well benefit the degree-granting institution. What is exceptional in this exchange is Harper's assessment of the similarities between his university and Moody's revivals. While Harper acknowledged the use of different means, he thought his and Moody's aims were the same. ‘I do not understand’, Harper wrote, ‘that you, as a matter of fact, represent any other position than that which is actually maintained here at the University. The differences between us are merely differences of detail.’
The Limitations of Statutes: Elizabethan Schemes to Reform New Foundation Cathedral Statutes
Authors: Saunders James
Published: February 2009

The lurches from Catholicism to Protestantism and back which occurred in the reigns of Henry VIII, his son and two daughters produced dramatic changes in the liturgies, decorative fittings, and even, on occasions, the architecture of the country's cathedrals. Yet, despite these changes, there was a real sense in which cathedrals were at the eye of the confessional storms which raged about them. It is true that, as part of the Henrician reform process, the monastic corporations at Carlisle, Durham, Peterborough, Ely, Norwich, Canterbury, Rochester, Osney, Winchester, Westminster, Gloucester, Worcester and Bristol had been first dissolved and then refounded as ‘cathedrals of the new foundation’, the monks replaced by minor canons and prebendaries. Once this upheaval was over, however, the new foundation cathedrals underwent little further institutional change. Those cathedrals which had been staffed by secular priests before the Reformation (known as cathedrals of the old foundation), moreover, survived almost wholly untouched. In both new and old foundations, the same administrative and financial structures continued to support dignitaries and liturgical officers whose only obvious function remained the celebration of liturgy, despite the rejection of opus Dei and its accompanying theology of good works.
Protestants and the Irish Language, c. 1675–1725
Authors: Barnard T. C.
Published: February 2009

Early modern Ireland defied its English and Protestant rulers and remained largely Catholic. Historians have explained this situation variously: in terms of Protestant feebleness, official indifference or Catholic vigour. Among Protestant failings, scant use of the Irish language has been listed. An attitude to the Irish tongue, at best ambiguous and at worst hostile, can be connected first with English concepts of civility and then with the severe Calvinist theology which pulsed through the Established Church of Ireland in the early seventeenth century, and which, by equating those already Protestant with the elect, justified devoting its sparse resources to them. In contrast, the Catholic Irish, because irredeemably reprobate, together with their language, could be ignored.
Friends, Parliament and the Toleration Act
Authors: Wykes David L.
Published: February 2009

It is surprising to find that Friends were included within the terms of the Toleration Act. The political situation they faced in 1689 was distinctly unpromising. They not only continued to experience the hostility and prejudice that they had suffered since their earliest days, but they were seriously compromised by the close identification of William Penn with the discredited Catholic policies of James II. An examination of the debates in parliament on the Toleration Bill reveals that Friends were by no means certain of being included in the act. Yet their acceptance of the terms they were offered is also surprising in view of their objection to any compromise with the state over matters of religious conscience, an objection which led to their refusal to seek licences under Charles II's Declaration of Indulgence in 1672. Moreover, a number of recent studies have identified the continued insistence of many provincial Friends, particularly in the rigorous heartland of Quakerism in the north–west, upon the strict maintenance of their testimonies, and indeed a redefining of those testimonies partly in response to the growing compromises with the state made by the Quaker leadership.
The Genesis of a Cult: Cuthbert of Farne and Ecclesiastical Politics in Northumbria in the Late Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries
Authors: Kirby D. P.
Published: February 2009

The episcopate of Cuthbert as bishop of Lindisfarne was a product of a time of great change in the Northumbrian Church in the late seventh century. Bede'sEcclesiastical historyand Stephen'sLifeof Wilfrid make it clear that the expulsion of Wilfrid, bishop of York and sole bishop of the Northumbrians, in 678 (HEv. 19;VW24) opened up the Northumbrian diocese to large-scale ecclesiastical reorganisation. Wilfrid's vast see was divided and new bishops appointed. In 664, as a young man, Wilfrid had played a significant part at the Council of Whitby in bringing about the expulsion of Colmán, Aidán's successor as bishop of Lindisfarne, the termination of the Columban mission and the replacement of the see of Lindisfarne by that of York; but the bishops who replaced Wilfrid were prepared to deal sensitively with the legacy of Aidán's mission in a post-Council of Whitby era. Bosa, trained at Whitby under Abbess Hild who had been instructed in the religious life by Aidán, became bishop of Deira at York; Eata, abbot of Lindisfarne, one of Aidán's Northumbrian disciples and formerly abbot of the monastery of Melrose which had been founded in the time of the Columban mission, became bishop of Bernicia with his episcopal seat variously at Hexham and Lindisfarne; and Eadhæsd, a former companion of Aidán's disciple Chad (HEiii. 28), was made bishop of Lindsey (HEiv. 12). When Lindsey was lost to the Mercians in 679 Eadhæd was made bishop of the short-lived see of Ripon [HEiv. 12), and in 681 Trumwine, whose antecedents are unknown but who later retired to Whitby, became bishop of Abercorn on the Forth [HEiv. 12, 26).
Religion, Gender and Education in a Durham Parish during the Early Nineteenth Century
Authors: Jaffe James A.
Published: February 2009

Historians of religion and society are often confronted with the difficult task of defining the distinctive characteristics of the various adherents of Church and chapel. Certainly, one of the most useful as well as the most frequently employed analytical tools in this endeavour has been the correlation of occupation to religious preference.1 While this approach can be, and has been, enormously revealing, it still has several distinct drawbacks. First, of course, there is the common problem of appropriately identifying and grouping the enormous variety and gradations of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations. While the grouping of occupations itself presents several inherent difficulties, its use as an analytical tool is further restricted by the fact that while occupational identification may provide a rough guide to status levels in society, it can in no way compensate for our lack of knowledge of, for example, the range of earnings within a specific occupational group at any particular time.
Role of oxidative stress in hearing impairment in patients with type two diabetes mellitus
Authors: Aladag İ , Eyibilen A , Güven M , Atış Ö , Erkokmaz Ü
Published: February 2009

Objective:

Although many clinical investigations have found a relationship between hearing loss and diabetes mellitus, the pathophysiology of this effect remains controversial. To date, the mechanisms of hearing loss in diabetic patients have been explained in terms of microangiopathy, neuropathy and encephalopathy. However, many reports indicate that some diabetic complications are associated with oxidative stress related to the diabetes itself. In the present study, we hypothesised that oxidative stress may be a cause of hearing loss in diabetic patients.

Methods:

The study group comprised non-insulin dependent diabetic patients with no signs of microangiopathy or peripheral neuropathy. The control group comprised sex-, age- and body weight matched, non-diabetic subjects. Auditory function was evaluated using pure tone audiometry and tympanometry. Subjects with normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss were included in the study, whereas subjects with conductive hearing loss were excluded. Both the study group (n = 63) and the control group (n = 37) were divided into subgroups based on the presence and absence of hearing loss. Oxidative stress was evaluated by measuring serum indicators of protein oxidation and lipid peroxidation, serum levels of nitric oxide and various non-enzymatic antioxidants, and the activity of various enzymatic antioxidants.

Results:

The non-insulin dependent diabetic patients had significantly higher serum levels of protein oxidation products, nitric oxide, enzymatic antioxidant activity (i.e. glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase), compared with the control group (p < 0.05). When we compared the groups in relation to the presence of hearing loss, the nitric oxide level was significantly increased in the diabetic group with good hearing, compared with diabetic patients with hearing loss (p = 0.014). In the diabetic group, a clear, negative correlation was observed between serum levels of nitric oxide and vitamins C and E, and hearing impairment (r = −0.395,r = −0.318,r = −0.500, respectively). There was also a positive correlation between serum vitamin C concentrations and hearing levels in the control group (r = 0.417).

Conclusion:

These results suggest that oxidative stress may play an important role in hearing impairment in diabetic patients. In this process, increased protein oxidation appears to be more important than lipid peroxidation. Nitric oxide may have a protective effect on hearing, as may some nonenzymatic antioxidants such as vitamin C and E.
Getting to Know the Unknown Soldier: Official Nationalism in Liberal Costa Rica, 1880–1900
Authors: Palmer Steven
Published: February 2009

On 28 February 1885 Guatemala's Liberal dictator, Justo Rufino Barrios, declared the Union of Central America, and made it plain that this would be achieved through force of arms if the four other Central American Republics did not consent to his decree. On 5 and 6 March, as Costa Rica's Liberal state began to plan a popular mobilisation against the Guatemalan threat, an article appeared in the pages of El Diario de Costa Rica, written by a resident Honduran man of letters, Alvaro Contreras. It was called ‘Un héroe annómino’. Curiously, though, this hero is not anonymous at all. The article soon reveals that his name is Juan Santamaría, a humble footsoldier who, during the Battle of Rivas in 1856, had volunteered to burn down the Mesón de Guerra from where William Walker's filibusters were decimating Costa Rican troops with rifle fire. The attempt was successful, but Santamaría sacrificed his life in the process. The invention of Costa Rica's ‘almost unknown soldier’ had begun.
State and Labour in Argentina: The Portworkers of Buenos Aires, 1910–21
Authors: Adelman Jeremy
Published: February 2009

Latin America's workers perplex historians. Despite chronic political turmoil, revolt and undiluted class conflict, Latin America's mobilised workers have not been the vanguards of social revolution. Rather, variations of authoritarianism, populism and clientilism are said to characterise labour politics more accurately. The absence of independent working-class politics has prompted the search for aetiologies of class-formation in Latin America – the search for the missing ingredient to revolutionary working-class action.
Risk and Opportunity in the Coca/Cocaine Economy of the Bolivian Yungas
Authors: Léons Madeline Barbara
Published: February 2009

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries of the hemisphere and its rural people have among the lowest life expectancy, health-care standards and educational levels of all Latin Americans. It is the only country in South America with a ranking of ‘low’ on the Human Development Index for 1991 compiled by the United Nations, a measure combining the per capita product with such factors as longevity and access to education. At the same time, the most valuable export of the country, cocaine, depends on the coca supplied by peasant cultivators in the regions where it grows. The explosion of the international cocaine trade has had profound repercussions, both positive and negative, on the lives of the campesinos of the Bolivian Yungas, who happened to supply, since colonial times and before, the coca destined for traditional consumption within the country; it was their most reliable cash crop. The conversion of their ancient crop to an illicit commodity of high, concentrated value has created the opportunity for some to experience a marginally enhanced standard of living (at a time when other rural Bolivians were seeing their own abysmal standard depressed even further), but at the same time has increased the risks they would run if they entered the lucrative but illegal cocaine trade.
Agrarian Reform in El Salvador
Authors: Browning David
Published: February 2009

The subject of agrarian reform in El Salvador has an importance which extends beyond considerations of that country's immediate crisis. The agrarian problems in many parts of Latin America originate from similar sets of conditions, but nowhere have these conditions reached a more critical point than in El Salvador. Consequently the experience of agrarian reform there is likely to anticipate those problems of agrarian change which eventually will have to be faced by most Latin American countries.
Production and Politics in Central America's Convulsions
Authors: Stone Samuel
Published: February 2009

For the vast majority of people around the world, Central America is a small group of countries bridging the gap between the Mayan ruins of Guatemala and the Panama Canal. The names of those countries are only recognized when the major contending ideologies of capitalism and communism clash in one of them, or when an international figure of ill or good repute establishes some sort of link with them. A football game that leads to war also catches the eye of the media. An example of the first situation would be the ousting of the communist regime of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala by Honduran troops backed by the United Fruit Company and the CIA in 1954; another would be the rise of the marxist regime in Nicaragua in 1979. The second is evident in the establishment in Costa Rica of the international fugitive Robert Vesco around 1970, as well as in the visit of Pope John Paul II to each of the five nations in 1983. The last refers to the ‘soccer war’ between El Salvador and Honduras in 1967. In each instance the countries concerned made headlines around the world for a short time and people learned their approximate geographical location even if in a passing fashion.
Disunity and Discontent: A Study of Peasant Political Movements in Brazil
Authors: Forman Shepard
Published: February 2009

Peasant movements in Brazil are not a recent phenomenon but have recurred throughout the history of this essentially agrarian nation. The earliest manifestations of peasant discontent were pre-political movements of both a religious and a secular nature. They were primarily local expressions of immediate felt needs, temporary outbursts against misery and oppression. They were largely atomistic movements, confined in time and space, and characterized by a lack of unity and effective communication. More important, they were most often led by social deviants who were generally incapable of expressing realistic social goals which had appeal beyond the local group.
The United States and the Rise of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez
Authors: Grieb Kenneth J.
Published: February 2009

The militarycoup d'étatwhich installed General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez as President of El Salvador during December 1931 created a crisis involving the 1923 Washington Treaties. By the terms of these accords, the Central American nadons had pledged to withhold recognition from governments seizing power through force in any of the isthmian republics. Although not a signatory of the treaty, the United States based its recognition policy on this principle. Through this means the State Department had attempted to impose some stability in Central America, by discouraging revolts. With the co-operation of the isthmian governments, United States diplomats endeavored to bring pressure to bear on the leaders of any uprising, to deny them the fruits of their victory, and thus reduce the constant series ofcoupsandcounter-coupsthat normally characterized Central American politics.
Military Professionalism and Professional Militarism in Brazil, 1870–1970: Historical Perspectives and Political Implications
Authors: Nunn Frederick M.
Published: February 2009

Since 1964 Brazil has been governed by successive regimes dominated by the armed forces and presided over by army generals. The men in charge of Brazil's destiny are professional officers, and like their counterparts in the neighboring Spanish American states they conceive of their governance as an obligation as much as a privilege, if not more. The professional officer in Latin America today is as far removed from his nineteenth century counterpart as ballistic missile systems are from the ballista.
Economic Stabilisation in Argentina: the Austral Plan
Authors: Manzetti Luigi , Dell'aquila Marco
Published: February 2009

The relative prosperity which Argentina enjoyed at the beginning of the century made it a candidate to be a major economic power. Despite its abundant natural resources and skilled manpower, Argentina has consistently failed to live up to its potential. Periods of growth have either been too sporadic or political upheavals too frequent for coherent economic policies to be effective. In recent decades the Argentine economy has been characterised by a deterioration in current account,1exchange rate,2gross domestic product (GDP) growth,3investment,4and has seen inflation become an endemic phenomenon.5These factors have exacerbated the economy's inability to tackle its mounting foreign debt.
Liberal Patriotism and the Mexican Reforma
Authors: Brading D. A.
Published: February 2009

The central paradox of Mexican liberalism was that ‘the proponents of a massive transformation of property relations refused to sanction a central executive endowed with sufficient power either to implement these aims or to resist the reaction they inevitably provoked. The liberals resolutely refused to will the appropriate means to achieve their desired ends’.1 Contemporary statesmen denounced the constitution of 1857 as impracticable and in 1861 Benito Juárez complained: ‘Under these conditions it is impossible to govern: no-one obeys me and I am not able to oblige anyone to obey’.2 In a subsequent study of this period, Emilio Rabasa pointed out that in practice Juárez governed Mexico in despite of the constitution, obtaining from Congress the grant of ‘extraordinary faculties’ which effectively allowed him to rule as dictator. The recent work of Richard N. Sinkin and Laurens Ballard Perry has confirmed the accuracy of Rabasa's diagnosis.3 During the restored republic, 1867–72, Juárez skilfully deployed the prestige and loyal following he had won by his unyielding resistance to the French Intervention to create a presidential autocracy. Public revenues were used to recruit and maintain a political machine which succeeded in imposing official candidates as congressional deputies, jefes políticos, and even state governors. All attempts to challenge the regime by armed revolt were firmly crushed by the regular army. At the same time, political opposition still continued to find public and often violent expression in the press.
Financial Leadership and the Formation of Peruvian Elite Groups, 1884–1930
Authors: Quiroz Alfonso W.
Published: February 2009

Attempts to find social explanations for Peruvian economic backwardness have focused on the role of the elite's economic leadership between 1884 and 1930. Some of these studies consider the leading social class as an obstacle to economic growth. According to these interpretations the elite had, first of all, traditional ‘aristocratic’ or irrational economic behaviour.1Secondly, the native elite's collaboration with international capital permitted foreign penetration adverse to national interests.2Thirdly, in the 1884–1930 period, which was dominated by the export recovery after the War of the Pacific, an over-specialisation in export interests limited the elite's economic diversification, industrial capacity and financial decisions.3
Latin America, the United States and the Birth of Israel: The case of Somoza's Nicaragua
Authors: Klich Ignacio
Published: February 2009

With the downfall of the Somoza regime and coming to power of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) in July 1979, Israeli– Nicaraguan relations declined, to be eventually cut off three years later. An important contributing factor to the deterioration and breach of relations was Israel's involvement with Anastasio (Tachito) Somoza Debayle, in particular the military assistance which his faltering regime received from the Likud government until shortly before the end. By no means Tachito's sole armourer,1the salience of Israel's role was, nonetheless, noted by many, including Somoza Debayle himself.2This, however, was justified by Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin as the sole honourable course of action in view of earlier favours to the Zionist cause, going back to the pre-state period, by Tachito's father, Anastasio (Tacho) Somoza García.
Transportation Modernization and Entrepreneurship in Nineteenth Century Colombia
Authors: Horna Hernán
Published: February 2009

Prior to the introduction of the steamboat on the Magdalena River during the 1820s, reaching Bogotá from the Caribbean coast required a two to five month journey. This trip included travelling inbongos(rafts) and traversing mountains on the backs of both men and beasts. Bogotá was the most isolated of all the Spanish viceregal capitals. No other viceroyalty was so dependent on river transportation as New Granada (now Colombia). Even by the late nineteenth century, travel within the country remained dreadfully difficult. In the best of weather most Colombian roads were barely suitable for mule traffic, and, whenever tropical rains poured, human carriers undertook the burden of transportation despite the fact that Colombia, following the newest American and European trends in transport innovations, built railroads to the point where they were the nation's leading technological import during the nineteenth century. The apparent futility of this modernization effort has led many scholars, both Colombians and non-Colombians, to conclude that Colombia moved directly from the age of the mule to that of the airplane.
Business, Nationality and Dependency in Late Nineteenth Century Brazil
Authors: Ridings Eugene W.
Published: February 2009

‘No one is unaware,’ stated Brazil's Minister of Finance Ruj Barbosa in 1891, ‘that commerce, especially large-scale commerce, in our most important trade centers resides in greatest part, not to say in its near entirety, in the hands of foreigners.’ Rui was calling attention to a situation of increasing concern to Brazilian leaders: the preponderance of foreigners in big business. Another Brazilian Minister of Finance, Felisbello Freire, remarked on the subject in 1894, ‘to my mind this phenomenon is an indication of a subjugation which, dating from colonial times, threatens the annulment of native commerce.’.
Labor Acquisition and Social Conflict on the Colombian Frontier, 1850–1936
Authors: LeGrand Catherine
Published: February 2009

Exporters of raw materials under Iberian rule, the nations of Latin America continued to perform a similar role in the world economy after Independence. In the nineteenth century, however, a significant shift occurred in the kind of materials exported. Whereas in colonial times the great wealth of Latin America lay in her mineral resources, particularly silver and gold, aster 1850 agricultural production for foreign markets took on larger importance. The export of foodstuffs was not a new phenomenon, but in the nineteenth century the growth in consumer demand in the industrializing nations and the developing revolution in. transport much enhanced the incentives for Latin Americans who would produce coffee, wheat, cattle, or bananas for overseas markets.
The Limitations of Ideology in the Early Argentine Labour Movement: Anarchism in the Trade Unions, 1890—1920
Authors: Thompson Ruth
Published: February 2009

The origins of the labour movement in Argentina, which date from a period when the country was developing rapidly and had an important place in the world economy, have received little close attention from historians. Generally, the years before 1930 have been neglected in favour of the study of developments associated with Perón and Peronism. Such secondary literature as does exist consists largely of personal memoirs, whose authors were, understandably, parti pris. The more general studies tend to underestimate the extent, variety and sophistication of trade unionism before 1930, and also to contrast the style and ideology of the unions with that of the Peronist labour movement. Most notably, Argentina is widely quoted, along with Spain, as one of the countries where anarchist and/or anarcho-syndicalist ideology and practice dominated the labour movement.
‘Puffy, Ugly, Slothful and Inert’: Degeneration in Brazilian Social Thought, 1880–1940
Authors: Borges Dain
Published: February 2009

Brazilian discussions of race between 1880 and 1940 were partly a use of European scientific theory to rationalise the native system of colour discrimination. When scientific orthodoxy turned against ‘race’ between 1920 and 1945, much of the intellectual racism of Brazil also dispersed. Quite rightly, most intellectual histories of race in Brazil stress a disjuncture around 1930. However, from the 1870s onward, and most clearly after abolition, there was also a medical-psychiatric strand to ‘race’ that can be unravelled from the rest of the skein. Part of racial thinking in Brazil reflected the general medicalisation of social thought that began when early-nineteenth-century physicians called for hygienic reforms within upper-class families to protect children from hereditary or environmental contaminations. The Spencerian and Comtean positivist social science that became fashionable in Brazil after 1870 also contributed to medicalisation. It saw society as an organism, and compared the role of the social scientist to the role of the physician: to examine symptoms of disease and propose therapies. From the 1880s through the 1920s, the national ailment that the medicalised social thought of Brazil most often diagnosed, an ailment that connected individual health to national well-being, was degeneration.
Collor, Corruption and Crisis: Time for Reflection
Authors: Flynn Peter
Published: February 2009

The scandal involving President Fernando Collor de Mello, leading to his last-minute resignation on 29 December 1992, provoked understandable heart-searching in Brazil. This was clearly evident in a series of research interviews, which I held from August to October, when the political crisis was fast coming to a head, and already was reflected in published analyses of the P. C. Farias/Collor affair.
Bi-racial U.S.A. vs. Multi-racial Brazil: Is the Contrast Still Valid?
Authors: Skidmore Thomas E.
Published: February 2009

In the last two decades the comparative analysis of race relations in the U.S.A. and Brazil has been based on a conventional wisdom. It is the corollary of a larger conventional wisdom in the study of comparative race relations. The thesis is that systems of race relations in the Western Hemisphere are primarily of two types: bi-racial and multi-racial. The distinction is normally spelled out as follows. The U.S.A. is a prime example of a bi-racial system. In the prevailing logic of the US legal and social structure, individuals have historically been either black or white. In Brazil, on the other hand, there has been a spectrum of racial distinctions. At a minimum, Brazilian social practice has recognised white, black and mulatto. At a maximum, the phenotypical distinctions have become so refined as to defy analysis, or effective application for those who would discriminate.
Brazilian Colonization of the Eastern Border Region of Paraguay
Authors: Nickson Andrew
Published: February 2009

The Eastern Border Region (EBR) of Paraguay (defined as the present-day administrative Departments of Amambay, Canendiyú and Alto Paraná) is one of the few remaining frontier zones suitable for intensive agricultural development in the southern cone of Latin America. Comprising 35 percent (about 5.4 million has.) of the area of eastern Paraguay, its natural resources remained largely unexploited until the mid-1960s, itself a reflection of the very poor growth performance of the Paraguayan economy throughout most of the 20th century in comparison with neighbouring countries.
Social Welfare Policy and Political Opening in Mexico
Authors: Ward Peter M.
Published: February 2009

In this article I wish to provide an overview of the changing priorities that successive Mexican governments have given the social development sector since the administration of President Echeverria (1970–6). This will be set against a backcloth of political reform and an opening of the political space in which parties other than the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) have been allowed to function, albeit under certain constraints. In addition I will examine important changes that have been undertaken both in the nature of social policies themselves, but also in the patterns and efficiency with which public agencies have delivered this particular social good. I argue that in Mexico, as in many advanced capitalist countries since Bismarck's Prussia during the late nineteenth century, social welfare provision is an important element in the understanding of political management and 'statecraft'.1 As well as providing a temporary palliative to offset some of the negative outcomes of rapid urbanisation and economic growth based upon low wage rates and trickle-down, social policy provides an arena through which scarce societal resources may be negotiated. As I will describe, those patterns of negotiation change for a variety of reasons: as power relations shift; as economies reflate or turn into recession; as the level of state intervention and control intensifies or slackens; as our diagnosis of specific problems and the policy instruments we develop become more sophisticated and sensitive to local needs; and last, but not least in the context of Mexico, are included changes that arise from human agency as different presidents take executive office.
The Independence of Supreme Courts in Latin America: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Verner Joel G.
Published: February 2009

A survey of the relevant literature indicates rather graphically that little scholarly attention has been given to an assessment of the independence of supreme courts in the developing areas. A familiar theme in the scant research which has been reported is not only the relative decline of these courts, but their political weakness and general dependence in Third World countries in the first place. Although the constitutions of most developing countries provide for independent, sometimes even coequal judicial branches of government, with clearly defined and significant powers, and with constitutional guarantees to protect their independence, the evidence suggests that no more than a mere handful of national courts in these countries are truly independent: that is, few courts are free to decide cases on the basis of the established law and the ‘merits of the case’, without substantial interference from other political or governmental agents. Gamer has concluded that usually the ‘highest power rests with a Prime Minister (or President) and a small inner circle of the cabinet, whose policy decisions are seldom challenged by courts, legislatures˜’ and ‘there are few constitutional/legal traditions to restrain this central power’. Almond has written that ‘central executives and bureaucracy tend to monopolize the “rule” functions at the expense of courts and legislature’.
From Colony to Republic: a Case Study in Bureaucratic Change
Authors: Lofstrom William
Published: February 2009

It is axiomatic, but certainly deserving of periodic repetition, that the long-term configuration of political, social and economic institutions in Iberian America has been determined both by the apparatus, operation and rationale of the metropolitan state, as well as by the premises and patterns of colonization. Equally apparent is the premise that the politico-administrative crisis associated with the achievement of independence in early nineteenth-century Latin America must be studied in the light of this ‘set’ of New World institutions, and particularly in relation to what Richard Morse calls the Spanish patrimonial state.
Continuities in Colombia
Authors: Levine Daniel H.
Published: February 2009

Lately we have become accustomed to look for change in Latin American Catholicism. Indeed, expectations of innovation and change have largely replaced the norms of continuity which once governed both scholarly and popular outlooks on the Catholic Church in the region. Constant change is now commonly anticipated in the ideas and structures of the churches, in their relation to social movements, and in the form and content of the churches' projections into society and politics as a whole.
The Catholic Hierarchy in the Nicaraguan Revolution
Authors: Williams Philip J.
Published: February 2009

The involvement of Christians in the Nicaraguan Revolution is a clear manifestation of the profound changes taking place within the Nicaraguan Church as a whole. While a clear majority of the clergy took a stand against the injustices of the Somoza regime, a smaller group of priests and religious demonstrated a more profound commitment to radical structural transformation of society. Although their efforts to organize andconcientizar1rural and urban poor had serious political implications – in fact, many joined the guerrilla as a result of the ‘radicalization of their faith’ – to these priests and religious the political solutions available to counter growing social injustices and government abuses were few: either fight or capitulate. The bishops, on the other hand, were cautious about the pace of change and rejected the violent option, choosing instead an intermediate path. Unfortunately, such an option proved futile in the case of Nicaragua, and finally the bishops justified armed revolution as a viable alternative to systematic repression.
La Violencia Revisited: the Clientelist Bases of Political Violence in Colombia
Authors: Schmidt Steffen W.
Published: February 2009

Lying at the heart of the problem in analyzing Colombian violence is the relative poverty of conceptual frameworks not only for dealing with violence but with the institutions and processes and traditions which form the social environment of the society. In the following pages I shall argue that a dialectic between violence and patron-client relations offers a useful analytical framework. The first part will deal with the historical dynamics of Colombian politics. In part two, patron-client politics will be looked at in a small town setting.
Oligarchy and Power Structure in Urban Colombia: the Case of Cali
Authors: Dent David W.
Published: February 2009

Colombia has long been described as dominated by an oligarchy or elite that tightly controls the principal means of political influence and the avenues of social mobility. For example, in his recent study of Colombian political development, Robert Dix observes that ‘… the posts of leadership, the key decisions, and the principal social, economic, cultural and political resources of the society remain in elite hands’. Harry Kantor argues even more intensely that while Colombia has greatly changed since World War II, the traditional oligarchy clings to its power, illiteracy remains a major problem, transportation is still poor, and the eastern two-thirds of the nation's territory remains undeveloped '. At the same time, the resolution of these development problems, an unavoidable responsibility of contemporary Colombian governments, has illuminated rather than obscured observation of elite dominance over Colombian society.
Slavery and Social Life: Attempts to Reduce Free People to Slavery in the Sertão Mineiro, Brazil, 1850–1871
Authors: Freitas Judy Bieber
Published: February 2009

In 1859 the district attorney of Montes Claros, in a long dispatch to the provincial chief of police, enumerating the many evils prevailing in his jurisdiction, included ‘craven traffickers who abduct little free children of colour whom they trick and seduce with fruits and presents, to sell as if they were slaves, trading them for livestock or mere trinkets’. This complaint was not an isolated incident; it reflected a larger trade in free people of colour which took place in the sertão of northern Minas Gerais after the closing of the transatlantic slave trade in 1851 and before the passage of the law of the free womb in 1871. The internal trade in free persons ceased in the early 1870s, when mandatory slave matriculation made illicit transactions more detectable.
Are the Unemployed Part of the Urban Poverty Problem in Latin America?
Authors: Humphrey John
Published: February 2009

For a long period, the consensus in development studies argued that the unemployed in urban areas were not part of the poverty problem. It was argued in the 1970s that open unemployment in developing countries was not, in general, a serious social problem. This was not because rates of open unemployment were low in urban areas – Turnham cited open unemployment rates in urban areas of over ten per cent for countries as diverse as Ghana, Guyana, Panama, Puerto Rico, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Korea and the Philippines. Rather, it was argued that the unemployed were not poor. They were predominantly the relatively well-educated young, who were waiting to find good jobs, or migrants ‘queuing’ for work in the formal sector, or people temporarily out of work as they moved from one job to another. The urban informal sector or agriculture would provide jobs for those really needing work. Therefore, the ‘needy’ would not remain in open unemployment for long. Long periods of open unemployment would be luxury, available only to the better-off.
Understanding Political Change After Authoritarian Rule: The Popular Sectors and Chile's New Democratic Regime
Authors: Oxhorn Philip
Published: February 2009

When Patricio Aylwin accepted the Chilean presidential sash in March 1990 an era in Latin American politics dominated by authoritarian regimes came to an end. Virtually every country in the region now had to grapple with the complicated task of consolidating fragile democratic regimes. Surprisingly, given what may be the emergence of a new democratic era, one is hardpressed even to begin answering an obvious question: How will years of non-democratic rule affect future efforts to establish democratic political processes in their wake? Despite recent attention to the ways in which different types of transition process affect the prospects for democracy, the impact of authoritarian rule on subsequent political processes remains largely unstudied.
Slave Control and Slave Resistance in Colonial Minas Gerais, 1700–1750
Authors: Vallejos Julio Pinto
Published: February 2009

In the early half of the eighteenth century, Minas Gerais became the main focus of colonial activity in Brazil. Gold and diamonds made this an immensely profitable colony at the very time when the sugar economy of the Northeast entered one of its most severe downturns. In response to this combination of circumstances, population and resources deserted the northeastern coastlands (and the Portuguese mainland as well) in favor of the rising Center–South. From that point on, this was to become the dominant area within Brazil – in a pattern unshaken either by independence or by the exhaustion of the gold deposits. The transfer of the viceregal capital from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro (1763) only gave official recognition to a process that demography, economy and society had already made quite unequivocal.
The Imperial Response to ‘Free Trade’: Spanish Imports from Spanish America, 1778–1796
Authors: Fisher John
Published: February 2009

The present study comprises the results of the second stage of a research project into the general question of trade between Spain and its American empire in the period 1778–96. The historiographical context of the project, and the significance of the time scale, were explained in an article published in 1981, which analysed the consequences for Spain's economy, its regions, and its major ports of the greater freedom to export to America provided by the decree of free trade of 1778. Using as its basic source the registers of 3,809 ships which sailed from Spanish ports for America between 1778 and 1796, that work produced the following principal conclusions, (i) Free trade promoted a massive expansion in the value of exports from Spain to America. The rise was uneven, but in the period 1782–96 as a whole their average annual value was 400 % higher than in the base year of 1778. (ii) The share of Spanish products in total exports from Spain to America rose from 38% in 1778 to an average of 52% in 1782–96. (iii) Despite the impossibility of measuring with precision the relative importance of Spanish manufactures and agricultural goods in exports, it seems that agricultural producers were more responsive than industrialists to the wider opportunities in the American market offered by free trade.