bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Drugs, Violence, and Development in Colombia: A Department-Level Analysis
Authors: Holmes Jennifer S. , Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres Sheila , Curtin Kevin M. 
Published: August 2010

Abstract
Observers say that drug production fuels violence in Colombia, but does coca production explain different levels of violence? This article examines the relationship between coca production and guerrilla violence by reviewing national-level data over time and studying Colombia by department, exploring the interactions among guerrilla violence, exports, development, and displacement. It uses historical analysis, cartographic visualization, and analysis of the trends in four high coca-producing and four violent Colombian departments, along with a department-level fixed effects model. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the department-level analysis suggests that coca production is not the driving force of contemporary Colombian guerrilla violence. Instead, economic factors and coca eradication emerge as prominent explanatory factors.
Elections and Economic Turbulence in Brazil: Candidates, Voters, and Investors
Authors: Spanakos Anthony P. , Renno Lucio R. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe relation between elections and the economy in Latin America might be understood by considering the agency of candidates and the issue of policy preference congruence between investors and voters. The preference congruence model proposed in this article highlights political risk in emerging markets. Certain risk features increase the role of candidate campaign rhetoric and investor preferences in elections. When politicians propose policies that can appease voters and investors, elections may have a limited effect on economic indicators, such as inflation. But when voter and investor priorities differ significantly, deterioration of economic indicators is more likely. Moreover, voter and investor congruence is more likely before stabilization, when an inverted Philips curve exists, as opposed to following stabilization, when a more traditional Philips curve emerges.
Gender, Parties, and Support for Equal Rights in the Brazilian Congress
Authors: Htun Mala , Power Timothy J. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis article analyzes a dataset of policy views of members of the Brazilian Congress to assess the nature of support for genderrelated policy issues. It makes three core claims. First, liberal and progressive opinions on gender correspond to party membership more than to sex. Left parties have consistent and programmatic policy positions on controversial gender issues. Women and men are more divided, as are parties of the center and the right. Second, coalitions supporting change differ across policy issues. Support for gender quotas, for example, does not translate into support for more liberal abortion laws. Third, there is a large gap between legislators' attitudes toward gender-related policy and actual policy outcomes. Institutional deadlock and executive priorities explain this discrepancy. This article concludes that although women may share some interests by virtue of their position in a gender-structured society, these interests may be trumped by partisan, class, regional, and other cleavages.
Rewarding Lula: Executive Power, Social Policy, and the Brazilian Elections of 2006
Authors: Hunter Wendy , Power Timothy J. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis article analyzes Luiz Inácio da Silva's resounding reelection victory in the wake of corruption scandals implicating his party and government. Voters with lower levels of economic security and schooling played a critical role in returning Lula to the presidency. Least prone to punish the president for corruption, poorer Brazilians were also the most readily persuaded by the provision of material benefits. Minimum wage increases and the income transfer programBolsa Famíliaexpanded the purchasing power of the poor. Thus, executive power and central state resources allowed Lula to consolidate a social base that had responded only weakly to his earlier, party-based strategy of grassroots mobilization for progressive macrosocietal change. Although Lula won handily, the PT's delegation to Congress shrank for the first time, and the voting bases of president and party diverged. The PT benefited far less than the president himself from government investment in social policy.
Ending Up in Pizza: Accountability as a Problem of Institutional Arrangement in Brazil
Authors: Taylor Matthew M. , Buranelli Vinícius C. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractBrazilians often complain that investigations of corruption by public servants drag on for years or bring few legal sanctions on the perpetrators. This lack of accountability is so pervasive that a slang phrase,acabou em pizza, is often invoked when investigations are inconclusive. This article investigates the role of four Brazilian public institutions charged with keeping public servants accountable. For analysis, it breaks the accountability process into its three component stages: oversight, investigation, and sanction. Through a study of six prominent cases of corruption, it shows that the weakness of the accountability process in Brazil is due not entirely to the toothlessness of individual institutions of accountability, but also to the independence of such institutions at each of the three stages. These findings suggest that institutional arrangements influence the degree of accountability, and thereby also public trust and confidence, in Latin America's largest democracy.
The Indian Movement and Political Democracy in Ecuador
Authors: Zamosc Leon 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis article examines the implications of the Ecuadorian Indian movement for democratic politics. During the 1990s, the movement successfully fostered indigenous and popular participation in public life, influenced government policies, and became a contender in power struggles. But in the institutional domain, the participatory breakthrough had mixed effects. While the movement fulfilled functions of interest representation and control of state power, its involvement in a coup attempt demonstrated that its political socialization had not nurtured a sense of commitment to democracy. The evidence is discussed by reference to the proposition that civil society actors may or may not contribute to democracy. The article argues that the study of the democratic spinoffs of civil activism requires a context-specific approach that considers the particularistic orientations of civil associations and pays attention to their definition of means and ends, the institutional responses evoked by their initiatives, and the unintended consequences of their actions.
Frente Amplio and the Crafting of a Social Democratic Alternative in Uruguay
Authors: Luna Juan Pablo 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis study of Uruguay's Frente Amplio explores four central questions for the analysis of the “new Latin American left.” How did a leftist alternative emerge and grow inside an institutionalized party system? How do the socioeconomic and political factors that enabled the rise of the left in Uruguay differ from those observed in other Latin American cases? How did Frente Amplio adapt itself to profit from the opportunities that arose during the 1990s? What are the implications of the previous factors for governmental action by the FA? In answering these questions, this study integrates an analysis of the sociological and political-institutional opportunity structures consolidated during the 1990s with one of strategic partisan adaptation processes. This perspective is useful for explaining how, by 2004, Frente Amplio had built a dual support base from its historical constituency and a socially heterogeneous group alienated from traditional parties due to economic and political discontent.
Clientelism and Social Funds: Evidence from Chávez's Misiones
Authors: Penfold-Becerra Michael 
Published: August 2010

Abstract
The latest president in Latin America to adopt social funds on a large scale as an integral part of his government program has been Hugo Chávez Frías of Venezuela. Based on the literature on clientelism and social funds in Latin America, this article finds that Venezuela's latest experiments with social funds were influenced by political variables. It uses empirical data from the distribution of resources for some of the subnational misiones programs to show how, given increased levels of electoral competition and weak institutional constraints, the government used these funds clientelistically, even while distributing oil income to the very poor. Chávez's misiones served two very different purposes: to manipulate the political context and to distribute funds directly to the low-income population.
Issues, Threats, and Institutions: Explaining Oas Responses to Democratic Dilemmas in Latin America
Authors: Arceneaux Craig , Pion-Berlin David 
Published: August 2010

AbstractOver time, the Organization of American States has become institutionally and normatively more capable of defending democracy in the region. Yet the OAS is as selective in its interventions on behalf of democratic promotion today as it was in the early 1990s. To explain this puzzle, this study disaggregates democratic dilemmas according to issue areas, threats, and contingencies. It finds that the OAS responds more forcefully when the problem presents a clear and present danger both to the offending state and to other members. As threats become weaker or more ambiguous, the OAS tends to act more timidly, unless domestic constituencies cry out for its assistance or the United States puts its full weight behind the effort. Case study capsules provide empirical evidence to illustrate these arguments.
Cognitive Images and Support for International Economic Agreements with the United States Among Mexican Citizens
Authors: Davis Charles L. , Bartilow Horace A. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractA 1995 survey shows that Mexican citizens depend on their cognitive and affective orientations toward the United States in forming opinions about economic agreements between the two countries. The degree to which respondents utilized general feelings toward the United States rather than images of the United States varies by educational level and across the two agreements that were examined, NAFTA and the Clinton economic stabilization package of 1995. Whether respondents utilized an image of U.S. economic imperialism or of racial discrimination against people of Mexican origin in forming their opinions also depends on the level of education attained and on the policy domain of the agreement. The cognitive processes respondents utilized to form opinions about these economic agreements also differ across educational levels and policy domains. The findings have important implications for the capacity of Mexican elites to mobilize support for agreements with the United States and more generally for U.S.-Mexican relations.
Guatemala's Party Universe: A Case Study in Underinstitutionalization
Authors: Sánchez Omar 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe article examines the degree of institutionalization of the Guatemalan party universe across four areas: the pattern of interparty competition; the rootedness of parties in society; the legitimacy accorded to parties and democratic institutions; and the nature of internal party organization. Guatemala displays an extremely inchoate party structure across all these variables. There is no stability in the identity of the main parties in the polity. After more than two decades of electoral democracy, no single party has been able to avert a drift into electoral irrelevance or outright disappearance. With respect to the basic facets of internal party organization, Guatemalan parties exhibit a feebleness so pronounced that their very status as parties is questionable. In general, Guatemalan “parties” only fulfill Sartori's minimalist definition as organizations that field candidates for public office, but offer nothing more substantive.
Competitiveness and Democracy
Authors: Feinberg Richard 
Published: August 2010

AbstractAfter reviewing progress in Latin America's economic stabilization and international competitiveness in the last two decades, this essay discusses the current post–Washington Consensus “social democratic convergence” agenda, which aims to sharpen market efficiency, improve the quality of democratic governance, and advance equity goals by attacking the social deficit. Two illustrative examples, at opposite ends of the development spectrum, are Nicaragua's pro-CAFTA agenda and Chile's Chile Compete program. More generally, pluralistic democracy can hamper progress by giving veto powers to recalcitrant vested interests; but enlightened political leadership can make gains by combining carefully crafted coalitions, international support, popular pressures, and an attractive ideological message.
Latin America's Neocaudillismo: Ex-Presidents and Newcomers Running for President … and Winning
Authors: Corrales Javier 
Published: August 2010

AbstractLatin Americans have been voting for a surprisingly large number of ex-presidents and newcomers in presidential elections since the late 1980s. This article looks at both the demand and supply sides of this phenomenon by focusing on economic anxieties and party crises as the key independent variables. Sometimes the relationship between these variables is linear: economic anxieties combined with party crises lead to rising ex-presidents and newcomers. At other times the relationship is symbiotic: the rise of ex-presidents leads to party crises, economic and political anxieties, and thus the rise of newcomers. This article concludes that the abundance of ex-presidents and newcomers in elections—essentially, the new face of Latin America's caudillismo—does not bode well for democracy because it accelerates de-institutionalization and polarizes the electorate.
The Repoliticization of Collective Action After Neoliberalism in Peru
Authors: Arce Moisés 
Published: August 2010

AbstractExamining the popular uprising against the privatization of electric service in Arequipa and other revolts against foreign direct investment in Peru, this article explores the changing basis of antigovernment mobilizations against economic liberalization. It suggests that the transition from Fujimori to Toledo led to a major shift in the political opportunity structure, creating a more conducive environment for greater levels of mobilization while increasing the leverage of challengers, along with their chances to achieve positive goals. These new forms of collective resistance are geographically segmented or territorialized; they present concrete demands; and they often involve unexpected actors, yet they resonate at the national level. These results confirm the expectations from recent repoliticization literature insofar as collective actors remain acutely responsive to market reforms in more democratic settings.
The New Research on Civil Wars: Does It Help Us Understand the Colombian Conflict?
Authors: Gray Vanessa Joan 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThe article synthesizes contributions from the recent comparative research on civil war and the case-specific literature on Colombia to argue that too often, commentators on this conflict overlook some of its key dimensions. A comprehensive analysis shows that no fewer than six factors are fueling violent conflict in Colombia: economic forces, state weakness, landscape, U.S. policies, long-duration and spin-off violence, and malicious opportunism by non-combatants. The first three are the ones that matter most. The case made here is that when analysts disregard the range and interrelatedness of the factors involved, the result is a distortion of reality and a tendency to support policies that will not enhance the prospects for peace.
Campaign Strategies of Afro-Brazilian Politicians: A Preliminary Analysis
Authors: Mitchell Gladys 
Published: August 2010

Abstract
Racial politics in Brazil have changed dramatically: the nation-state that once denied racism now enacts racial policies for Afro-Brazilians. The discourse of race has also changed: it is now common for the media to discuss Afro-Brazilians as a voting bloc. Using qualitative methods, this article tests the hypothesis that Afro-Brazilian politicians seek a racial vote from the Afro-Brazilian electorate. Analyzing campaign advertisements from select candidates in Salvador and São Paulo, this study finds that most Afro-Brazilian politicians use racial cues, and interviews show that most Afro-Brazilian politicians address racial issues during their campaigns. Not all of them seek racial votes, however: at the federal level, Afro-Brazilian politicians believe that this strategy would not get them elected. Many use campaigns nevertheless to raise racial consciousness among the electorate.
Governance from below in Bolivia: A Theory of Local Government with Two Empirical Tests
Authors: Faguet Jean-Paul 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis article examines decentralization through the lens of the local dynamics it unleashed in the much-noted case of Bolivia. It argues that the national effects of decentralization are largely the sum of its local-level effects. To understand decentralization, therefore, we must first understand how local government works. The article explores the deep economic and institutional determinants of government quality in two extremes of municipal performance. From this it derives a model of local government responsiveness as the product of political openness and substantive competition. The quality of local politics, in turn, emerges endogenously as the joint product of the lobbying and political engagement of local firms and interests and the organizational density and ability of civil society. The analysis tests the theory's predictions on a database containing all Bolivian municipalities. The theory proves robust. The combined methodology provides a higher-order empirical rigor than either approach can alone.
Public Opinion on Nonwhite Underrepresentation and Racial Identity Politics in Brazil
Authors: Bailey Stanley R. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractBrazil has an “African-origin” population that is proportionally more than four times larger that of African Americans in the United States, but white Brazilians mostly dominate electoral politics. How do ordinary citizens explain this phenomenon? Drawing on a large-sample survey of public opinion in the state of Rio de Janeiro, this article explores perceived explanations for nonwhite underrepresentation in the political arena. It also examines attitudes toward a particular black candidate, Benedita da Silva, to discern the state ofnegroidentity politics. Most Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro cite racial prejudice to explain nonwhite exclusion, although whites do this less than nonwhites. Indicators of a racial undercurrent in political preferences suggest the importance of allegiances based on perceived common racial origins. Class is robustly associated with voting preferences, suggesting that, in contrast to the United States, class differences among nonwhites in Brazil could attenuate the success ofnegroidentity politics.
Hard Bargains: The Impact of Multinational Corporations on Economic Reform in Latin America
Authors: Egan Patrick J. W. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractThis article promotes the idea that multinational corporations have independent agency in the process of economic reform in Latin American host countries. Through a number of pooled cross-sectional time series analyses, it shows that accumulated foreign direct investment can affect policy reform in ways unanticipated by earlier theories predicated on the obsolescence of firms' influence after initial investment. The influence of firms varies across different reform areas, and competitive pressures lead firms to press alternately for liberal and illiberal reform measures. The study also considers sectoral issues, and argues that a preponderance of natural resource–oriented FDI can alter the impact of multinational investment on policy reform. Indexes of economic reform are measured against stocks of FDI and a number of political and economic control variables. Evidence shows that the dramatic increase in FDI in the region in recent years has bolstered firms' bargaining power and concomitant policy leverage.
Economic Shocks and Democratic Vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Córdova Abby , Seligson Mitchell A. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractHistorical evidence suggests that bad economic times often mean bad times for democracy, but prior research has given us little guidance on how this process may work. What economic conditions are most threatening, and how might they weaken consolidating democracies? This article uses the AmericasBarometer conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to answer these questions by focusing on core attitudes for the consolidation of democracy. We use survey data at the level of the individual and economic data at the country level to help detect democratic vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study finds that conditions of low levels of economic development, low economic growth, and high levels of income inequality increase those vulnerabilities substantially, but the effects are not uniform across individuals. Some groups, especially the young and the poor, are particularly vulnerable to some antidemocratic appeals.
Primary cutaneous meningioma associated with von Recklinghausen's disease
Authors: Argenyi Zsolt B. , Thieberg Mark D. , Hayes Christine M. , Whitaker Duane C. 
Published: August 2010

Cutaneous meningeal tumors are rare and can pose a diagnostic problem. We present a case of a 12‐year‐old girl with a family history of von Recklinghausen's disease. The patient was asymptomatic until the age of 11, when she developed two lesions on the head, both diagnosed as plexiform neurofibroma. Subsequently, she presented with a subcutaneous nodule on the left posterior occipital scalp which was excised. On histology, the tumor was composed of spindle‐shaped cells with diffuse and nested patterns. A whorled configuration of the cells, with occasional giant cells and psammoma bodies, was present. There was no evidence of connection between the tumor and the underlying tissues. Immunohistochemical studies were positive for epithelial membrane antigen, vimentin, and weakly for neuron‐specific enolase. Cytokeratin, S‐100 protein, and muscle markers were negative. Based on these features, the diagnosis of cutaneous meningioma was made. An MRI examination failed to detect any communication between the tumor site and the meninges; however, asymptomatic bilateral acoustic neuromas were identified. This case, besides being of interest as a primary cutaneous meningioma, also documents a unique combination of findings, i.e., plexiform neurofibroma, meningioma, and cerebellopontine acoustic neuromas, which should alert the clinician to a forme fruste presentation of von Recklinghausen's disease.Argenyi ZB, Thieberg MD, Hayes CM, Whitaker DC. Primary cutaneous meningioma associated with von Recklinghausen's disease.
MALIGNANT FIBROUS HISTIOCYTOMA OF BONE
Authors: KRISTENSEN I. BAYER , JENSEN O. MYHRE 
Published: August 2010

Nine cases of malignant fibrous histiocytoma of bone from a consecutive unselected 10 years' series of 106 malignant primary bone tumours seen in a tumour center serving a population of about 2 mill. are reported. Five women and four men aged between 31 and 76 years had tumours localized in long bones of extremities (7) and pelvic bones (2). Two cases developed in previously irradiated bones, one in a solitary bone cyst and one in chronic osteomyelitis.All tumours, histologically of high‐grade malignancy, were pleomorphic with collagenous, hyalinised areas without conspicuous myxoid components. The histiocytic derivation was proved by enzyme histochemistry in two cases.All patients were treated with ablative surgery without adjuvant chemo‐ or radiotherapy of the primary tumours. Four patients died within five years from tumour dissemination. The remaining five patients, observed from two to four years, have no signs of local recurrence or metastasis.