bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Latin America and the World Economy: Some Observations on External Indebtedness and the International Monetary System
Authors: Ferrer Aldo 
Published: March 2007

Since 1973 most of the Latin American countries have experienced deterioration in their balance of payments due to the economic recession in the industrial countries and the oil price increases. The consequent adjustment process has called for stricter regulation of domestic demand and new advances in import substitution. Adjustment was less painful due to access to private financing in the international capital markets which, however, produced a sharp increase in the external debt.This article does not propose to review the recent patterns of external payments, already extensively analyzed in the periodic reports of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, the International Monetary Fund, and in other studies. Rather, it will attempt to emphasize some long-term changes in the world economy and in Latin America that influence the international participation of the region. It is in this context that the adjustment process of the balance of payments and the external debt should be evaluated.
Incumbency and Electoral Turnover in Latin America
Authors: Dix Robert H. 
Published: March 2007

In contemporary Latin America whenever there are successive free elections turnover tends to occur at every opportunity. That is, incumbent parties or coalitions seldom win; if they do, they almost invariably show diminished electoral support compared to that of the previous election.The frequency of incumbent defeat seems especially remarkable in view of the traditionally strong Latin American presidency. The history of some Latin American countries has been replete withcontinuismo(the perpetuation of a president or regime in office through manipulation of formal constitutional procedures). Even in those polities with a record of frequent adherence to constitutional norms, the president has tended to be “strong,” at least compared to other governmental institutions, such as legislatures, courts, and state or local governments. Unsatisfied with the term “presidential,” in the North American sense, Jacques Lambert calls Latin American governments “regimes of presidential dominance” (Lambert, 1967).
Malnutrition, Public Policy, and Agrarian Change in Guatemala
Authors: Brockett Charles D. 
Published: March 2007

Widespread malnutrition persists in Guatemala despite substantial economic growth since 1960. Indeed, there was a deterioration in the living standards of many (for example, the Indians in the Western highlands) even prior to the destruction caused by the government's pacification campaigns of the early 1980s. Chronic and widespread malnutrition has not been the result of just “natural causes”; to the contrary, it is the intent of this study to document that Guatemala's extraordinarily high level of malnutrition is the result of structural transformations and public policy, as well as demographics.This argument has been documented best, in a Central American context, by two excellent works on El Salvador. Durham (1979: 21-51) presented a thorough analysis that demonstrates that land scarcity has not been primarily the result of a high rate of population growth (although that certainly contributes) but, instead, of increasing land concentration.
Mexico: The Impact of the 1968 Student Protest on Echeverría's Reformism
Authors: Shapira Yoram 
Published: March 2007

A great many of the political initiatives of Mexico's President Echeverría were responses to stimuli generated directly by the university community's behavior during the 1968 student government crisis. Prior to this 1968 confrontation, student activism had a marginal “nuisance effect”; since then, however, it has risen to political prominence in Mexico.The following discussion focuses on establishing a casual relationship between student protest and Echeverría's reformism. It will begin with a possible framework for the student protest movement within the national political context in terms of structural-functional concepts. To that part pertains also the section dealing with protagonists' tactics in the confrontation—i.e., principal student measures to organize, communicate demands and mobilize support, and the government countermeasures aimed at discrediting the students' protest and reducing the effectiveness of their dissent. Issues concerning the link between the 1968 events and the reform policies of the Echeverría administration will be noted.
Health and Environmental Problems: The Role of the Border in El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Coordination
Authors: Richard Bath C. 
Published: March 2007

El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, share a common border divided by the channeled and weakly flowing Rio Grande. The twin cities, with a combined population of over a million, are located in a valley between two mountain ranges. They share a common air shed, mutual sources of water supply, and the ever-present threat of disease which, of course, does not recognize the artificial national boundary dividing the two cities.How have the sister cities and their respective governments at the local, state, and federal levels attempted to solve their common health and environmental problems? This paper will briefly review the efforts to resolve and to solve common health and environmental problems between the two cities. What is necessary at the outset is some type of analytical framework to better understand the relations between the two cities.
Personalization of Power in an Elected Government: Eric Williams and Trinidad and Tobago, 1973-1981
Authors: Parris Carl D. 
Published: March 2007

An article written for my forthcoming book on Trinidad and Tobago argues that the events of 1969-1970 in Trinidad should be seen as a result of a process of delegitimization—both personal and systematic—and that the public declaration by Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister of his intention to resign as political leader of the governing party was an attempt to arrest that process. My argument is that the attempt failed, and that by December 1973,The leader of the People's National Movement and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago had come full circle. In 1956 the business community, the established churches and some elements of the East Indian community were opposed to his ascendency in the political system. By 1973, it was these elements that were urging him to stay [Parris, forthcoming].
A Trudeau Decade: Canadian-Latin American Relations 1968-1978
Authors: Ogelsby J.C.M. 
Published: March 2007

Pierre Elliot Trudeau became leader of Canada's Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada in April 1968. Almost immediately he promised an effort to take new directions in Canada's external relations. One of the regions he focused attention on was Latin America (Dobell, 1972: 115).That Trudeau was interested in Latin America appears natural for an intellectual raised in Quebec. There has long been a certain sympathy with the concept of latinité. French-Canadian intellectuals often believed that they had much in common with Latin Americans, because of their religions or cultural heritage, and felt a pull from that region even if they had never visited it. Trudeau had been editor of a leading Quebec journal, Cité Libre, and that journal occasionally had editorial comment on events in Latin America. Indeed, Trudeau established his position on political involvement in the Inter-American system in that journal and he has not wavered from that position since then (Octobre 1964; and his recent statement in International Canada, 1976).
Debt, Macro Policy and State Intervention: The Next Phase for Latin America
Authors: Cline William R. 
Published: March 2007

In 1982-83 Latin America experienced a depression which rivaled that of the 1930s. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 1% in 1982 and by 3.3% in 1983. Per capita income fell 10% below 1980 levels. The proximate cause of this depression was the crisis produced by external debt.By 1984 several countries in the region began to show signs of recovery from the severe recession and external-sector crisis. Economic growth rebounded to 2%, and the larger countries achieved impressive improvements in external balances. Brazil's total exports grew sharply, as did Mexico's non-oil exports. In 1985 growth has surged ahead in Brazil and Mexico although falling commodity prices have placed new strains on the smaller countries (and weaker oil prices, as well as erosion in domestic policy, have undermined Mexico's external position).
Nicaragua: Soviet-Cuban Pawn or Non-aligned Country?
Authors: Valenta Jiri 
Published: March 2007

It is now six years since the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) toppled the regime of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Even today, the nature of the FSLN - its road to power, its political complexion and orientation, and its objectives - remains the subject of heated debate. Some still argue that the Sandinista regime is a nationalistic, non-aligned, although radical, Third World government. Others emphasize the Marxist-Leninist overtones characterizing its seizure and consolidation of power, its foreign relations, and its efforts to introduce socialist transformation to Nicaraguan society.Basically, there are two exaggerated views of Nicaraguan foreign policy: one depicts Nicaragua as a communist pawn of Moscow and Havana; the other views Nicaragua as a classical non-aligned Third World nation. Neither school of thought reflects the complex reality of Nicaraguan politics and foreign policy.
U.S.-Mexican Groundwater Problems: Bilateral Prospects and Implications
Authors: Mumme Stephen P. 
Published: March 2007

Obscured amid the headline issues of illegal aliens, drug smuggling, and the Mexican petroleum bonanza, yet another controversy is nascent in U.S.-Mexican relations the dispute over common groundwaters underlying the frontier zone. This dispute, with roots in the recent salinity accords of 1973, emerges as the latest phase in the long history of water resource controversies exacerbating problems between the two nations.Until recently, the history of U.S.-Mexican water relations had been one of preoccupation with the capture and distribution of shared surface waters. The present dispute thus marks a distinctive evolution in bilateral relations. Moreover, just as the groundwater issue is new, it also points to the complexity of the transboundary ecology and the special problems of interdependence. Only since World War II, for instance, have the full implications of the area's groundwater hydrology been appreciated with respect to such matters as quality, distribution, and movement.
Latin America and World Problems: Prospects and Alternatives
Authors: Urquidi Victor L. , Sanchez Vincente , Terrazas Eduardo 
Published: March 2007

This article will serve as a commentary on the future of Latin America and on some possible alternatives for the problems facing it while taking worldwide issues and problems into account. It does not claim to formulate or reformulate existing theories on the management and dynamics of the global crisis that threaten the world today. It will, however, go into the premises on which our thinking is based and the various levels of distinction used in approaching these global problems.The basic premise is that the relationship of man in society with nature has progressively deteriorated. Man is an integral part of nature, a fact that is increasingly being ignored. As society has increased in complexity and extent, there has been a growing alienation between man and the natural system of which he is a part. This has resulted in a series of crises between man and nature in areas such as the environment, food, energy, population, and so on, which are only different facets of the global crisis.
Canadian Foreign Policy Interests in Central America: Some Current Issues
Authors: Lemco Jonathan 
Published: March 2007

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is faced with a number of difficult choices concerning Canada's foreign policy in Central America. These choices are particularly problematic because their repercussions may have an important impact on Canada- US relations. On the one hand, the Prime Minister must heed public opinion in Canada which favors increased government concern about human rights and economic development in Central America. On the other hand, he must consider American security interests and not irritate or embarrass the United States and President Reagan in particular.Canada's middle power status puts it in a difficult quandary, for it seeks to retain an independent role in Central America, while it finds its influence circumscribed by its proximity to the US superpower. Its ability to wield tangible authority is thus severely attenuated. Canada's asymmetrical relationship with the United States allows it a certain degree of latitude in formulating foreign policy but imposes important constraints as well.
Swimming Against the Tide: Implications for Cuba of Soviet and Eastern European Reforms in Foreign Economic Relations
Authors: Perez-Lopez Jorge F. 
Published: March 2007

Since mid-1989, remarkable political and economic changes have occurred in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Although the countries differ with regard to the scope, speed, and sequence of these changes, in the economic arena the objective is, in all cases, to abandon traditional central planning and replace it with a market economy. An integral component of these efforts to establish markets is the reform of foreign economic relations and greater involvement in the world economy.While a tide of political and economic change has swept the East, Cuba has adamantly held on to a one-party political system and to orthodox central planning.
State, Market and Neoliberalism in Post-Transition Argentina: The Menem Experiment
Authors: Smith William C. 
Published: March 2007

Argentines Fervently hoped that the transition from authoritarianism to democracy would reverse decades of economic decline and return their country to the path of modernization. Raúl Alfonsín and his Radical party assumed office in December 1983 confident of reconciling democratization with rapid development and social justice. This optimism was soon shattered, the victim of a succession of failed stabilization plans. Finally, a catastrophic economic collapse led to a convincing victory by Peronist Carlos Menem in the May 1989 presidential contest.Carlos Menem assumed the presidency on 8 July 1989 in the midst of raging hyperinflation: from August 1988 through July 1989, consumer prices had risen 3,610% and wholesale prices had skyrocketed 5,062%. Menem responded with neoliberal, “free-market” reforms designed to restructure radically the beleaguered Argentine economy along the lines of the so-called “Washington Consensus.”
History as an Obstacle to Change: The Case of Haiti
Authors: Lundahl Mats 
Published: March 2007

…widespread social evils are seldom unconnected with the selfish and brutal behavior of powerful groups and individuals…(Andreski, 1966)Most economic models do not explicitly incorporate the “state” or the “government” into their analyses. Instead, this entity is viewed as adeus ex machinawhich plans and directs economic policy according to notions of efficiency, growth, distributional justice, and so on, that form the central concepts of the models. Unfortunately, the same naive thinking permeates a good deal of public policy analysis. This is the case, for example, with issues of development and underdevelopment. Here, attention is concentrated on “technical,” or “economic,” solutions, while taking for granted, either implicitly or explicitly, the existence of the political will necessary to implement them.
The United States and Cuba: From a Strategy of Conflict to Constructive Engagement
Authors: Schulz Donald E. 
Published: March 2007

There is a nagging sense that an important moment has come. Part of me thinks there is something we should be doing other than let it fall by its own weight. But I can't think what it is.Susan Kaufman Purcell(quoted in Rosenthal, 1991)In the last issue of the Journal, this writer published an article challenging the conventional wisdom concerning the future of the Castro regime. To the question “can Castro survive?,” I answered that yes, unfortunately, the prospects for his political demise in the near future were not all that good. A golpe de estado, while possible, was not probable. Nor was it likely that the Cuban masses would rise up and overthrow the dictatorship. And, while Fidel could become the victim of assassination, suicide, or natural death (or, for that matter, could even resign, as he has hinted on more than one occasion), these kinds of endings cannot be counted upon in the short run. For a variety of reasons, Castro's “final hour” seems likely to last for several years and, perhaps, much longer (see Schulz, 1993a).
Regionalism in the Americas and the Hierarchy of Power
Authors: Mace Gordon , Bélanger Louis , Thérien Jean Philippe 
Published: March 2007

It seems that regionalism is making a comeback nowadays (Rostow, 1990). Not so much in the real world where different types of regional arrangements never ceased to be a functional part of the workings of the international system since the 1950s, but more so in the scientific production of international relations scholars.Those old enough to recollect the 1960s will remember how such journals as International Organization and the Journal of Common Market Studies, to name only two, were filled with articles largely dominated by theoretical and methodological considerations concerning the study of regionalism.
The Hidden Logic of “Irrational” Economic Policies in Ecuador
Authors: Thoumi Francisco E. 
Published: March 2007

Mainstream economists blame the poor 1980s economic performance of most Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries on the poor economic policies followed by the region for the past several decades and recommend drastic policy changes including (a) elimination of many subsidies, (b) lowering tariffs and other obstacles to international trade, (c) privatization of many state enterprises, (d) liberalization of capital markets and interest rates, and so on — a policy package designed to lower greatly the government's intervention in the economy. This policy advice has been inspired, at least in part, by the generally accepted failure of the LAC governments to promote stable and fair growth through intervention.However, in spite of pressures by multilateral and bilateral agencies, most governments find it very difficult to implement these policies, even when policymakers and their advisers fully understand the logic behind the policy recommendations and agree with them.
The FSLN after the Debacle: The Struggle for the Definition of Sandinismo
Authors: Pérez Andrés 
Published: March 2007

…ideological rectification is worthless without corresponding practical behavior, yet without a Marxist ideological orientation positive practical behavior is insufficient.Carlos Fonseca AmadorLast TestamentTheSandinistascelebrated their first party congress on 19 July 1991, the eleventh anniversary of the day of the “Triumph,” but this time theFrente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional(FSLN) had little to celebrate and a lot to worry about. The party that once claimed so surely to bethe vanguard of the revolution … the vanguard of all Nicaraguan patriots … the vanguard of national liberation … the vanguard of the workers and peasants … the living instrument of the revolutionary classes … the guide toward a new societywas now struggling to reconstitute itself as an effective political organization after being ousted from power in 1990 by the population it claimed to represent and lead.
Civil-Military Relations in Mexico: The Zapatista Revolt and Its Implications
Authors: Wager Stephen J. , Schulz Donald E. 
Published: March 2007

The 1994 New Year's celebration in Mexico started with a bang. A mere hour into the year, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN or Zapatista National Liberation Army) assaulted and captured four cities in the Los Altos region of Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. The Ejército Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional shocked the Mexican people and most of the world. Although Mexican political and military leaders denied that they were caught off guard, they were, in fact, totally surprised by the magnitude of the attack.As events unfolded, the reasons behind the seizure of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Las Margaritas, Altamirano, and Ocosingo became increasingly apparent. The Zapatistas called for a nationwide movement for “jobs, land, housing, food, health, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace.”
Democracy in Brazil and the Southern Cone: Achievements and Problems
Authors: Mainwaring Scott 
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes the achievements and failures of the new democratic governments in Argentina (1983-), Uruguay (1985-), Brazil (1985-), and Chile (1990-). My comparisons focus on four fundamental issues: economic performance, the ability of governments to address the pressing problems of poverty and inequality, the quality of democratic practice, and the degree to which these governments and the democratic regimes have won popular support and legitimacy. Focusing on these questions is not to deny the significance of others, nor to suggest that citizens of these countries would see these four as the most pressing. The focus here will be on government; civil society will not be discussed in any detail.This article develops four principal arguments. First, it argues that the performance of democracy has varied considerably in the four countries under discussion. Democracy in Chile, at least in its early phases, has been a success both politically and economically.
The Politics of Sustainable Development Environmental Policy Making in Four Brazilian States
Authors: Ames Barry , Keck Margaret E. 
Published: March 2007

The term sustainable development has become a catch phrase of the 1990s, a handy slogan for politicians, bureaucrats, environmental activists, multinational aid officials, and even business leaders. Implementing sustainable development policy, however, is no mere technical problem. Indeed, environmental policy making is classically political: a competition among multiple interests with differing goals, resources, tactics, information, and time horizons. Who “sustains” what, for whom, why, and how? These questions underpin any analysis of the politics of environmental policy.Scholars have paid little attention to the political side of environmental policy making in developing countries. Although environmental policy making is often understood as a case of “diffusion,” in which ideas flowed from Western Europe and the United States to the developing world, the acceptance of new ideas is always mediated by local institutions and cultures (Sikkink, 1991). Furthermore, as international linkages have come to involve more and more actors outside foreign ministries, the form of diffusion differs from classic examples like social security policy (Collier and Messick, 1975).
U.S. Military Assistance to Latin America: An Assessment
Authors: Baines John M. 
Published: March 2007

This paper examines the nature of the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP) to Latin America and the historical development of the Military Assistance Program in the hemisphere. It further analyzes this program with regard to the two major criticisms levelled at it:(1)that Military Assistance Programs have perpetuated “militarism” in the form of military coups and strong-man military regimes; and(2)that Military Assistance Programs have encouraged large military forces where they are not needed.Changes in U.S. policy toward Latin America are noted as they affect MAP—i.e., the shift in U.S. policy from one of fostering hemispheric defense to one of promoting internal security and economic development. Finally, an assessment of the impact of this change in U.S. military assistance policy forms the conclusion of this paper.