Brazilian National Identity at a Crossroads: The Myth of Racial Democracy and the Development of Black Identity

This article aims at coping with the 2003 implementation of affirmative action policies favoring blacks and “browns” in public-funded universities in Brazil. We are especially interested in coming to terms with some of the most resounding controversies over this type of “race”-based policy, which in our view are to be seen as reactions to some core aspects of Brazil’s national identity. The key question that has pervaded this debate is: Should the State apparatus, by means of these non-universalist policies, foster racial identities in a society that has historically imagined itself as racially mixed and, as such, able to deal with race-based conflicts in a quite positive way? As we will strive to demonstrate, these controversies gained momentum as multiculturalism started to inform identity-oriented social movements, which in recent years excelled in challenging the image of Brazil as a successful case of a melting-pot society by denouncing deep-seated social inequalities grounded in racial lines. We want to investigate whether popular resistance to race-based public policies will propel the rise of a sort of resented form of nationalism in Brazil’s public scene.     

The institutionalisation of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the institutional development of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (BCD) from 1826 to the present. Legislature careers, the internal organisation of the BCD, the current system for filling positions within the committees and electoral rules are the objects of this study. The process of development of the BCD should be understood in light of the dynamics of the Brazilian political system, which has undergone significant ruptures of regime, and also in light of the nearly permanent fragility of the democracy, especially of its representative components. It is an institution with legislature career patterns that vary through time, but always point towards opportunities out of the BCD, a stable, hierarchical and complex mode of organisation that currently values parties as distributors of opportunities. It is, above all, an institution that is subject to external influences from other parts of the political system, which diminish its autonomy and self-determination, as shown by the example of the rule for the adjudication of terms. With its 190 years, the BCD has evolved along with Brazilian democracy and today, although boasting a great structure and large resources, it still needs to establish itself as a decisive and permanent actor in driving public policies and communication (parties and government projects) with voters.     

Place of residence and registration: problems and comparability in the classification of births

In 1973, the classification method for births in Mexico was changed from place of registration to place of mother's residence. "The objective of this work is to analyze how the place of 'customary residence of the mother' has been registered and to determine if the change of classification has some effect [on] the comparability of the information about births in different states. The information analyzed is divided into two periods, according to the way in which it was obtained and processed and the institution responsible for its publication." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

A diplomatic failure: the Mexican role in the demise of the 1940 Reglamento Federal de Toxicomanías

Abstract

In 1940 Mexico implemented a new revolutionary strategy in its fight against drug trafficking and addiction with a policy that legalized the sale of morphine to opiate addicts. While this approach to drug addiction was not entirely new or unique, it was strongly opposed by the United States, which responded by declaring an embargo on narcotic shipments to Mexico. As a result, Mexico was forced to abandon the plan just a few months after it was implemented. Often seen as a moment when Mexico might have gone in a different, less prohibitionist drug-policy direction, this episode has been overwhelmingly interpreted as an early and striking example of U.S. drug-control imperialism in Latin America. While such interpretations are not incorrect, they have missed an equally critical element of the story—a series of catastrophic diplomatic failures on the Mexican side which undermined various opportunities Mexico had to salvage the policy in some form. The episode thus stands in contrast to more well-known diplomatic challenges during the period in which Mexico’s diplomats have been lauded for outmaneuvering their U.S. and European counterparts.     

Triangulation of Salient Studies to Date on Trust-Building in Mediation

Many studies have empirically demonstrated the importance of trust-building between mediators and parties to a dispute. We wrote this article in response to a call by Stephen Goldberg and Margaret Shaw for studies conducted in North America to be triangulated in other countries where mediation is taking off as an alternative tool in the resolution of disputes. Our objective was to test theories on the factors that increase trust-building in mediation. With this in mind, the study conducted by Jean Poitras in Montreal (Canada) was triangulated in the Balearic Islands (Spain) and an analysis was made of the similarities and differences between both studies using different methods.     

Nucleotide variability of HV-I in admixed population of the Brazilian Amazon Region

The analysis of genetic variation in the nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial DNA has been used as a tool in the study of history of different human populations, as Amerindians, Afro-descendents populations and furthermore admixed populations. In this study, the mitochondrial DNA was analyzed in 158 unrelated individuals in an admixed population of the Amazonian Region: Santarém-PA-Brazil. The polymorphisms were detected using both levels, analysis of restriction enzyme and direct sequencing. We observed a total of 49 different haplotypes were found determined by 46 variable nucleotides. The more frequent haplotypes (Hap03) was shared by five samples and 43 sequences were unique. The genetic diversity was estimated to 0.989+/-0.0067 and the probability of two random individuals showed identical mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes were 2.8%.     

The Impact of Daycare Attendance on Math Test Scores for a Cohort of Fourth Graders in Brazil

We estimate the impact of having attended centre-based daycare institutions during early childhood on math test scores at the fourth grade level of elementary school. We find evidence that daycare attendance has a net impact on math proficiency, and that the effects are heterogeneous. The effect of daycare and kindergarten attendance on proficiency varies according to mother’s education. The effects of the impact of daycare vary from ?0.28 standard deviation for mothers with no education to 0.42 standard deviation for mother’s with college or more.