Poderes fácticos mediáticos: una agenda de investigación

Based on the recognition of the importance of the commonly referred to as factual powers in Mexico’s political life, and specifically in the media power, the author calls upon our attention the insufficient analysis and research on the subject and underscores the need to overcome this deficit by systematically and rigorously approaching it as a subject of inquiry and as part of a research agenda. This article brings to the fore the basic points of such an agenda and proposes a multidisciplinary analytical approach to develop it. The author argues that the studies’ findings can be applied to constructing limits for the exercise of media power, which are indispensable for national democratic development.     

Poderes fácticos,problemas drásticos

The article reconstructs systematically a definition analytically dense of the factual powers. By focusing on the implications factual powers in Latin America, the article inquiries into the resistance of these powers to the State of law, evidencing their propensity to promote their own private interests and impose them on society at large. On its turn, the author elaborates a diagnosis of the cultural expansion of factual powers in Mexican society, demonstrating that their influence expresses and reinforces political deficiencies, legal voids and cultural paucity, identifying the ideological preponderance of private television.     

Medios electrónicos de comunicación,poderes fácticos y su impacto en la democracia en México

The concept of factual powers has been increasingly incorporated into the sphere of Latin American politics to refer to actors that exert large influence in diverse sectors of social life. In Mexico, this term is used to refer to Televisa and its allies as part of the debate regarding the so-called “media legislation” that took place between November of 2005 and March of 2006. Moreover, the academic and theoretical discussion has not achieved a conceptual maturity. This article aims to review the antecedents and development of factual powers and their differentiation from other actors or groups that also exercise influence. It discusses as well the power they currently wield in the electronic media, the State and democracy.     

Hacia una ubicación conceptual de Internet como medio de comunicación

The academic field of communications continues to face several challenges related to its disciplinary development. From an epistemological perspective, the definition of its object of study presents a still unfinished conceptual elaboration which would have made possible a more solid reflection vis-á-vis the new technologies that enable communicative acts in the framework of the media. This article seeks to provide elements that may strengthen this category in view of the Internet as an innovation that offers unprecedented possibilities for interactive communication not only due to the space-time compression it entails, but also to the rhizome structures through which information flows. It argues that the Internet is a communications media with unknown possibilities for expression and dissemination, based mainly on the social uses of hypertextual foundation which facilitates the operation of one of the most frequently used communication environments: the World Wide Web.     

Más allá de la representación y del clientelismo: hacia un lenguaje de la intermediación política

This paper proposes rethinking conceptual scopes of the term “political mediation”, in order to illustrate the analytical scope of indirect politics, whose range of possibilities has usually been thought of as if contained between the extremes of political representation and patronage. An analytical exercise is offered as one possible and tentative path to specify not only a vocabulary which is more sensitive to the demands of the present but to –in the words of Bunge– allow the initial reinterpretation of old symbols of our political vocabulary. To this end, in addition to a linguistic and conceptual journey of the term “intermediation”, three analytical dimensions of indirect policy are developed; thus facilitating dialogue with theories of representation, and leading to an analytical model that we call “cube of indirect politics”. We conclude with a brief case classification exercise intended to show the displacements produced by this model in understanding certain indirect political experiences.     

Instituciones electorales,derecho a la información y medios de comunicación durante las campañas presidenciales de 2012

This paper assesses the performance of Mexican electoral authorities during the 2012 presidential campaigns concerning citizens’ right of information. By means of a theoretical review of the concepts of freedom of speech and right of information a case is made for the necessary complementarity and interdependence of both concepts. The paper explores the approach that electoral authorities adopted on three different spheres, namely, the “suggested guidelines” that were submitted to radio and television agencies for the coverage of electoral campaigns; the monitoring of campaigns coverage by radio and TV news broadcasts; and the organization and promotion of electoral debates among Mexico’s presidential candidates. This review reveals a considerable clash between theory and the ife’s and tepjf’s practices. The paper closes with some general remarks on freedom of speech and the role of electoral bodies in Mexican politics, as well as with a proposal of various reforms that could reinforce freedom of speech and the right of information in the coming electoral campaigns.     

Los poderes fácticos mediáticos y el surgimiento del Estado híbrido en México

The process of institutional overlapping that developed in Mexico between formal traditional constitutional powers and mass electronic technologies, which gradually attained factual positions in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, changed the nature and basic governing functions of the national State. Thus, mass media power gave rise to a novel mixing phenomenon that generated a new type of “hybrid State”. The corresponding new historical Republic with a highly political and media oriented nature modified the structure and scenario of the conventional contemporary nation state. The evolution of this historical reality has not yet come to an end, but instead continues to develop with an enormous amount of dynamism and force towards new stages of transformation of the State, public space, and society as a whole, without knowing its final outcome due to the strengthening of factual media power while the major branches of government are gradually weakening. Consequently, society needs to critically engage in an objective analysis of this strategic phenomenon, its phases of transformation and the viable alternatives for recovering the national development path.     

Representación e intermediación en el ámbito del trabajo: actores,recursos y estrategias

In a global context hostile to traditional labor unions' fare in defense of workers' rights, union representatives have had to innovate in their strategies and recourse to power while having acquired new allies, such as human rights NGOs. Tese changes complicate the classic examination of Hanna F. Pitkin's concept of representation and Philippe Schmitter's corporatism, and provide a point of departure from which to study several types of interaction and representation developed around the milieu of labor, illustrated by Mexican and Central American cases. Te main argument is that, whereas traditionally labor-unions have held the monopoly over formal representation of interests within the realm of labor, this kind of mediation has incrementally lost strength in the context of neoliberal and global economics, which has impelled unions to renew their abilities, strategies and power re-sources.     

Las Cortes de Castilla y León bajo los Austrias: Una interpretación

Trowbridge H. Ford, Albert Venn Dicey, The Man and His Times (Barry Rose Publishers Ltd., Chichester, 1985; pp.354; £19.50/$30.00)     

Partidos políticos e innovación democrática: más allá de purezas y perversiones

This article aims to review the conceptual import of the term “political mediation”, to shed light on the analytical reach of indirect politics, whose scope of possibilities has been usually thought of as confined within the opposites of political representation and clientelism. An analytical exercise is put forth as a possible and tentative means not only to establish a vocabulary which may be more sensitive towards present time demands, but also to –in Bunge's words– initially allow for the reinterpretation of older symbols of our political vocabulary. Towards this goal, besides a linguistic and conceptual itinerary of the term “mediation”, each of the three analytical dimensions of indirect politics is developed, favoring dialogue with theories of representation, which channels into an analytical model we call the “cube of indirect politics”. The article ends with a brief case-classification exercise aimed at showing the displacement produced by the model in the understanding of given experiences in indirect politics.     

La cooperación internacional para el desarrollo de México Un análisis de sus acciones,institucionalización y percepciones

The Mexican Law of International Development Cooperation (lidc) was published in 2011 with the purpose of reinforcing the institutional framework and developing a State policy as an activity that is inherent to foreign policy. From an institutional perspective, this paper examines some key aspects of Mexican cooperation that were developed in 2011–2014, with an emphasis on the current status of the lidc implementation. It is argued that during Felipe Calderon's administration the utter applicability of the Mexican lidc was not politically supported, thus frustrating the expectations concerning the development of a State policy on this matter. President Enrique Peña Nieto's current administration has made some progress in this direction, but it is also far from fully complying with the lidc and this has slowed down the institutionalization process of international development cooperation.     

Memoria y democracia. Una relación incierta

This paper begins with a series of findings on the increasing focus on the memories of the recent past, particularly in societies that have undergone periods of political violence, dictatorships and civil wars. In analysing the moment of installation of the institutional, territorial and symbolic marks (understood as expressions produced by various actors and state policies and social movements that respond to the demands of these social actors), one can see how memories of the recent past, suffering and political violence act as stimuli for countless rituals, cultural productions, and a search for interpretations and explanations. This paper seeks to question some of the basic assumptions and basic innuendos implicit in the “duty of memory”: an exploration of the relationship between memory and justice, between memory and democracy, and between preservation-preservation and transmission. By analysing these relationships, this paper aims to relocate memories in the context of broader and longer-lasting structures and social processes; centrally linked to the persistence of multiple social inequalities and the relationship between memory and political present. To do this, some institutional state processes are analysed, both at the symbolic level and in the field of education and transmission, in order to present some situations that allow the task of rethinking and raising further questions about the relationship between memory and democracy.     

Integración,mestizaje y nacionalismo en el México revolucionario. Forjando Patria de Manuel Gamio: la diversidad subordinada al afán de unidad

This paper analyzes the integration program in Manuel Gamio's Forjando Patria as a national project arising in the historical context of revolutionary Mexico, where cultural diversity is conditional on the idea of unity. Firstly, we trace the relationship of the integration program with its history, the concepts of “mestizaje” and “mestizo” of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Secondly, we analyze the influence of some European models of nationality and socio-cultural change on Gamio's integrationism, in the context of socio-ethnic heterogeneity in Mexico during 1916. Finally, we highlight the links between the concepts of cultural diversity become visible, nation and nationalism in this author's work.     

Entre la autonomía y la heteronomía. Socialización universitaria y prácticas profesionales de los sociólogos en la Argentina

This article studies the relation between university socialization and professional practices of sociologists in Argentina since democracy’s restoration in the mid-eighties. On the one hand, it examines orientations and ways of understanding the discipline transmitted by the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) curriculum contents and, on the other, it reconstructs the main labor market changes. Through the examination of the notion of autonomy (and its opposite, heteronomy), it aims to show that the professional practices of sociologists are strongly conditioned by the set of perception and classificatory schemes incorporated during university socialization. Those schemes, operating through a group of oppositions, contribute to the production of a set of “crafts” or modes of practicing sociology clearly differentiated according to the area or sphere of insertion.     

Presupuesto público sin participación ciudadana. La necesidad de un cambio institucional en México para la consolidación democrática

Over the last thirty years, Mexico has undergone an important consolidation of its institutional framework, focused primarily on the electoral and political system. This process of political change was accompanied by a significant transformation and liberalization of the financial and economic system. Mexico’s current situation proves that both processes do not yield satisfactory results when social problems are left unattended. In fact, the transition from a noncompetitive political system to a more democratic one, has not guaranteed better living conditions for most of the population, in part because there is practically no participation in public life on behalf of most of the citizenry. This article reflects on the fundamental importance of citizens’ participation in democracy. Particular attention is paid to public participative budgets as factors which may contribute to democracy’s consolidation and quality, but which have had negligible impacts thus far as is illustrated by public participative budgets initiatives that have been held in Mexico City.     

Los caminos de la vida: acumulación,reproducción o superación de las desventajas sociales en México

This article develops an analytical model which, using a life-trajector y approach, attempts to identify and understand the articulation of social factors that favors reproduction, deepening or overcoming social disadvantages among youths. The analytical model analyzes longitudinal life-trajectories and places emphasis in their evolving character. The analytical reconstruction exercise stems from the systematization and analyses of 34 life-histories of Mexican youths who experienced harsh social deprivation during their childhood/adolescence. Testimonies were collected in three Mexican cities with diverse development levels: Oaxaca, Monterrey and Mexico City.     

Valor de uso y espacio urbano: la ciudad como eje central de la conformación política,cultural y simbólica de las sociedades

This article outlines a theoretical proposal intended to understand the concept of use value applied to the study of the city and the urban space, in their origins and development. Based on Henri Lefebvre's views, the main argument of this work is that the city initially arises as use value. According to Bolívar Echeverría and Gilbert Durand approaches, the article claims that use value not only is material, signic and semiotic, but also symbolic. It is argued that the symbolic plays a crucial role in the construction of cities, just as important as economy and politics. A case study is carried out with the aim of suggesting a concurrence of theoretical interpretations ranging from historical materialism to symbolic hermeneutics. The author concludes that the city and the ordering of its urban space are major hubs around which societies are organized.