The concept of democracy: moments,meanings and images in the “long term” (a proposed rethinking of conceptual history in the Ibero-American world)

ABSTRACT

In recent years there has been a notable increase in the practice of conceptual history in the Ibero-American world. There has been a particular focus on the use of fundamental concepts previous and subsequent to the Independences (1750–1850). This work is a proposal to broaden the temporal framework of analysis, until the Second World War at least. It also suggests the introduction of three central aspects: incorporation of images as a complement to texts in the analysis of concepts; identification of the historical moments at which there occurs a change in the dominant semantic of each concept; and consideration of the Ibero-American sphere, not in isolation but in interaction with the global world. To illustrate this new approach, we provide a case study related to a paradigmatic key concept of modernity: Democracy.     

Recent Evolution of Public Sector Structure in Latin America: Describing and Explaining Shifts in Autonomy Trends in Colombia and Venezuela

This article has two objectives. The first objective is to review and assess the recent evolution of agency design in Colombia and Venezuela. More specifically, we study the agencies' formal autonomy in these two countries since the year 1999 when Venezuela experienced a major change in government policy towards socialism. Thus, we attempt to explore how this policy change is reflected in the formal autonomy of agencies. Our second objective is to test if, despite the differences in policy choices the two countries have taken in the recent years, there are theoretical factors related to the agencies' design that can explain the level of formal autonomy of the agencies. The results show two main elements: first, even though the patterns of formal agency autonomy in Colombia and Venezuela differed before Venezuela's latter policy change, the differences between these two countries have increased since 2000. This indicates that each country's policy preferences may account for the differences. Second, for both countries, we found that, despite the differences, agency level factors such as the primary tasks that are performed by the agencies and the policy sector in which they are active have had an impact on their level of formal autonomy. However, the results indicate that these relationships do not follow the predictions that have been made based on the different theoretical perspectives. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Might Makes Right: War-Related Payments in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT

This article explores the patterns of distribution of material reparations (compensation) for victims and veterans in post-1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina. Drawing on bottom-up approaches to reparative justice and critical peacebuilding, it explains the existing material reparation schemes in Bosnia as outcomes of the post-war transition and interests of the main transitional actors. It first explores the different approaches to war-related compensation for victim and veteran groups and then demonstrates that veterans have formed powerful pressure groups, drawing on extensive political and economic resources. Their organizations have been receiving socioeconomic support in exchange for electoral endorsement and public political support. As victims are fragmented ethno-nationally, by categories, and also lack capacities, their means to leverage the authorities for change are limited, even when matched with NGO and international support. This paper argues that unless material reparation is distributed in a transparent and consistent manner, it may create additional social cleavages and tensions.     

The Impact of Mixed‐member Districts on Legislators' Behavior: The Case of Bolivia

Many studies suggest that mixed‐member electoral systems produce different attitudes and behaviors among representatives. This article assesses how this type of electoral system shapes Bolivian legislators' perceptions of their roles as representatives, their district activities, and their relationships with their political parties. It examines these dimensions using elite survey data and interviews with legislators and their personal assistants. The results show that the electoral system does not produce a uniform impact. It shapes how legislators perceive their role as representatives and the nature of the relationship they build with their political parties, but it does not produce differences in the kinds of activities that both types of legislators carry out in their districts.     

How management team composition affects academic spin-offs’ entrepreneurial orientation: the mediating role of conflict

This research has been designed with the purpose of analysing the influence of both the composition of academic spin-offs’ management teams and the potential conflict emerged within such teams on the degree of entrepreneurial orientation exhibited by academic spin-offs. To this end, we have used the upper echelon theory as theoretical background and have analysed the impact of the proportion of non-academic managers within management teams, the heterogeneity of such teams with respect to the age and main educational area of their managers, as well as the potential mediating role of the conflict emerged. Drawing on a database of 167 Spanish academic spin-offs, results show, on the one hand, that the presence of non-academic managers within management teams is a key factor in the academic spin-offs' exhibitions of higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation and, on the other hand, that conflict fully mediates the relationship between management teams' age heterogeneity and entrepreneurial orientation.     

An Objective Corruption Risk Index Using Public Procurement Data

In order to address the lack of reliable indicators of corruption, this article develops a composite indicator of high-level institutionalised corruption through a novel ‘Big Data’ approach. Using publicly available electronic public procurement records in Hungary, we identify “red flags” in the public procurement process and link them to restricted competition and recurrent contract award to the same company. We use this method to create a corruption indicator at contract level that can be aggregated to the level of individual organisations, sectors, regions and countries. Because electronic public procurement data is available in virtually all developed countries from about the mid-2000s, this method can generate a corruption index based on objective data that is consistent over time and across countries. We demonstrate the validity of the corruption risk index by showing that firms with higher corruption risk score had relatively higher profitability, higher ratio of contract value to initial estimated price, greater likelihood of politicians managing or owning them and greater likelihood of registration in tax havens, than firms with lower scores on the index. In the conclusion we discuss the uses of this data for academic research, investigative journalists, civil society groups and small and medium business.     

Immigration reform,the INS,and the distribution of interior and border enforcement resources

This paper investigates the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) interior and border enforcement effort allocation choice following the enactment of IRCA in 1986. The INS increasingly allocated a disproportionate amount of resources along the border as a result of the new law. It is contended that this behavior is consistent with that of a public agency intent on maximizing its budget and not in accord with minimizing the undocumented population in the United States. The theory developed here is then used to evaluate proposals that could potentially reconcile the INS's objectives with those of the policy makers and the public.     

Book reviews

How Nuclear Weapons Spread By F. Barnaby. Routledge, London, 1993, Hbk. £30.00.

Germany and the Approach of War in 1914 By V.R. Berghahn. Macmillan, London, second edition 1993 (first edition 1973), Hbk. £35.00, Pbk £10.99.

The Age of Migration’, International Population Movements in the Modern World By Stephan Castles and Mark Miller. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1993, Hbk. £35.00, Pbk. £10.99.

Ideas and Foreign Policy, Beliefs, Institutions and Political Change Edited By Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1993, Hbk. S41.25, Pbk. S16.45.

European Monetary Union: Lessons from the Classical Gold Standard By Milivoje Panic. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1993.

In Defense of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology and British Naval Policy, 1889–1914 By Jon Tetsuro Sumida. Routledge, London, 1993, Pbk. £12.99.     

Public policies against criminal assets in mexico: challenges and opportunities from the north border states

Crime, Law and Social Change - Given its vast border with the United States, Mexico is a strategic trade and economic development region, which creates significant challenges in combating crime and...