Populism and the politics of the extraordinary in Latin America

Building on past and current experiences of populism in Latin America, this article makes four arguments. First, whereas populist movements seeking power promise to democratize society by challenging the legitimacy of exclusionary institutions, populist governments often include the excluded at the cost of disfiguring democracy. Second, during populist events the meanings of the ambiguous term ‘the people’ are disputed. When social movements are weak, and when the institutions of liberal democracy are discredited, a populist leader could attempt to become the embodiment of the will of the people. Third, even though the concept of the people is central to populism, it could be constructed differently. It could be imagined as heterogeneous and plural, or as the people-as-one, as an entity that shares one identity and interest that could be embodied in a leader. Fourth, populism shares with fascism an imaginary construction of the people-as-one. Yet differently from fascism, which staged extraordinary politics as war against internal and external enemies, populists staged their extraordinariness as winning popular elections and did not establish dictatorships.     

The evolution of Japan's role in ‘Lusophone’ Africa: From inertia to action

This article explores Japan's relations with Lusophone Africa over the past 60 years. It asks what factors have propelled Japan's shift from a foreign policy based on inertia to a more proactive one. Arguably, colonialism and postcolonialism linked to the Cold War politics had a negative impact on Japan's relations with the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) and Africa as a whole; this contrasts with Japan's process of ‘Africanisation’ after 1990, reflective of changing external and internal circumstances. The question arises as to whether Japan's relations with the specific PALOP states, and with the group as a whole, have been influenced by, or have had influence over, Japan's long-term approach to other African states. Lastly, what characterises Japan's approach to the PALOP? Findings show mutual gains beyond the simple exploitation of natural resources towards broad-based sustainable growth. Still, from the perspective of the poorest PALOP, development cooperation and trade benefits are unbalanced and insufficient.     

The Struggle Against Corruption: Progress at a Snail's Pace. Why?

In 2010 the author, in an article for this journal, questioned the methods put forward by the international donor community to overcome corruption in the transitional and developing countries of the world. Five years on, the progress against this scourge has been minimal. In this article the author explores some of the reasons why. Apart from the obvious reason, namely the failure of political will in the countries themselves, he outlines some of the policy and practical errors that continue to hinder the progress that could be made.

Most of these errors are laid at the door of the international donor community, which perpetuates the remedies it advocates in spite of the evidence of failure. They range from a national anticorruption strategy that addresses corruption only in the public sector, to a policy of pursuing “grand corruption” but not “petty corruption” to insisting on an asset declaration system aimed at catching the corrupt and deterring others instead of aiming the system at identifying conflict of interest.

These egregious errors, among others described in this article, are the direct cause of lack of progress against a problem internationally recognized as destructive of everything the affected countries are striving to build. In the author's view the errors can and should be corrected. The remedies are relatively simple.     

Populist polarization and the slow death of democracy in Ecuador

This article analyses how the interactions between a strong populist government in Ecuador and a weak, divided, and inefficient internal opposition in a context of weak liberal institutions could lead to what Guillermo O'Donnell termed “the slow death of democracy”. Rafael Correa was elected with a substantive project of democratization understood as economic redistribution and social justice. His administration got rid of neoliberal policies and decaying traditional political parties, while simultaneously co-opting social movements, regulating civil society, and colonizing the public sphere. Because the judiciary was subordinated to Correa, social movement activists, journalists, and media owners could not use the legal system to resist Correa's crack down of civil society and regulation of the privately owned media. They took their grievances to supranational organizations like the Organization of American States. When these organizations stepped in to challenge Correa, his government denounced imperialist intervention in his nation's internal affairs, and advocated for the creation of new supranational institutions without US presence.     

Is there a need to regulate mediation? The English and Welsh case study

The use of mediation in England and Wales is nowadays an accepted and common practice within the alternative dispute resolution industry. Credited professionals have been performing the duties of a mediator in different fields of legal disputes; however, despite the positive perception of mediation, this area remains unregulated. So far, the rules applying to mediation in England and Wales originate from case law and contract between the parties. Such a scenario is not shared by other countries in which mediation has been regulated through an Act covering either private or judicial mediation. This article examines the current mediation scenario in England and Wales to assess whether there is a need to give it a statutory character in a similar manner to other jurisdictions.     

Brazilian Parliament and digital engagement

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how new technologies are employed by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies to stimulate experiences of digital engagement. It also evaluates how new technologies are put in practice by the institution, considering its potentialities and limitations in mediating the relationship between the parliament and the citizens. This analysis is anchored in concepts put forth by Polsby about arena parliaments and transformative parliaments, in order to evaluate which of these models of engagement tools have greater potential. The study concludes that the use of digital technologies by the Brazilian Parliament is very diverse, with a variety of tools that allow for the interaction and engagement of citizens, although these tools have the greatest potential for the arena parliament model.     

Origin of blood ethanol in decomposed bodies

Problems related to blood contamination by other postmortem fluids in decomposed bodies (DB) make the interpretation of medicolegal blood alcohol levels (B EtOH) a very difficult task. So the aim of this paper is to show the utilization of vitreous humor (VH) as the biological fluid for an unequivocal determination of ethanol origin in DB for forensic purposes. Alcohol was determined in VH, blood (chest fluid-CF) and urine (Ur) collected from 27 DB in different states of putrefaction. A simple head-space gas-chromatographic method was used. In fifteen cases alcohol was found to be of endogenous production due to its absence in VH. In the twelve remainders, alcohol was detected in VH and CF in an atypical distribution. Examining the reliable scene and historical information together with the analytical data, ethanol origin in these cases was classified: endogenous production (3 cases), ingested (2 cases), both (2 cases), contaminated plus endogenous production (3 cases) and unable to determine (2 cases). According to the results obtained it was possible to conclude that alcohol analysis in VH is fundamental for determining the origin of ethanol detected in CF of DB.     

Testing for Cointegrating Relationships with Near-Integrated Data

Testing theories about political change requires analysts tomake assumptions about the memory of their time series. Appliedanalyses are often based on inferences that time series areintegrated and cointegrated. Typically analyses rest on Dickey–Fullerpretests for unit roots and a test for cointegration based onthe Engle–Granger two-step method. We argue that thisapproach is not a good one and use Monte Carlo analysis to showthat these tests can lead analysts to conclude falsely thatthe data are cointegrated (or nearly cointegrated) when thedata are near-integrated and not cointegrating. Further, analystsare likely to conclude falsely that the relationship is notcointegrated when it is. We show how inferences are highly sensitiveto sample size and the signal-to-noise ratio in the data. Wesuggest three things. First, analysts should use the singleequation error correction test for cointegrating relationships;second, caution is in order in all cases where near-integrationis a reasonable alternative to unit roots; and third, analystsshould drop the language of cointegration in many cases andadopt single-equation error correction models when the theoryof error correction is relevant.     

Social heterogeneity and wasteful lobbying

Using a general equilibrium model with endogenous policy, we explore how heterogeneity affects wasteful lobbying by sectoral interest groups. With the help of a simulation approach, we first investigate the impact of information heterogeneity on how lobbies react to a shift from a soft to a strict government budget constraint. Next, we examine how lobbying is influenced by heterogenous perception of the general equilibrium implications of lobbying effort. Finally, we explore the consequences of heterogenous specialization in households' asset portfolios. We conclude that social heterogeneity in information, perceptions, and portfolio compositions increases incentives to lobby.