Perceptions,identities and interests in South–South cooperation: the cases of Chile,Venezuela and Brazil

The relevance acquired in recent years by South–South cooperation seems to be connected with deeper structural transformations occurring in the international system. However, the variety of cooperation models promoted by new providers in the South requires the identification of complementary factors to help explain current patterns. A set of socio-cognitive elements, related to each country’s perceptions, identities and interests, can yield greater understanding of the variety of South–South cooperation models. Such an approach is here applied to the cases of Chile, Venezuela and Brazil – three important providers from the South – in order to explore their different cooperation models.     

Aproximaciones y reintegros: La democracia tensionada

Based on the conception of democratic aspiration as hegemonic, the author argues that democracy and its reproduction are doomed to exist in a constant tension. Anchored on a critical review of the ideas of Pierre Rosanvallon, Colin Crouch, Klaus Von Andreas Schedler and Klaus Von Beyme, the author analyzes the particular configuration of this form of government and the challenges it must confront, both those that are inherent to its design and those that are derived from its development in contemporary societies and political systems. Thus, democracy is approached from different conceptual perspectives, although favoring the one that views it as a political-institutional arrangement enabling coexistence and competition of/within political diversity. In turn, and taking as referents the undp and eclac diagnoses, the author analyzes the specificity of democracy in Latin America, its structural weaknesses and the possibility of building a new social pact in order to provide an answer to the prevailing breakdown of social cohesion and exclusion.     

House organ

“I live in a country which is said to have a strong ecological opposition, one which includes the Green Party, a great variety of citizen's initiatives, and a network of alternative institutions and communications media, and where public opinion is especially sensitive to ecological problems. This is not entirely false. The so‐called ecological movement, in fact, has been quite successful in the last two and a half decades. But there is also the other side of success: Now that everybody drives a car with a catalytic converter, talks about ecological modernization, and advocates an ecological ethics, the willingness of people to accept a fundamental reorientation in science, politics, and economy is much less apparent today.”     

Finding Out the Hard Way: Uncovering the Structural Foundations of Political Dissatisfaction in Italy, 1973–2013

In economic voting models, the electorate punishes governments associated with bad economic results and rewards those who provide prosperity. However, citizens do not always place the same weight on economic considerations when deciding their vote. This weight, it is argued, is a function of the degree to which governments can be deemed responsible for domestic economic outcomes. More precisely, the article hypothesises that when the economy is highly vulnerable to external economic conditions (and thus less controllable by the national government), voters will value less the information they receive on the state of the economy, and, as a consequence, electoral behaviour will be less influenced by economic performance. This conjecture is tested empirically using survey data from 15 European countries. Consistently with the prediction, it is found that employment expectations matter more the greater the degree of economic closeness of the country. General economic expectations have an impact on voting regardless of the level of economic openness, and no sign of pocketbook voting is detected. Also, the evidence seems to suggest that the internationalisation of the economy plays an exonerating role only under left-wing governments.     

Domestic Reform in sub-Saharan African Governments under International Influence

Books reviewed:
Ladipo Adamolekun, ed. Public Administration in Africa: Main Issues and Selected Country Studies
Joshua Bernard Forrest, Namibia's Post-Apartheid Regional Institutions: The Founding Year     

Determination of Herbicides Paraquat,Glyphosate, and Aminomethylphosphonic Acid in Marijuana Samples by Capillary Electrophoresis

In this work, two methods were developed to determine herbicides paraquat, glyphosate, and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in marijuana samples by capillary electrophoresis. For paraquat analysis, sample was extracted with aqueous acetic acid solution and analyzed by capillary zone electrophoresis with direct UV detection. The running electrolyte was 50 mmol/L phosphate buffer (pH 2.50). For glyphosate and AMPA, indirect UV/VIS detection was used, as these substances do not present chromophoric groups. Samples were extracted with 5 mmol/L hydrochloric acid. The running electrolyte was 10 mmol/L gallic acid, 6 mmol/L TRIS, and 0.1 mmol/L CTAB (pH = 4.7). The methods presented good linearity, precision, accuracy, and recovery. Paraquat was detected in 12 samples (n = 130), ranging from 0.01 to 25.1 mg/g. Three samples were positive for glyphosate (0.15–0.75 mg/g), and one sample presented AMPA as well. Experimental studies are suggested to evaluate the risks of these concentrations to marijuana user.     

Literature from the Periphery of São Paulo at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair

This article analyzes the participation of São Paulo as guest of honor at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair (2014). We will examine why the event's curators opted to take writers from the saraus, poetry readings on the city's outskirts, to the Fair, as well as the political arrangements that made the participation of those writers possible. We also discuss why participation in Buenos Aires was so different from that promoted by the federal government for other events, like the Frankfurt Book Fair (2013), where curators prioritized authors with greater prestige or international exposure.