Surveying support for child and youth political participation in Australia and New Zealand

Recent decades have witnessed increased empirical and policy interest in children’s citizenship, particularly since the ratification of the United Nations Declaration of Children’s Rights. However, support for children’s active citizenship is often hindered by the pervasiveness of discourses that characterise children as innocent, developing, and free from responsibility. Public and governmental decision-making largely excludes children’s consultation and contributions, often determined by age alone. To quantifiably assess the amount of public support for children’s political participation, we commissioned a Likert scale survey question on degrees of support for children and youth (across four age groups between 3 and 18 year olds) having the opportunity to influence government decisions, in the Australian and New Zealand 2016 versions of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Analysis of responses to this question in relation to demographic survey data indicate variation in preferences for different age groups, and that age, gender, and political party preference of respondents were variables of significance for both nations. These variables point to potential predictors of attitudes toward political participation of children and youth which have relevance for policymakers and educators in relation to provision of programmes that will increase the engagement of children and youth in government decision-making.     

Antipoverty Transfers and Labour Market Outcomes: Regression Discontinuity Design Findings

The article estimates the impact of Familias en Acción, a human development conditional cash transfer programme, on adult labour market outcomes in urban areas in Colombia. Relying on a regression discontinuity design and a large panel dataset, the article finds significant, largely positive, but heterogeneous programme effects on labour market outcomes. The findings suggest that antipoverty transfers enable a re-allocation of household productive resources among participant households.     

La economía cubana: entre voluntarismo e intentos de planifcación (1959-2012)

Throughout more than fifty years, the Cuban Revolution has been unable to implement an Economic Management System (ems) to face and overcome the traditional problems of centrally planned economies. When Cuban leaders tried to back away from the planning methods adopted in socialist countries, the economic management suffered from “voluntarism”, with invariably negative consequences. This article proposes a categorization of the economic cycle into upward phases –in which rational economic planning and organization predominate– and downward phases with a highly centralized direction of the economy. A historic-economic analysis of each phase of the cycle is presented, revealing that upward phases were characterized by good or acceptable economic outcomes, while these were poor during downward phases with a prevalence of voluntarism, unless external factors appeared.     

Thinking Big

Huge Hisense Appliance Industrial Park in South Africa entrenches the brand’s successful globalimage It’s 2:30 p.m. and the large red electronic counter board on the factory wall registers the day’s 439th flat-screen TV as it rolls off the assembly line. Above that figure glows the daily target of 700. The uniformed staff are bustling in the sanitized, climate-controlled environment-excitedly motivating each other to reach the target, eyes constantly flicking up to the counter.     

The politics of human rights in democratic Brazil: ‘A lei não pega’

In spite of the important democratic advances registered since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, widespread human rights violations associated with the right to life continue to be reported. This article examines the nature of human rights violations and the government's attitude to them. Since 1985 there has been a fundamental shift in the relationship between the perpetrators of violations and the state authorities, in the identity of the victims, the motives behind the crimes and the political context in which they take place. During the same period the governments’ response to human rights violations has evolved from a reactive to a pro‐active strategy, culminating in the launching of the country's first National Plan for the Protection of Human Rights, in May 1996. The article concludes that despite some positive developments, the underlying causes, pattern and intensity of human rights violations continue essentially unabated.