Rebuilding the White Earth Nation through Constitutional Reform

The process of Native nations’ resurgence, called nation building, is a phenomenon largely neglected by mainstream political science in the United States. Empirical and theoretical gaps exist in the study of Native nations’ political structures. This article’s empirical focus is on the rebuilding process of the White Earth Nation in Northwestern Minnesota. The objective is to investigate the long-term process of White Earth governance (1913 to the present) in order to explain why the White Earth government reform of 2007–2013 failed in the final implementation phase. I analyze hitherto unknown archival materials using a case-specific theoretical framework that employs Indigenous studies approaches, Michel Foucault’s genealogy, and new institutionalism. My findings suggest that the return to the institutional status quo in White Earth governance results from path-dependent dynamics and the Anishinaabe internalization of an outwardly imposed governing structure.     

Chinese Economic Statecraft and U.S. Hegemony in Latin America: An Empirical Analysis, 2003–2014

If one interprets China's sizable rise in Latin America as an unprecedented phenomenon, it follows that the concurrent story of declining U.S. influence in the region is an event hastily acknowledged at best and ignored at worst. In this article, we ask whether Chinese economic statecraft in Latin America is related to the declining U.S. hegemonic influence in the region and explore how. To do so we analyze foreign direct investments, bank loans, and international trade from 2003 to 2014, when China became a major player in the region. We use data from 21 Latin American countries, and find that an inversely proportional relationship exists between the investments made by Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), bank loans, manufacturing exports, and the U.S. hegemonic influence exerted in the region. In other words, Beijing has filled the void left by a diminished U.S. presence in the latter's own backyard.     

Traffic Management Rules for Space Operations

This article is based on the report on the status of work of the Study Group on Space Traffic Management, International Academy of Astronautics; in particular it describes the approach and the scope of the study as well as its preliminary findings. The study group intends to finalize its work in late 2004, in order to be able to put the study before the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and launch its review process after the 2004 International Astronautical Congress. Following this review, the study will be published and is expected to make an impact in different international forums dealing with the exploration and use of outer space.     

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.     

Participation Under Lula: Between Electoral Politics and Governability

This article shows how and why the initial attempts of the Lula administration in Brazil to promote innovative counterhegemonic participatory strategies, such as those put in place by the PT in some of its subnational governments, fell by the wayside. It is argued that the implementation and scope of participatory initiatives under Lula were caught between electoral motivations and the need to secure governability. On the one hand, the need to produce quick results in order to maximize vote‐seeking strategies hindered attempts to promote counterhegemonic participation, while Lula and his inner circle opted for policies that would score immediate marks with the poorest sectors or influence public opinion. On the other hand, participation also took a back seat because the PT concentrated most of its energies on reaching agreements with strategic actors, such as opposition parties or powerful economic groups.     

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.