Inclusive local governance: normative proposals and political practices

This article specifies the conditions that a democratic expansion process would require in order to be inclusive in the face of complex forms of inequality. The dialogue between the qualitative analysis of an inclusive local governance experience initiated in Ottawa in 2004 and proposals to integrate the egalitarian perspective of critical deliberative theory and intersectionality theories throws up two elements that facilitate inclusive deliberative governance: (1) the incorporation of the intersectional perspective into the design and running of local governance apparatuses and (2) the implementation of enclave deliberation.     

The Geography of Repression and Opposition to Autocracy

State repression is a prominent feature of nondemocracies, but its effectiveness in quieting dissent and fostering regime survival remains unclear. We exploit the location of military bases before the coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in 1973, which is uncorrelated to precoup electoral outcomes, and show that counties near these bases experienced more killings and forced disappearances at the hands of the government during the dictatorship. Our main result is that residents of counties close to military bases both registered to vote and voted “No” to Pinochet's continuation in power at higher rates in the crucial 1988 plebiscite that bolstered the democratic transition. Potential mechanisms include informational frictions on the intensity of repression in counties far from bases and shifts in preferences caused by increased proximity to the events. Election outcomes after democratization show no lasting change in political preferences.     

STI policy conventions in Uruguay. An analysis of political party platforms 2004–2019

Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) have been considered as critical tools in development processes, gaining growing importance in the public policy agenda. We assert that an intersubjective agreement about STI policy has emerged in Latin America from the beginning of the twenty-first century. This operates as a developmental convention which is based on a hybrid theoretical rationale from neoclassical economics and the innovation systems approach. This process has been analyzed from different perspectives of innovation and political economy studies. However, as far as we know, the role of political parties in the construction and reproduction of STI conventions has not been studied. After illustrating the general assertion with stylized facts from the whole Latin American region, we study the platforms that Uruguayan political parties presented in the national elections between 2004 and 2019. Text analysis techniques show that platforms of both left- and right-wing political parties were embedded in the current STI policy convention. However, critical discrepancies emerge in relation to policy implementation—the positive and negative agendas—which show that there has been political competition regarding the role of the state and of markets. This leads us to conclude that even though one can observe a shared set of building blocks on STI policy and development, there is competition within the current convention, suggesting that any agreement is illusory.     

Testamentary Capacity and Undue Influence: Assessments and Problematic Techniques

Psychological Injury and Law - As the population of the USA ages, mental health practitioners are increasingly called upon to assess civil capacities. This paper provides information regarding the...     

X-linked microsatellites in two Northern Spain populations

The X-chromosomal microsatellites HPRTB, DXS101, ARA, DXS7423, and DXS8377 were analysed by a pentaplex PCR in an expanded population sample from Cantabria and an independent sample of unrelated individuals from the Basque Country. Allele frequencies showed similar distributions, but minor variations were found for some loci.     

The enhancement effect of social and employment integration on the delay of recidivism of released offenders trained with the R & R programme

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the extent to which social and employment integration enhances the efficacy of social–cognitive training carried out in prison through a Spanish adaptation of the Reasoning & Rehabilitation (R & R) programme. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare a group of inmates who received only social–cognitive training with a group of inmates who also received social and employment integration and with a comparison group who received neither of these interventions. The total sample was composed of 117 repeat offenders, serving sentence for property offences, drug dealing and offences against the person. The results obtained through a Kaplan–Meier survival analysis after a 6-year follow-up indicate that both intervention groups are significantly different from the comparison group. The group that received social and employment integration had the highest level of delayed recidivism, but the difference with the group that only received social–cognitive training was not statistically significant. The results are discussed in relation to the Good Lives Model and to the Risk–Needs–Responsivity Model of offender rehabilitation.     

How women are imagined through conceptual metaphors in United Nations Security Council Resolutions on women,peace and security

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 is a landmark pronouncement on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Not only does this resolution highlight the important role of the involvement of women in peace processes, but it also stresses the importance of their equal participation in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace. Furthermore, it also triggers the approval of some other resolutions, which are all further elaborations on that first document. The aim of this paper is to analyse, from a cognitive linguistic perspective, the way in which women are actually narrated in these pronouncements by means of the two conceptual metaphors that are most often repeated: WOMEN ARE VICTIMS, typically found in earlier resolutions, and WOMEN ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE, as the metaphor that has gained more strength and visibility as new resolutions have continued to appear. As metaphors are the cognitive lenses we use to make sense of abstract concepts, it is important that we look closely at each of those metaphors to see how they shape the characterization of women in times of armed conflict and post-conflict and, in doing so, how they guide our understanding and behaviour towards them.     

Reviews

Carroll Estes and Meredith Minkler, eds.: Critical Perspectives on Aging: The Political and Moral Economy of Growing Old. Amityville, New York: Bay wood Publishing Company, 1991.

Christina Laurell and Mariano Noriega: La salud en la fabrica: estudio sobre la industria siderúrgka en Mexico. Mexico, D.F.: Ediciones Era, 1989.