Negotiating normative premises in democracy promotion: Venezuela and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

ABSTRACT

This article analyses negotiations on democracy promotion by looking at the case of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It argues that Venezuela contested the concept of representative democracy during the Charter negotiations, advancing the notion of “participatory and protagonist democracy” and that, even if it was unsuccessful in its demands, the country contributed to deepening the debate on the concept of democracy, on which there is far from worldwide consensus. The article suggests that the main drivers of the negotiation process and the final agreement were domestic political changes in Venezuela, specific features of the negotiations, and the structural position of Venezuela in the field of democracy promotion in the global and regional contexts, which were, at the time, favourable to a compromising attitude to conclusion of the Charter, even if not to the concept of democracy.     

Dermestes maculatus (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) development under fluoxetine effect using two drug administration models

Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, commonly used for the treatment of a variety of psychopathological conditions. As such, fluoxetine may be expected to appear in clinical and forensic cases. Dermestes maculatus De Geer (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) has been recognized as a relevant component of the insect fauna associated with decomposing human and animal remains. Experiments were conducted to study the effect of fluoxetine on developing D. maculatus using two‐drug administration models: a non‐living animal model (pork muscle) and a living one (Sus scrofa L. pigs). We assessed the duration of immature stages and total life cycle, as well as morphological parameters (body length, cephalic width, and weight). The effect of fluoxetine was studied at an overdose concentration: In the non‐living animal model the drug was mixed with macerated pork muscle (2000 mg/kg) and in the living animal model, pigs were given the drug orally (833 mg/kg). A control was used for each model. Daily observations were performed from the beginning to the end of the experiments. GC‐MS was used for drug detection and quantification. There were no statistically significant differences in the duration of immature stages, life cycle, larval mortality, morphological parameters, or sex ratio, between treatment and control, regardless of the drug administration model. Given that fluoxetine had no detectable effect on the development of D. maculatus, detection of this drug in forensic situations would not compromise the accuracy of PMI estimations.     

Trade Unions and Political Parties in Italy (1946–2014): Ideological Positions and Critical Junctures

The paper investigates party-union relationships in Italy (1946–2014) by hand-coding parties’ parliamentary speeches and trade unions’ congress motions. In line with the cartel party thesis, a time series analysis shows that the ideological closeness between the left-wing Italian General Confederation of Labour and left-wing parties deteriorated when the Italian Socialist Party (1980) and the heirs of the Italian Communist Party (1998) converged toward the centre of the ideological spectrum. Conversely, the closeness between the Catholic-inspired Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions and the heirs of Christian Democracy increased after 1994, when the former party’s leftist factions became the major part of the Italian Popular Party.     

The relationship between psychological buffers, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation: identification of protective factors

In this study we examined the role of psychological buffers (life satisfaction, self-esteem, perception of family cohesion, and perception of social support) in the development of hopelessness and suicidal ideation. The participants were 314 university students, 71 males and 243 females, who were asked to complete a battery of instruments measuring the psychological buffers mentioned above. The results of a set of hierarchical multiple regression analyses suggested that life satisfaction and self-esteem are independent predictors of lower levels of hopelessness, while perception of social support seems to be the major predictor of lower levels of suicidal ideation independent of depression and hopelessness severity. Thus, hopelessness seems to be minimized by the level of life satisfaction and level of self-esteem exhibited by the individuals, while the key factor to the mitigation of suicidal ideas seems to be perception of social support.     

Volatile Organic Compounds,Spectral Characterization and Morphology of Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (ANFO) Samples

Ammonium nitrate fuel oil is an explosive mixture found in most antipersonnel landmines (APL) buried throughout the Colombian territory. During more than 50 years of internal conflict, the Colombian government has found that trained dogs are the most effective method to detect APL. However, the olfactive signature in ANFO is unknown and also if there are differences in detection related to the explosive manufacturing origin. Therefore, this work begins with the analytical validation of the method used to determine ammonia, in its derivatized form as carbamate, released by home-made ANFO using HS-SPME-GC-FID. Once validated, the method was used to identify ammonia and other organic volatile compounds present in ANFO, under laboratory and simulated field conditions. The validation process includes the evaluation of the optimum conditions for the derivation and extraction of butylcarbamate, the determination of the working ranges with linear response in FID, the limits of detection and quantification, the sensitivity, and the precision. The results of the validation established linearity and sensitivity in a concentration between 20 and 120 mg/L, as well as low limits of detection and quantification of 6.4 and 21.4 mg/L, respectively. Also, an intermediate precision of 11% for butylcarbamate with a repeatability of 8%. The validated method showed in real samples of home-made ANFO besides ammonia, the presence of low molecular methylamines, and also exhibited differences in volatile compositions according to the origin. The objective of this work is to offer a reliable analytical methodology for the extraction and analysis of volatile compounds from ANFO.     

“Gendering” European security: policy changes,reform coalitions and opposition in the OSCE

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has rarely been considered in scholarship on gender and security, even though it was one of the regional security organisations whose gender policy predated the United Nations Security Council’s call for more international attention to issues related to women, peace and security in October 2000. Based on an analysis of official OSCE documents and on semi-structured interviews, we trace the integration of gender issues in the OSCE and explore the rationale behind and the challenges associated with it. We identify two phases of gender policy change in the OSCE and show how the integration of UNSCR 1325 brought about an expansion of OSCE gender policy from an exclusive focus on “soft” security issues towards increased inclusion of gender in the area of “hard” security. Drawing on historical and feminist institutionalism, we argue that reform coalitions were crucial for the policy changes in the OSCE but that they encountered institutional and ideational barriers, which hampered implementation of the gender policy. In light of rising opposition, our analysis warns of a backlash that might jeopardise current achievements.     

Mediating with Heart in Mind: Addressing Emotion in Mediation Practice

Given the centrality of emotion and emotional communication to conflict interaction, the lack of attention to emotion in mediation is particularly surprising. This essay suggests that mediation practice can—and should—be informed by the wealth of existing theory and research on emotion in the social sciences. The authors define emotion and argue the centrality of its place in conflict. They address issues germane to the cognitive, expressive, and physiological aspects of emotion and their relevance to mediation practice. Within each area, they discuss the implications of the emotional experience of the disputant and the emotional experience of the mediator.     

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan as Post-Soviet Rentier States: Resource Incomes and Autocracy as a Double ‘Curse’in Post-Soviet Regimes

This article presents an analysis of two post-Soviet states, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, which can be identified as post-Soviet rentier states. Both countries are characterised economically by enormous national resources of gas and oil and low economic diversification as well as politically by strong autocratic presidentialism with neopatrimonial structures. These two factors, combined with further post-Soviet legacies such as a low level of political interest in the respective societies and a basically hierarchical orientation of the population, lead to a specific post-Soviet variety of rentierism. From a political science perspective, this article reveals the impact of resource policies on these comparably new political systems and concludes with a summary of core features of these post-Soviet rentier states.