Another lost decade? The future of reform in Latin America

The 1990s ended equivocally in Latin America. What has gone wrong? Is economic failure the cause or the consequence of the democratic decay and the erosion of governance throughout the region? The review essay revisits the debate on the intricate links between politics and economics in the second stage of reform. Moving beyond standard typologies of regime type, it explores the interactions between the quality of democratic governance and the performance of economic policy under democratic auspices, in particular its credibility. It is now amply recognized that reforms have been hindered by inefficient unreliable and unaccountable government institutions. Furthermore, the manner in which market reforms have been implemented has undermined governance and accountability. The importance of policy credibility has essentially been neglected as a pivotal condition for effective economic reform. Consequently, policymakers propose a new round of reforms, centring on strengthening the institutions of governance and modifying the incentives shaping public policy. The essay argues that restoring the credibility of policy requires a fundamental redefinition of the state and reforming the methods of government and the styles of policymaking. The defining challenge of Latin American countries is to strengthen capacity to adequately implement policy and credibly commit to policy reform. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

新生产力观与可持续发展

可持续发展观是针对传统发展模式的弊端而提出的新发展战略。它要求经济发展与人口、资源和环境相协调,实现人与自然相和谐。新生产力观是可持续发展战略的必然要求,它强调以人为本,人是生产力发展的最终目的,在生产力发展过程中实现人与自然的统一。同时新生产力观也为可持续发展提供智力支持和观念保证。     

Chief executive officers and voluntary environmental performance: Costa Rica's certification for sustainable tourism

This study evaluates whether the education, environmental expertise, and nationality of firms' chief executive officers (CEOs) are associated with greater participation and environmental performance in a voluntary environmental program implemented in a developing nation. Specifically, we collected data from the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) program, a voluntary initiative aimed at promoting beyond-compliance environmental performance by hotels operating in Costa Rica. Our findings suggest that CEOs' level of formal education and environmental expertise appear to be significantly associated with higher corporate participation in voluntary programs and also with higher beyond-compliance environmental performance ratings. Contrary to conventional expectations, CEOs from industrialized countries (as opposed to developing countries) do not appear to show a statistically significant association with participation in the CST program and with higher beyond-compliance environmental performance.     

A Resurgent Presidency? Portuguese Semi-Presidentialism and the 2016 Elections

This article analyses the Portuguese presidential elections of January 2016, setting these within the backdrop of recent semi-presidential practice in Portugal. The election took place in the context of an apparent hollowing of the presidency, a pattern that potentially reflects the bailout that marked most of the second term of the outgoing president, Cavaco Silva. This pattern also helps explain the second-order nature of this presidential election. Despite potentially being an ‘open’ election – in that the incumbent had reached term limits – the election was characterised by low citizen mobilisation, low partisan involvement and low competitiveness. The initial two months of the newly elected president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, suggests he is seeking to invert this hollowing pattern by mobilising popular support behind the presidency.     

Bottom-level organizational changes within entrepreneurial and engaged models of university: insights from Italy

We analyze the way in which individual academics and research groups organize their third mission activities before and after the institutionalization of third mission strategies by the university governing body. Drawing on the literature, we put forward an interpretative framework that links central entrepreneurial or engaged strategies with the way academics organize their third mission activities. Then, we propose an application of this frame to the case of the University of Florence (Italy), before and after its transition to more structured entrepreneurial and engaged models. We use a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis. A cluster analysis allows identifying different types of academics involved in the third mission based on the way they organize their activities. Furthermore, a set of interviews to academics complements the comparison and the interpretation of the clusters obtained. The following paths of change emerge: (1) increased proportion of academics involved in third mission activities; (2) bottom-level initiatives that are aligned with central strategies; and (3) increased heterogeneity of bottom-level organization forms, with a relative loss of importance of the group dimension with respect to the individual academics and an increased specialization of research groups.

     

Surviving the suicides of significant others: a case study

Psychological pain has been reported to be major contributing factor for completed suicide, and classical suicidology based its wisdom on this construct. In this paper we report the case of a patient whose family experienced a high number of suicides apparently due to an escalation of psychological pain in the family members after the successive suicides. We also briefly discuss the problem of helping survivors after the suicide of loved one.