Coping with transborder penetration: The politics of television

International conflicts are brewing over the transmission of television signals across international boundaries. The dispute is illustrative of an increasing range of cases in which the actions of one national economy penetrate deeply into another, and in which national interests and national values conflict. In this instance, the opposition to such signals stems not only from authoritarian regimes but also from democratically elected governments. The U.S. government defends such transmissions on the basis of strongly held U.S. values, including the concept of maximum choice for viewers and the fear that regulation of an entertainment medium may lead the way to government censorship. U.S. commercial interests are also involved. The conflict promises to grow more acute in time; yet the U.S. government finds it extremely difficult to agree on mitigating measures with other nations in areas of policy such as television, that is, areas that entail both domestic and foreign considerations.     

Mexico, the PRI, and López Obrador: The Legacy of Corporatism

Although differences between the Mexican and U.S. political systems have narrowed of late, a huge gulf continues to separate the two systems. At the heart of this disparity lies the phenomenon of corporatism, a social concept that is virtually absent in U.S. political discourse and traditions. This article considers the intellectual origins of corporatism, why it meshes so well with Ibero-Hispanic society, and how Mexico City's former mayor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, fashioned his own brand of corporatism to confront the administration of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, who defeated him in the July 2006 presidential race.     

Budgetary Cutback and Transit System Performance: The Case of MARTA

In the context of diminishing availability of transit revenue, an important question for transit managers is what kind of information system or format should be used to signal costs and benefits of each required cut in the budget? Should the present MARTA process of negotiated across-the-board cuts in line item accounts be replaced by a formal results-oriented system that could tie marginal cutback decisions to changes in operating and maintenance performance? In order to develop a preliminary answer, this article attempts first to measure managerial and service performance of line-item cut;. Then, based on the FY 84-87 MARTA experience, it argues that transit systems, should avoid the considerable costs of developing a comprehensive results-oriented alternative to the line-item method by using operations and management experience to trace only selected performance-resource linkages.