The Literary Journalism of Guadalupe Loaeza and Cristina Pacheco

Abstract — This article examines the writings of the Mexican literary journalists, Guadalupe Loaeza and Cristina Pacheco. It traces the political agendas of the writers through an analysis of their work in two collected volumes, Las niñas bien (Loaeza) and Sopita de fideo (Pacheco). The paper argues that while each author focuses on opposite ends of the social scale, each piece of writing contains an implicit or explicit attack on the Mexican ruling classes which mismanage the economy, squander its wealth and condemn the majority to economic misery.     

Understanding the political goals of non-binding resolutions: evidence from the Mexican Chamber of Deputies

By primarily focusing on bill initiatives, the literature on legislatures and parliaments has understudied other important legislative instruments -such as non-binding resolutions, minutes or speeches- which might help parties and legislators achieve their electoral and policy goals. Non-binding resolutions (NBRs) do not carry the force of law and are primarily used for parties or legislators’ position taking and the request of government actions. This article examines the political goals of NBRs by examining these tools in the lower chamber of the Mexican Congress. Employing a novel dataset, we claim that legislators strategically utilise NBRs to strengthen their relationship with their political principals. We find differences on the use of these instruments across political parties, based on the types of policy areas they choose to target. The analysis also indicates that SMD legislators tend to introduce more particularistic NBRs that might further their political careers at the subnational level.     

Los Congresos Estatales y la Política Federal en México: state legislatures and federal policymaking in Mexico

The Mexican Constitution, in the Poder Legislativo, grants state legislatures the authority to introduce legislation (iniciativas de ley) in the federal congress. In this paper the authors examine this powerful mechanism through which the Mexican state legislatures can directly influence policymaking at the federal level. Using a new data set of state-led initiatives, this work: describes the frequency with which iniciativas are introduced; describes the substance, timing, and final disposition of these state-led initiatives; and explains which factors affect the probability of presenting a state-led initiative. The authors find that party competition and partisan divisions at the state and federal levels play a significant role in the use of iniciativas de los congresos estatales. The authors’ study of this peculiar authority granted to the Mexican states contributes to the rich discussion of the changing role of the states in the era of Mexico’s nuevo federalismo.     

《大清民事诉讼律》修订考析

修订法律馆的改组,为《大清民事诉讼律》的修订提供了机构和人员保证,而通过《汪荣宝日记》的记载,我们大致可以厘清该法修订的经过。虽然《大清民事诉讼律》的"日本法"风格极其明显,但就此认定该法是《日本民事诉讼法》的简单照搬,却是不准确,也是不公平的。在中国法律史上,《大清民事诉讼律》的修订具有重要的历史意义,而这种历史意义,是以法典编纂在技术上的相对成熟为基础的。     

The maquiladora electronics industry on Mexico’s northern border and the environment

The electronic sector, in particular, the computing industry, has become an increasing concern because of the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle. The United States, Europe and Japan as the greatest consumers of electronic goods have given special attention to this issue. The fast computer obsolescence and its difficult confinement, because of the hazardous substances contained, have required a special effort of technical innovation. Nevertheless, this effort seems to respond mainly to the standards required by the countries in which these goods are produced, consumed and confined, which are radically different in developed and developing countries. Though an important part of the production process (assembling) is done in developing countries, little attention has been paid to the environmental quality at this production stage. This study examines the environmental problems and strategy of the electronic assembly industry in the three northern border cities of Mexico. Almost half of 200 electronic maquiladora enterprises surveyed had not undertaken any active environmental policy and there was a limited environmental standards enforcement. Evidence was found that the firms that had operated for a longer period of time had better chances of taking better care of the environment. Environmental firm policies became weaker as one descended from the head office to the subsidiaries and then to their suppliers. It is also found that some transnational corporations operate with double standards in Mexico and thus strong national policies on environmental standards in Mexico are required to change this practice.

State ‘parenthood’ and vocational orphanages (islâhhanes): Transformation of urbanity and family life

Ottoman urban reform policies not only targeted the rehabilitation and rebuilding of provinces, cities, streets, and squares; they also aspired to refashion the inhabitants of urban spaces. Vocational orphanages (?slâhhanes) of the latter half of the nineteenth century were, in that respect, instrumental in removing minor vagrants, beggars, and street children from urban areas according to redefined borders of urban security and visibility and in reintegrating them into society through training and employment in arts and crafts. As much as this initiative was a significant step on the part of the state to intervene in family life and child-rearing practices, the research also points to the agency of poor parents in demanding and benefiting from state welfare policies.     

Los Confines

Abstract

This paper seeks to develop an understanding of Mexican American incarceration including an examination of historical experiences in three selected states: California, New Mexico, and Texas. A caste model of inequality is considered to determine if it is useful in understanding the risk of imprisonment for Mexican Americans. Blalock's (1967) theory regarding ethnic concentration and increased discrimination is also used to allow for systematic analyses of the data. Finally, analyses of the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics study number 3029 (2001) are presented for partial evaluation of the impact of caste, of Blalock's (1967) theory, and to inform suggestions for improved data collection and future research. There was no consistent support for the expectations of overrepresentations of Mexican Americans in California or Texas prisons. Neither was there consistent support for the expectation that Mexican Americans sentenced in counties with high concentrations of Mexican Americans would receive longer sentences than would Anglos.     

Mexican American Attitudes Towards Crime

Abstract

The study seeks to determine (1) whether the crime seriousness ranking hierarchy identified by Rossi et al. in 1974 persists and (2) whether intra-group agreement on the relative ordering of crimes exists within a Mexican American sample stratified by age and sex. A self-administered survey questionnaire surveyed a sample of 525 college students and 426 parents. Respondents were asked to rank 20 crime offenses according to perceived seriousness. The analyses indicate that the older cohort of respondents is more conservative than the college students and that female students have lower tolerance for crime than their male counterparts. Among Mexican Americans, significant generational and sex differences exist in how serious certain behaviors are perceived.     

Semiotics of corruption: ideological complexes in Mexican politics

ABSTRACT

This article analyses a complex text and event to examine the role of ramifying contradictions in strategic social semiotics analysis. The focus was a paradoxical intervention into corruption by then-Mexican President Peña, who responded to an unprecedented wave of popular criticisms of corruption by simultaneously launching an Anticorruption System and apologizing for his own corruption. We asked: how did this contradiction work, in this conjuncture, with what effects, and how analyse them? We combined the concepts of the Ideological Complex and Wittgenstein’s “duck-rabbit” to explain unstable contradictions in a multiscalar, multimodal analysis of a diachronic corpus, to expose discursive strategies and identify points of vulnerability.