The reform of Welfare Regimes in Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay

The aim of this article is to analyze the social policy in Latin America in a context of emerging welfare states. To understand the changes one takes into consideration the theories about institutional reform and the transformations produced in the XX century and the beginning of the XXI to substitute a social security regime mainly based on segmentation of benefi ts and on programs to fi ght poverty by another with an institutional and redistributive nature. The paper pays attention in particular to the path of the most developed welfare states of Latin America: Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay.

The Communicative Dimension and Security in Asia-Pacific: A communicative-viewing proposal for reform of the Japanese Intelligence Services

The postwar development of the Intelligence Services in Japan has been based on two contrasting models: the centralized model of the USA and the collegiality of UK, neither of which has been fully developed. This has led to clashes of institutional competencies and poor anticipation of threats towards national security. This problem of opposing models has been partially overcome through two dimensions: externally through the cooperation with the US Intelligence Service under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security; and internally though the pre-eminence in the national sphere of the Department of Public Safety. However, the emergence of a new global communicative dimension requires that a communicative-viewing remodeling of this dual model is necessary due to the increasing capacity of the individual actors to determine the dynamics of international events. This article examines these challenges for the Intelligence Services of Japan and proposes a reform based on this new global communicative dimension.

Discourses on Modernization in the Employment Public Services: Towards a New Form of Governance?

The “crisis of the social issue” in the EU has led to a certain consensus in the need to renew the organizational and institutional model of public administration. The core of the reform implies important administrative changes in most of the European welfare states. Those changes are inspired on theories such as the new public management, management by objectives or partnership. Such changes involve both semantic (“sharing responsibilities”, “effective costs”, or the substitution of “citizen under an administration” by “consumer”) and political (predominance of scattered forms of power and the individualization of responsibilities) transformations which operate in the framework of individuals and State relations. The paradigms of activation and flexicurity have been central in this public administration modernization project. This commitment with new forms of governance of social issues has important consequences for the political and moral foundations of social cohesion, and the Spanish case is not an exception. This paper aims at looking at those representations of “modernization” (as they appear in debates about the employment services restructuring policies) in detail as well as providing references to the trajectory of such reforms of public services since the early eighties to the beginning of the crisis.

Citizens’ attitudes toward public services. Satisfaction in 2009-2011

The aim of this paper is to study the recent changes on citizens’ satisfaction with the performance ofpublic services, in the period 2009-2011 in Spain. Using data from the surveys on Quality of PublicServices, developed by the Sociological Research Center jointly with the National Agency for theEvaluation of Public Services and Quality of Services, our results show that the level of satisfactionhas slightly increased, which seems to display a greater tendency to positively value public servicesduring economic retrenchment. A major determinant of high satisfaction is self-reported ideology.Besides, immigrants display higher levels of satisfaction than Spaniards.

Pension structural reforms, re-reforms and their effects on social welfare: The case of Chile

This article fi rst summarizes the structural reforms of pensions (total or partial privatization) in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, identifying their advantages and disadvantages, and does the same with the international process of re-reforms of pensions with a greater role of the state. Second, chooses Chile as a case study, as a world pioneer in both types of reforms; describes their characteristics and effects on social welfare of the structural reform of 1981 and the re-reform of 2008. Such effects are evaluated based on ten basic principles of social security from the International Labour Offi ce (ILO): 1) social dialogue to approve the reforms, 2) universal coverage of the population, 3) equal treatment of insured persons, 4) social solidarity, 5) gender equity, 6) suffi ciency of benefi ts, 7) effi ciency and reasonable administrative cost, 8) social participation in the management of the system, 9) role of the state and supervision, and 10) fi nancial sustainability. Third, it summarizes the advantages and disadvantages-challenges of the re-reform and informs on the current debate for further reforms.

Dynamic analysis of employment trajectories through the concept of fl exicurity

The paper presents a dynamic study of the Spanish labour market which tries to determine if it matches the characteristics of transitional labour markets from a fl exicurity approach. Employment trajectories of Spanish workers during the years 2007-2010 are studied using the Continuous Sample of Working Lives. This period covers the end of the expansion of the Spanish economy and the beginning of the current employment crisis. From the combination of the chosen topic, the approach, and the database used, this is a novel perspective in our country. The article shows evidence of the evolution of the employment and unemployment spells, the Spanish labour market turnover degree, and the diffi culties of some groups for carrying out transition between employment and unemployment. The results obtained show a labour market in which a) transitions have come to a halt, and b) there is high job insecurity.

Factores explicativos de las actitudes hacia el castigo juvenil. Evidencias de un diseño factorial

El rol desempeñado por la opinión pública en el desarrollo de la política criminal actual justifica el incremento de investigaciones destinadas a evaluar las actitudes de los ciudadanos hacia el castigo. No obstante, los avances en este ámbito han sido limitados debido a la utilización de rudimentarios instrumentos de medida. Por ello, el presente trabajo tiene como propósito explorar el efecto que generan en la opinión ciudadana ciertas variables referidas al hecho delictivo y al infractor, precisando su contribución relativa y la interacción existente entre ellas. Para satisfacer este objetivo se recurrió a un diseño factorial de la encuesta, creando una población de 256 casos-escenario fruto de la combinación de cuatro factores: la edad del joven, su historial delictivo, el grado de implicación en el hecho y el tipo de delito cometido. Los mismos fueron distribuidos en grupos de ocho casos ordenados aleatoriamente y fueron suministrados a 32 sujetos. Posteriormente se aplicaron análisis de regresión logística binaria. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que la naturaleza violenta de los hechos, la implicación activa de los jóvenes y el historial delictivo son predictores importantes de las condenas punitivas. Sin embargo la edad, una variable fundamental en la configuración de la justicia juvenil, no resulta significativa. De este modo, el trabajo muestra el potencial explicativo de este conjunto de factores y debate sus implicaciones teóricas y metodológicas para la investigación futura en este terreno.

Non-agrocultural co-peratives and economy transformation in Cuba: politic processes and strategies

Contribution of co-operatives has been demonstrated since the 1970s as the main development line in agricultural production in Cuba. In contrast, there has been a late recognition of urban co-operatives, even if the need of transformations based on the realization of property in different territorial scenarios had been identified. The article analyses the reform processes launched since the first decade of the 21st century focusing on the nature of the initiatives fostering formation and promotion of nonagricultural co-operatives including follow up of their performance. The potential and limitations of the recent experiences are examined in order to reflect on the organizational processes and transformations from the point of view of their members. To conclude, some questions are posed about whether these co-operatives are capable of avoiding the impact of earlier employment circumstances and of developing strategies aimed at reinforcing voluntary membership and autonomy on which they are founded.

Estudio sobre la eficacia del régimen fiscal cooperativo portugués

El ordenamiento jurídico portugués consagra un régimen fiscal especial para el sector cooperativo, basado, al igual que otros ordenamientos como el español o el italiano, en la protección de la mutualidad como forma de organización empresarial especialmente benéfica en el plano social. Para alcanzar ese objetivo, el régimen fiscal cooperativo debe ser selectivo, lo que significa que al legislador se le plantea el reto de establecer criterios para separar, dentro del marco cooperativo, lo que debe ser protegido de lo que no merece protección fiscal. El legislador portugués optó por un modelo basado en dos grupos de ramos cooperativos claramente diferenciados según los beneficios fiscales aplicables, ambos con amplias exenciones fiscales. El presente trabajo no se centra en el contenido de los beneficios aplicables sino en las condiciones que las cooperativas deben reunir para acogerse a esos regímenes fiscales favorables. Estos criterios son: i) una división entre operaciones con socios y operaciones con terceros; ii) una delimitación de las operaciones o actividades cooperativas según estén o no vinculadas con el “fin propio de la cooperativa”; y iii) una estructura prevalentemente mutualista del factor trabajo. Esta fórmula legal tiene su raíz en una legislación de 1929 y se ha mantenido hasta el día de hoy debido en parte a un fenómeno de inercia legislativa. El presente trabajo, basándose en la metodología de la sociología jurídica, asienta en una encuesta dirigida a 64 cooperativas, por la que se buscaba indagar hasta qué punto estos criterios (de acuerdo con los que se seleccionan las cooperativas que pueden acogerse a los regímenes fiscales favorables) cuadran con la realidad cooperativa actual. Como era de esperar, la vetustez del régimen hizo que se encontraran desajustes muy significativos, que reclaman una reforma urgente.

Use and access to ICT in students of public secondary schools in Chihuahua City, Mexico: inclusion in teaching and digital literacy

This paper addresses the issue of the digital divide in students of public secondary schools at Chihuahua City, Mexico. It seeks to identify potential inequality of opportunities with regards to subjects’ access to information, knowledge and education through the ICT (internet, mobile telephony, broadband and television). The study takes three schools as investigative stage, using the survey as a data collection instrument, identifying patterns of behavior regarding: general knowledge of them, access to computer equipment and internet, and characterization of their use. Other aspects of analysis are the identification of the educational level of parents and access to technology resources available for academic and non-academic purposes in various application areas (home, school and social environment). The proposal concludes, that it is through the recollection of alternatives suggested by the teachers themselves to incorporate ICT for teaching purposes in a systematic and planned fashion, whose greatest reflection manifests in better digital literacy indicators.