La normativa municipal española a mediados del siglo XIX. Espacio electoral y definición social del modelo liberal en Lleida

El análisis y la comparación de las leyes municipales y, más concretamente, de los censos electorales de Lleida en el periodo liberal que abarcó de 1837 a 1853 muestra como se adoptaron diversos modelos electorales en ese momento según fuese el partido que gobernase. Así, cuando lo hicieron los progresistas elaboraron una ley electoral descentralizada y ampliaron el censo de electores hasta llegar a cubrir las capas medias de la sociedad de Lleida, mientras que los moderados, cuando lo hicieron, legislaron para jerarquizar el poder del Estado del centro a las provincias y recortaron el censo hasta dejar a los 250 mayores contribuyentes de la ciudad. El segundo objetivo del estudio ha mostrado la evolución del electorado municipal del municipio a raíz de la abertura liberal que significó el triunfo de la Revolución Burguesa, que propició que los sectores que vivieron una coyuntura económica favorable, principalmente los dedicados al comercio, se situasen en los primeros lugares entre los mayores contribuyentes en detrimento de otros grupos, el campesinado, que permanecían estancados.

Polarization in the chilean party system: changes and continuities, 1990-1999

The focus of this thesis is the evolution of programmatic polarization in the post-authoritarian Chilean party system at the elite level. It shows the distance/proximity between parties located along the left-right ideological continuum on three sets of issues. The paper demonstrates that important changes have taken place in the meaning of the right and, especially, left poles. This implies convergence on socio-economic issues between parties, but persistence of differences on religious-value issues, and on issues related to the authoritarian/democratic cleavage. Distance between the poles has been reduced, and as a result the center has lost its own political space. In addition, the paper shows that the pattern followed by programmatic polarization at the elite level is explained by the authoritarian experience, the institutional framework, and socio-economic transformations. Together with this factors, the degree of negotiability of the issues and the cross-cutting nature of the cleavages have also shaped polarization.

The Key party in the catalan government

This paper analyzes the different compositions of the catalan governing coalitions during the current democratic period, and offers some predictions about the coalitions that can be expected in the future. During this period, in catalan politics, there have been two main political issues over which the different parties have taken positions: rightist versus leftist with respect to economic policy, and sovereign versus centralist with respect to the power distribution within the state. I find that for any allocation of parliament seats there is a key party: a party that has a clear advantage in terms of being able to decide the composition of the governing coalition. I show the features that allow a party to become the key party and those that affect the size of the advantage of the key party.

El Crecimiento en el Paraguay: ¿favorable a los pobres?

En aquest treball es revisen els principals corrents teòrics dins de la literatura del "creixement favorable als pobres" ("pro-poor growth"). L'objectiu és analitzar el patró del creixement a Paraguai durant la dècada 1997-2007. S'analitza si el creixement de l'economia paraguaiana ha estat, o no, favorable als pobres. Els resultats, a partir d'enquestes de llars, llancen un panorama descoratjador. En les recessions, el creixement és favorable als pobres però en termes relatius i no en termes absoluts, el que impedeix reduir la pobresa. En les expansions, el creixement els resulta directament desfavorable.

O proxecto de creto agrícola e a proposta de redención foral (1886). A resposta liberal de Montero Ríos e Díaz de Rábago á crise finisecular

Este estudo plantexa as interaccións habidas entre pensamento económico e a toma de decisións políticas a traveso dun caso concreto. Analizámo-las propostas referidas á política agraria plantexadas polo Ministro de Fomento Eugenio Montero Ríos (1885-1886) e a influencia que nelas exerciu o economista Joaquín Díaz de Rábago. Ámbolos dous foron galegos destacados da segunda metade do XIX . A investigación centrouse nas concomitancias entre as propostas lexislativas e as obras publicadas. Ainda que tamén pescudamos aspectos biográficos máis correspondencia persoal co gallo de evidencia-la amizade e a cooperación existentes entre eles.

Party competition in regional elections: a framework for analysis

Whilst scholars have long recognised that processes of decentralisation create new regional arenas where distinct patterns of party competition are likely to emerge, there has been little systematic analysis of the dynamics of such competition. This working paper thus proposes a framework for analysing party competition between regional branches of state-wide parties, and autonomist parties, in regional arenas. Firstly, the different strategies political parties may adopt in response to their perceptions of voter preferences and to the strategies pursued by their competitors are identified. Secondly, different factors that impact on parties' strategic choices, and which may constrain a party's ability to select electorally optimal strategies in a given political context, are proposed.

A Model of Party Discipline in a Congress

This paper studies party discipline in a congress within a political agency framework with retrospective voting. Party discipline serves as an incentive device to induce office- motivated congress members to perform in line with the party leadership's objective of controlling both the executive and the legislative branches of government. I show fi…rst that the same party is more likely to control both branches of government (i.e., uni…ed government) the stronger the party discipline in the congress is. Second, the leader of the governing party imposes more party discipline under uni…ed government than does the opposition leader under divided government. Moreover, the incumbents' aggregate performance increases with party discipline, so a representative voter becomes better off. JEL classi…cation: D72. Keywords: Party discipline; Political agency; Retrospective voting; Office-motivated politicians.

Calling vs receiving party pays: market penetration and the importance of the call externality

In this paper we study how the access price affects the choice of the tariff regime taken by the network operators. We show that for high values of the access price, that is taken as a parameter by the firms, networks decide to charge only the callers. Otherwise, for low values of the access charge, networks charge also the receivers. Moreover, we compare market penetration and total welfare between the two price regimes. Our model suggests that, for high values of call externality, market penetration and total welfare are larger in Receiving Party Pays regime when the access charge is close to zero.

Intra-Party Democracy and middle-level elites in Spain

The gradual implementation of new, more participatory and thus, more democratic mechanisms of intra-party decision-making has been pointed out by several party politics scholars. This phenomenon has been studied as the party elite’s reactions to a widespread trend in Western countries: the party membership decline. Spain is still a deviant case in both the party membership decline trend, and with regards to the introduction of more participatory and democratic decision-making mechanisms. However, the paper point out that support for intra-party democracy is quite widespread within Spanish party middle elites (party delegates). That is why the aim of this paper is to explain which factors are underpinning the supports for intra-party democracy amongst Spanish party delegates. After conducting a multivariate analysis, the results show that ideology, the involvement in intra-party experiences and the degree of pragmatism, amongst others, are factors strongly associated with the support for intraparty democracy in Spanish party middle elites.