Las transformaciones de la política educativa nacional en los años de la democracia

En este artículo la autora revisa los diferentes modos en que se pensó la relación de educación y democracia a lo largo de los años de régimen democrático que se inician en 1984. Con este fin, Guillermina Tiramonti considera tres períodos en los que esa relación se pensó desde parámetros totalmente diferentes. El primer período se caracteriza por una hegemonía política que se resuelve en la antinomia autoritarismo-democracia, dos términos con los que se delimita un pasado que se quiere abandonar y un futuro que se considera deseable. El segundo período es el de la reforma educativa, que tiene una impronta modernizadora definida en términos de cambio de la ingeniería organizativa del sistema educativo y de las subjetividades. Hay un tercer período al que la autora denomina "Después de los noventa" en virtud de la eficacia de la reestructuración producida en esa década, lo que le permite marcar el nuevo período, en el que la relación democracia y educación se define a la luz de las exigencias de la gobernabilidad. Finalmente se proponen algunas ideas para la reconstrucción de una agenda para la discusión y procesamiento en la esfera pública.

Las transformaciones de la política educativa nacional en los años de la democracia

En este artículo la autora revisa los diferentes modos en que se pensó la relación de educación y democracia a lo largo de los años de régimen democrático que se inician en 1984. Con este fin, Guillermina Tiramonti considera tres períodos en los que esa relación se pensó desde parámetros totalmente diferentes. El primer período se caracteriza por una hegemonía política que se resuelve en la antinomia autoritarismo-democracia, dos términos con los que se delimita un pasado que se quiere abandonar y un futuro que se considera deseable. El segundo período es el de la reforma educativa, que tiene una impronta modernizadora definida en términos de cambio de la ingeniería organizativa del sistema educativo y de las subjetividades. Hay un tercer período al que la autora denomina "Después de los noventa" en virtud de la eficacia de la reestructuración producida en esa década, lo que le permite marcar el nuevo período, en el que la relación democracia y educación se define a la luz de las exigencias de la gobernabilidad. Finalmente se proponen algunas ideas para la reconstrucción de una agenda para la discusión y procesamiento en la esfera pública.

Las transformaciones de la política educativa nacional en los años de la democracia

En este artículo la autora revisa los diferentes modos en que se pensó la relación de educación y democracia a lo largo de los años de régimen democrático que se inician en 1984. Con este fin, Guillermina Tiramonti considera tres períodos en los que esa relación se pensó desde parámetros totalmente diferentes. El primer período se caracteriza por una hegemonía política que se resuelve en la antinomia autoritarismo-democracia, dos términos con los que se delimita un pasado que se quiere abandonar y un futuro que se considera deseable. El segundo período es el de la reforma educativa, que tiene una impronta modernizadora definida en términos de cambio de la ingeniería organizativa del sistema educativo y de las subjetividades. Hay un tercer período al que la autora denomina "Después de los noventa" en virtud de la eficacia de la reestructuración producida en esa década, lo que le permite marcar el nuevo período, en el que la relación democracia y educación se define a la luz de las exigencias de la gobernabilidad. Finalmente se proponen algunas ideas para la reconstrucción de una agenda para la discusión y procesamiento en la esfera pública.

Political Systems and the Perspective on Nursing Education during the Spanish Transition (from the Franco Regime to Democracy). A Contribution based on Nursing History

The aim of this study is to describe the changes in nursing education during the process prior to and after the establishment of democracy in Spain. It begins with the hypothesis that differences in social and political organization influenced the way the system of nursing education evolved, keeping it in line with neopositivistic schemes and exclusively technical approaches up until the advent of democracy. The evolution of a specific profile for nursing within the educational system has been shaped by the relationship between the systems of social and political organization in Spain. To examine the insertion of subjects such as the anthropology of healthcare into education programs for Spanish nursing, one must consider the cultural, intercultural and transcultural factors that are key to understanding the changes in nursing education that allowed for the adoption of a holistic approach in the curricula. Until the arrival of democracy in 1977, Spanish nursing education was solely technical in nature and the role of nurses was limited to the tasks and procedures defined by the bureaucratic thinking characteristic of the rational-technological paradigm. Consequently, during the long period prior to democracy, nursing in Spain was under the influence of neopositivistic and technical thinking, which had its effect on educational curricula. The addition of humanities and anthropology to the curricula, which facilitated a holistic approach, occurred once nursing became a field of study at the university level in 1977, a period that coincided with the beginnings of democracy in Spain.

The Portuguese transition to democracy

On 25 April 1974 the Armed Forces Movement (MFA – Movimento das Forças Armadas) rose against the dictatorial regime that had governed Portugal for 48 years. This event was the beginning of a turbulent transition process that was to culminate in the approval of a new constitution in April 1976 and in the instauration of a Western style pluralist democracy. There are many political scientists and historians who note the original and unexpected nature of this transition; however, there are very many different interpretations with respect to the roles played by each of the actors in the process: the armed forces, the parties and political movements and the social forces/movements. The aim of this paper is to clarify this matter through an examination of the principal events of the revolution.

Fiscal decentralization in Spain: An asymmetric transition to democracy

Asymmetric fiscal decentralization, by which we mean different fiscal arrangements between the central government and different groups of, or individual, lower-level governments, may be justified from an economic efficiency perspective. As argued by Tiebout (1956), Oates (1972) and others, a decentralized system of regional and local governments is better able to accommodate differences in tastes for public goods and services. This efficiency argument calls for decentralization of fiscal authority to regional and local governments, but not necessarily asymmetric decentralization. However, when the differences in tastes for public goods and services arise out of differences in history, culture and language across regions of a country, asymmetric treatment may be justified. History, culture and language may influence how a group of people (a region) views autonomy, independence and fiscal authority. Some regions may have had experience with autonomous government in the past, they may have a culture that is strongly reliant upon (or leery of) the central government, or they may be fearful of losing their separate languages if they do not have special arrangements. To accommodate differences in taste for independence, autonomy, and fiscal authority, it may be necessary to have different fiscal arrangements between the central government and the different regions comprising the country.

Elections and Democracy in Brazil: Victor Nunes Leal and the 1945 Transition

This article discusses the necessary conditions for a democratic government to prevail, with the study Coronelismo: the Municipality and Representative Government in Brazil as the point of departure. The article seeks to identify the book's causal explanations for the emergence of democracy, and more precisely for regimes in which governments lose elections. Why were elections not truly competitive over the course of the Empire and the First Republic? Why did they change after the fall of the Estado Novo? Nunes Leal was one of the few Brazilian authors to explicitly tackle this challenge.

DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN NORTH AFRICA AFTER THE ARAB AWAKENING: CHALLENGES FOR EU AND US FOREIGN POLICY (EUSPRING). Arab Citizenship Review No. 4, April 2014. Egypt. Egypt’s Transition in Crisis: The Decline of Citizenship Rights

This series of policy briefs provides a regular update of debates concerning key rights issues in three Arab states, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. In a first round of briefs on the three countries, we provide background on these debates since the beginning of the Arab spring.

Inequality, democracy and taxation:lessons from the post-Communist transition

Using data for the period 1989 – 2002, we examine the determinants of income inequality in post-communist economies. We find a strong positive association between equality and tax collection but note that this relationship is significantly stronger under authoritarian regimes than under democracies. We also discover that countries introducing sustainable democratic institutions early are characterised by lower inequality. We also confirm that education fosters equality and find that larger countries are prone to higher levels of inequality.

The EU and democratic leverage:are there still lessons to be learnt from the Spanish transition to democracy?

The issue of conditionality and how the EU should seek to influence positive transformations in its periphery is as relevant today as it was in the early 1990s. There are some important lessons that can still be learned from the Spanish transition to democracy in this respect. By combining strict conditionality with its ‘normative power’, the European Community managed to shape—if not make—the Spanish transition to democracy. The consensus surrounding European integration worked as a unifying factor amongst all of the elite groups by giving them a common goal. This broad consensus ensured that no elite group could act in the sort of irresponsible way that could jeopardise the democratisation process and, by inference, the integration of Spain with the Community. At the same time, the EC worked as a sort of moderating force. Neither of these positive effects would have occurred had the EC not used its leverage potential and remained firmed in its stance of conditioning accession to Spain taking clear steps towards democratisation.

The (ab)use of politics and eroticism in the culture of the Spanish Transition to democracy (1975–1982)

This dissertation analyzes the (ab)use of politics and eroticism within the framework of the Transition to democracy in Spain, its social and cultural impact—on literature, film, music, and popular media—, and its consequences. After a period of nearly four decades, when the country was subjected to a totalitarian regime, Spanish society underwent a process of democratic restoration. As a result, the two topics considered taboo during almost forty years of repression—i.e., politics and sexuality/eroticism—, gushed out fiercely. Every aspect of culture was influenced by and intrinsically linked to them. However, while we have been offered a more or less global approach to the Transition—the Transition as a whole—, and some studies have focused on diverse areas, no research to date has covered in depth the significance of those issues during that historical moment. Considering the facts stated above, it was imperative to conduct a more detailed analysis of the influence of both eroticism and politics on the cultural production of the Transition from different perspectives. Although the academic intelligentsia has often rejected them as expressions of mass culture, we must consider Pierre Bourdieu’s theories—in line with the tradition of classical sociology, that includes science, law, and religion, together with artistic activities—, Michel Foucault’s ideas on sexuality, and New Historicism, examining texts and their contexts. This work concludes that the (ab)use of both subjects during the Spanish Transition was a reaction to a repressive condition. It led to extremes, to societal transgression and, in most cases, to the objectification of women because of the impositions of a patriarchal society. It was, however, part of a learning and, in a sense, cathartic process that led, eventually, to the reestablishment of the status quo, to a more equitable and multicultural society where men, women, and any political or sexual tendencies are respected—at least, in theory.

Observations on the Brazilian presidency, democracy, and governance

This article presents the first results of research on the organization and administration of the Brazilian presidency and problems of democratic governance in Brazil. Biases of Euro-centrism in current views of presidentialism, democracy, governance, and representation are criticized and new comparative analysis of political experiences in the Americas called for. Initial analysis of the Brazilian presidency reveals a unique combination of executive-led electoral representation and muddling through governance since the transition from military rule.