Vince malum a bono: la guerra secreta de mossèn Joan Domènech a la Cerdanya (1939-1949)

Sobre la figura de mossèn Joan Domènech que va ajudar a traspassar fronteres a gent que volia escapar de l'infern nazi

Corporate political activity and firm outcomes: A meta-analysis

Using meta-analytic methods on a sample of 74 studies, we explore the links between CPA and public policy outcomes, and between CPA and firm outcomes. We find that CPA has at best a weak effect and that it appears to be better at maintaining public policy than changing them.

Reseña: Londoño Botero, Rocío (2011) “Juan de la Cruz Varela: sociedad y política en la región de Sumapaz (1902-1984)”. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Facultad de Ciencias Humanas/Departamento de Historia, 708 pp.

Reseña de libro

Toward a view of complementarity trust and policy influence effects of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity

The extant literature argues that nonmarket strategies can establish, sustain, or enhance a firm’s competitive advantage. Less clear is how and why effective nonmarket strategies influence a firm’s competitiveness. Moreover, the extant literature tends to examine the two building blocks of nonmarket strategy—corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA)—separately. In this article, we extend trust to the nonmarket environment. We analyze how CSR and CPA complement each other to create strong trust between firms and the polity, and how they consequently influence government policy. We show the mediating role of trust in policy influence, and argue that CSR and CPA should be aligned for the successful influence of salient government policy.

Implicit corporate political activity and elite formation

Nesta tese, analisamos como a elite empresarial progressista criou a organização da sociedade civil Rede Nossa São Paulo (RNSP), alcançando mudanças institucionais significativas, permitindo assim a consolidação da elite na esfera política. A pesquisa resultou em três artigos. O primeiro artigo discute como a RNSP se tornou um forte ator político na cidade de São Paulo e também no Brasil. Para abordar esta questão, mostramos como a RNSP usou a história retórica para se tornar um ator central na esfera política. No segundo artigo, propomos o conceito de atividade política corporativa implícita (ICPA), complementar a atividade política corporativa. Conceituamos ICPA como elites empresariais em conjunto com organizações da sociedade civil agindo para influenciar o governo. Com os limites entre o governo, as empresas e organizações da sociedade civil difusos; entendemos que este conceito é extremamente importante para chamar a atenção e criar novos caminhos para a pesquisa sobre a influência das empresas no governo. No último artigo, mostramos os micro fundamentos da ICPA. Especificamente, como as elites empresariais e corporações influenciam a RNSP e, indiretamente, o governo. Concluindo, contribuímos para a literatura sobre a influência das empresas no governo e na esfera pública indiretamente, por meio de organizações da sociedade civil. Teoricamente, estendemos a literatura de teoria institucional, história e poder

Betting on winner: the effect of local elections on corporate political activity outcomes

How can managers successfully access political rents by way of corporate political strategies (CPA)? Existing research has suggested several endogenous factors that correlate with CPA outcomes. I offer a more robust solution to this problem. Drawing on insights from the perspective of CPA as exchanges between firms and political decision-makers, and from the special interest politics of political economy, I develop and test a causal mechanism that links local elections, legislative bargaining and access to political rents at the national level. I conducted a natural experiment using regression discontinuity design and propensity score matching in municipal elections in Brazil to show that firms enjoy superior access to subsidized financing from the state-owned national development bank (BNDES) when they decide to invest in municipalities whose winning mayoral candidate is coalition-aligned with the national ruler. This effect fades away fades away as the level of competition in the local election decreases. The evidence implies that when managers bet on national coalition-aligned winners in close local elections, they positively affect CPA outcomes. I extend the exchange-based typology of corporate political strategies by offering a novel possibility of targeting voters with financial inducements, which I call a private local development strategy. Finally, these results show that firms exchange their project-execution capabilities for superior access to subsidized financing.

Interpretations of the Hatch act and regulations on political activity (as developed to November, 1940)

Cover title.

Corporate political activity in less developed countries:The Volta River Project in Ghana, 1958-66

The article expands existing categorisations of political and economic governance by including literature on less developed countries (LDCs). In four consecutive negotiations between the US multinational Kaisers and the US and Ghana governments in the early 1960s, it is argued that the company reached levels of influence that are at odds with existing explanations. In order to understand corporate political activities in LDCs, analysis needs to go beyond static factors (political risk) and include dynamic factors such as diplomatic relations and 'arenas of power', and consider the role of the investor's home country relative to the host economy.

International trade law, plain packaging and tobacco industry political activity:the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Tobacco companies are increasingly turning to trade and investment agreements to challenge measures aimed at reducing tobacco use. This study examines their efforts to influence the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major trade and investment agreement which may eventually cover 40% of the world's population; focusing on how these efforts might enhance the industry's power to challenge the introduction of plain packaging. Specifically, the paper discusses the implications for public health regulation of Philip Morris International's interest in using the TPP to: shape the bureaucratic structures and decision-making processes of business regulation at the national level; introduce a higher standard of protection for trademarks than is currently provided under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; and expand the coverage of Investor-State Dispute Settlement which empowers corporations to litigate directly against governments where they are deemed to be in breach of investment agreements. The large number of countries involved in the TPP underlines its risk to the development of tobacco regulation globally.

The Policy Dystopia Model:an interpretive analysis of tobacco industry political activity

BACKGROUND: Tobacco industry interference has been identified as the greatest obstacle to the implementation of evidence-based measures to reduce tobacco use. Understanding and addressing industry interference in public health policy-making is therefore crucial. Existing conceptualisations of corporate political activity (CPA) are embedded in a business perspective and do not attend to CPA's social and public health costs; most have not drawn on the unique resource represented by internal tobacco industry documents. Building on this literature, including systematic reviews, we develop a critically informed conceptual model of tobacco industry political activity. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We thematically analysed published papers included in two systematic reviews examining tobacco industry influence on taxation and marketing of tobacco; we included 45 of 46 papers in the former category and 20 of 48 papers in the latter (n = 65). We used a grounded theory approach to build taxonomies of "discursive" (argument-based) and "instrumental" (action-based) industry strategies and from these devised the Policy Dystopia Model, which shows that the industry, working through different constituencies, constructs a metanarrative to argue that proposed policies will lead to a dysfunctional future of policy failure and widely dispersed adverse social and economic consequences. Simultaneously, it uses diverse, interlocking insider and outsider instrumental strategies to disseminate this narrative and enhance its persuasiveness in order to secure its preferred policy outcomes. Limitations are that many papers were historical (some dating back to the 1970s) and focused on high-income regions. CONCLUSIONS: The model provides an evidence-based, accessible way of understanding diverse corporate political strategies. It should enable public health actors and officials to preempt these strategies and develop realistic assessments of the industry's claims.

Asset freezing, corporate political resources and the Tullock paradox

In 1967, Gordon Tullock asked why firms do not spend more on campaign contributions, despite the large rents that could be generated from political activities. We suggest in this paper that part of the puzzle could come from the fact that one important type of political activity has been neglected by the literature which focuses on campaign contributions or political connections. We call this neglected activity "asset freezing": situations in which firms delay lay-offs or invest in specific technologies to support local politicians' re-election objectives. In doing so, firms bear a potentially significant cost as they do not use a portion of their economic assets in the most efficient or productive way. The purpose of this paper is to provide a first theoretical exploration of this phenomenon. Building on the literature on corporate political resources, we argue that a firm's economic assets can be evaluated based on their degree of "political freezability," which depends on the flexibility of their use and on their value for policy-makers. We then develop a simple model in which financial contributions and freezing assets are alternative options for a firm willing to lawfully influence public policy-making, and derive some of our initial hypotheses more formally.

Características del diseño de una relación estratégica comunitaria y marketing en emprendimiento en el sector de ambientadores y cosméticos

En nuestro país el sector de ambientadores y cosméticos ha presentado un crecimiento económico constante y notable, proyectando a Colombia para el año 2032 como un dirigente en la elaboración de cosméticos y productos de aseo. La biodiversidad colombiana ofrece múltiples recursos, incluyendo una gran diversidad de aromas naturales, es un importante mercado para producción de cosméticos sin la utilización de productos artificiales. El presente trabajo de investigación tiene por objetivo determinar las características del diseño de una relación estratégica comunitaria y marketing en la creación de una empresa de cosméticos y ambientadores. Ésta investigación se realiza bajo la recopilación de información del sector y principalmente de la organización, dentro de un estudio empírico-analítico descriptivo. Estableciendo resultados que finalmente dan respuesta a la utilidad de estrategias comunitarias en la actualidad. En el caso de estudio de la nueva empresa "Jolie Le Petit" en un sector en crecimiento, ofrece múltiples oportunidades de negocio y permite generar ideas innovadoras para la venta de productos. La facilidad de cambio y la inclusión en la comunidad posibilita el acercamiento a los clientes, asegurando la permanencia en el mercado indicado. Considerando la posibilidad que la inversión extranjera en el sector pueda afectar notablemente el mercado nacional. Mediante el análisis concluimos que la estrategia de mercadeo comunitaria es adecuada y aplicable a este tipo de empresa. "Jolie Le Petit" además de ser una unidad es también un actor social, estando inmersa en una comunidad en donde juega un papel vital el ser percibida como un buen vecino, ofreciendo a los clientes confianza compromiso y relación continua.

Formes emergents de participació estudiantil i universitat del segle XXI: un amor impossible?

En la present comunicació ens apropem a la realitat participativa de l'estudiantat universitari arrelada en el procés de transformació de les universitats espanyoles en les darreres dècades, des de l'emergència de la universitat de masses. Amb aquest substrat pretenem identificar els trets diferencials del nou tipus d'estudiantat que està configurant-se en aquesta primera dècada del segle XXI, en el marc de la reforma de l'Espai Europeu d'Ensenyament Superior, analitzem dades sobre participació dels joves i, més concretament, dels joves universitaris, qüestionem el discurs de la manca d'implicació i reflexionem sobre la implementació d'accions que fomenten l'educació per a la participació

A ocasião para O Príncipe

Este trabalho busca compreender a estrutura do pensamento maquiavélico através da tensão existente entre alguns de seus conceitos fundamentais da atividade política. No caso, a vontade de transformação dos atores que desejam o poder e as determinações históricas.