Distributive politics in Latin América: the impact of democracy, eletions and globalization on the welfare state

A tese busca examinar dois desenvolvimentos de grandes conseqüências na América Latina nas últimas três décadas do século XX. Ela procura testar as teorias sobre políticas distributivas examinando os efeitos da democracia e da globalização no estado de bem-estar na América Latina utilizando dados de séries temporais para 15 países entre 1973 e 2000.

Democracy and capitalist revolution

Democracy became the preferred and consolidated form of government only in the twentieth century. It is not sufficient to explain this change solely by reference to rational motives, nor by detecting processes and leadership. A historical approach is required. The new historical fact that led to the change of preference from aristocratic rule to democracy is the capitalist revolution, which changed the manner of appropriating the economic surplus from violence to the market. This is the first necessary condition for democracy. The disappearance of the fear of expropriation, the rise of middle classes and the pressures of the poor or of the workers are the second, third and fourth new historical facts that opened the way for the transition from the liberal to the liberal-democratic regime. After these four conditions were fulfilled, the elites ceased to fear that they would be expropriated if universal suffrage was granted. Eventually, after the transition, the democratic regime became the rational choice for all classes. The theory presented here does not predict transitions, since countries often turn democratic without fully realized historical conditions, but it predicts democratic consolidation, since no country that has completed its capitalist revolution falls back into authoritarianism.

Democracy and growth in pre-industrial countries

This paper distinguishes three types of countries (rich, middle-income, and pre-industrial) and focus on the latter, which, in contrast to the other two, didn’t complete their industrial and capitalist revolutions. Can pre-industrial countries be governed well and embody the principles of consolidated democracies? Today these countries are under pressure from the imperial West to eschew institutions and developmental strategies that, in the past, allowed rich and middle-income countries to industrialize. At the same time, they are pressured by these same Western parties (and by its own people) to be democratic, even though their societies are not mature enough to fulfill that. In fact, no country completed its industrial and capitalist revolution within the framework of even a minimal democracy, suggesting that such demands are unfair. Added to this, pre-industrial countries are extremely difficult to govern because they usually don’t have a strong nation and capable states. This double pressure to renounce development strategies that have worked for the West while being required to become a democracy represents a major obstacle to their development.

Scientific knowledge and digital democracy in Brazil: how to assess public health policy debate with applied Scientometrics

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Mathematics education and democracy

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between mathematics education and the notions of education for all/democracy. In order to proceed with our analysis, we present Marx's concept of commodity and Jean Baudrillard's concept of sign value as a theoretical reference in the discussion of how knowledge has become a universal need in today's society and ideology. After, we engage in showing mathematics education's historical and epistemological grip to this ideology. We claim that mathematics education appears in the time period that English becomes an international language and the notion of international seems to be a key constructor in the constitution of that ideology. Here, we draw from Derrida's famous saying that there is nothing beyond the text. We conclude that a critique to modern society and education has been developed from an idealistic concept of democracy. © FIZ Karlsruhe 2009.

Neo-liberalism versus neo-structuralism in Latin America

Includes bibliography

A hopeful view of democracy

Includes bibliography

Social structures and democracy in the 1990s

Includes bibliography

Neo-structuralism versus neo-liberalism in the 1990s

Presenta un contrapunto crítico en torno a los aspectos más fundamentales que distinguen a las actuales propuestas estratégicas de desarrollo de largo plazo asociadas a los enfoques neoliberal y neoestructuralista.

Democracy and economics

Includes bibliography

The neoclassical theories of economic liberalism

Includes bibliography