Transition modes and institutional outcomes in El Salvador and Guatemala

Institutions affect key dimensions of the political process –policy, stability, and conflict. The choice of institutions is thus consequential. I argue that transition modes affect the choice of institutions in predictable and systematic ways. The more balanced power is between the two main bargaining forces –regime elite and opposition– the likelier that the resulting institutions will be pluralistic. Contrarily, the more unbalanced power is in favour of regime elites vis a vis the opposition, the likelier that institutions will be majoritarian. The argument is tested for El Salvador and Guatemala.

Federalismo e forme di governo. L´inopportunità delle differenziazioni di modello

La legge costituzionale 1/1999 per le Regioni ordinarie (e la successiva 2/2001 per le Speciali) ha rappresentato un punto di svolta fondamentale del regionalismo italiano. Essa ha stabilito il principio dell’elezione popolare diretta del Presidente della Regione, a cui si collega un premio di maggioranza nel Consiglio regionale secondo il cosiddetto modello neo-parlamentare. Qualsiasi interruzione del rapporto fiduciario per dimissioni del Presidente o approvazione di una mozione di sfiducia porterebbe a nuove elezioni, cosa che rappresenta un serissimo deterrente alle crisi. La riforma prevedeva anche la possibilità per le Regioni di derogare col proprio Statuto a tali scelte tornando all’elezione consiliare e a sostituzioni della maggioranza. Nonostante alcuni tentativi di sfuggire alla regola del governo di legislatura utilizzando tale deroga in modo esplicito o surrettizio, seguendo vecchi retaggi assemblearisti, l’elezione diretta si è imposta ovunque, garantendo a tutte le Regioni analoghi e inediti standards di governabilità.

The Catalan countries project (1931-1939)

In the evolution of Catalan nationalism, as much politician as cultural, the period of II Spanish Republic (1931-1939) was essential. The obtaining of the Statute of Autonomy (1931-1932) supposed the beginning of a stage of expansion in multiple aspects. One of them were the contacts with the Catalanists nuclei of the rest of the cultural space of Catalan language in which, at that time, it would begin to call Catalan Countries (Balearic Islands, Valencian Country, Andorra, Rosselló, to l'Alguer). On Those Collaborations between cultural organizations, political and particular parties Catalonia always will be the model to follow. The Increasing connections will be visualized on press, as well as on cultural celebrations, policy of parties and Constituent Courts. This evolution will be cut by the Franco victory in the Civil War in 1939.

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.

Una aproximación crítica a las mediciones sobre la calidad de la democracia latinoamericana

Este ensayo revisa críticamente una gama de informes de medición de la democracia latinoamericana provenientes de diferentes fuentes de la cooperación internacional involucrada en la región. Cuestiona la tendencia a simplificar la democracia con variables atinentes a sus fortalezas e intereses económicos en una visión estadocéntrica, cuantitativista y generalizante. Señala que esta visión restringida no da cuenta de las acciones e iniciativas ciudadanas atinentes a la reivindicación de los derechos cívicos y políticos y a la participación en la búsqueda de soluciones a los problemas obstaculizantes del desarrollo democrático latinoamericano. Concluye propositivamente, señalando la urgencia de complementar estos informes con estudios rigurosos y objetivos fundamentados en el registro de las particularidades idiosincrásicas de cada país de la región.

Nicaragua en la encrucijada: el liderazgo de Daniel Ortega y su influencia en el sistema político nicaragüense

En noviembre de 2006, Nicaragua se unió a los países latinoamericanos que han apostado por que la izquierda vuelva a gobernar el país. En el presente trabajo sus autoras realizan una reflexión sobre el devenir postrevolucionario en Nicaragua en relación con una de sus figuras claves, Daniel Ortega. Una aproximación personal a uno de los líderes históricos del sandinismo contextualizada con el papel desempeñado por Ortega en la política moderna nicaragüense, considerando que los liderazgos personales están primando en la política nacional frente a las necesidades reales de una sociedad que está atravesando una grave crisis interna.

Comparing Governmental Agendas: Evolution of the Prioritization of Issues in the USA and Spain

This paper is the first step in a long term project investigating policy stability and change in Spain from an agenda setting perspective and comparing the Spanish policy agenda to that of other advanced democracies. Here we begin to compare the allocation of issue attention in Spain and the USA by comparing the substance of annual President and Prime Minister speeches from 1982 to 2005. Existing research argues that the public agenda has become more crowded, competitive and volatile in recent years. We find that in both countries there has been a transformation of the political agenda towards an increasing diversity of issues. However, most of the volatility in executive attention seems to be explained by salient events rather than by issue crowding. We conclude by discussing some limitations of executive speeches as a measure of governmental issue attention and directions for future research.

Political elites in federalized countries: the case of Spain (1980-2005)

This paper explores the social profile of the regional elite that has emerged in Spain since the federalization of the State. For the first time, researchers present data about crucial variables like gender, place of birth, age, education, and profession. They make interregional comparisons, and try to explain some unexpected findings like the behavior of political elites in some regions like Catalonia. The authors compare also the social profile of MPs of the two largest parties.

Cambios políticos y evolución de los partidos en Cataluña (1995-2007)

El propósito principal de este trabajo es contribuir a mostrar la evolución de dos de las principales dimensiones del cambio en los partidos políticos: su legitimidad y su fuerza organizativa. Para ello se analiza el caso de los partidos catalanes (PSC, CDC, UDC, ERC, ICV, PP) en un periodo de tiempo relativamente corto (1995-2007), pero caracterizado por un intenso cambio político e institucional. Para mostrar mejor su evolución en términos comparados estas transformaciones se analizan en dos niveles distintos: a nivel de cada partido y a nivel de sistema de partidos. Los resultados sugieren una progresiva erosión del apoyo social de los partidos desde finales de los años noventa que no se ha traducido, por el momento, en una merma de su fuerza organizativa.

L'impacte dels sistemes multinivell en els sistemes de partits

Imaginemos que un observador quiere analizar el sistema político de los países de Europa Occidental. Si compara el sistema de partidos que hay a nivel nacional con los presentes en cada uno de los distritos de esta elección, apreciará notables diferencias entre países. Por ejemplo, si repara en Alemania, verá como los mismos cinco partidos presentes en el Bundestag compiten también en todos los distritos. Si por otra parte se fija en España, comprobará como en las Elecciones Generales españolas algunos partidos se presentan en todas las circunscripciones pero otros sólo lo hacen en una o en un puñado de ellas. Por lo tanto, mientras que en el primer caso tenemos que el sistema político nacional se reproduce de manera idéntica en cada distrito, en el segundo hay diferencias entre los partidos a nivel nacional y los presentes en determinados distritos. ¿Por qué existen estas divergencias? ¿Qué es lo que explica que esta situación sea estática o que cambie a lo largo del tiempo? En este anexo presento una memoria para justificar los principales avances en la investigación doctoral durante el periodo en que he disfrutado de la beca FI.

Repeated Agenda Setting and the Unanimous Approval of Bad Policies

This paper addresses the puzzle of why legislation, even highly inefficient legislation, may pass with overwhelming majorities. We model a egislature in which the same agenda setter serves for two periods, showing how he can exploit a legislature (completely) in the first period by romising future benefits to legislators who support him. In equilibrium, large majority of legislators vote for the first-period proposal because a ote in favor maintains the chance for membership in the minimum winning coalition in the future. The model thus generates situations in which egislators approve policies by large majorities, or even unanimously, that enefit few, or even none, of them. The results are robust: some institutional arrangements, such as super-majority rules or sequential voting, imit but do not eliminate the agenda setter's power to exploit the legislature, and other institutions such as secret voting do not limit his power.