Welfare Effort and Poverty from the Monetary and Capabilities Approach: A Cross-Country Analysis in Latin American and the Caribbean (1990-2010)

There is abundant empirical evidence on the negative relationship between welfare effort and poverty. However, poverty indicators traditionally used have been representative of the monetary approach, excluding its multidimensional reality from the analysis. Using three regression techniques for the period 1990-2010 and controlling for demographic and cyclical factors, this paper examines the relationship between social spending per capita —as the indicator of welfare effort— and poverty in up to 21 countries of the region. The proportion of the population with an income below its national basic basket of goods and services (PM1) and the proportion of population with an income below 50% of the median income per capita (PM2) were the two poverty indicators considered from the monetarist approach to measure poverty. From the capability approach the proportion of the population with food inadequacy (PC1) and the proportion of the population without access to improved water sources or sanitation facilities (PC2) were used. The fi ndings confi rm that social spending is actually useful to explain changes in poverty (PM1, PC1 and PC2), as there is a high negative and signifi cant correlation between the variables before and after controlling for demographic and cyclical factors. In two regression techniques, social spending per capita did not show a negative relationship with the PM2. Countries with greater welfare effort for the period 1990-2010 were not necessarily those with the lowest level of poverty. Ultimately social spending per capita was more useful to explain changes in poverty from the capability approach.

Bearing Witness to the 'Pain of Others': Researching Power, Violence and Resistance in a Women's Prison

Addressing the dynamics of interpersonal violence, institutionalised abuses and prisoner isolation, this article consolidates critical analyses as challenges to the essentially liberal constructions and interpretations of prisoner agency and penal reformism. Grounded in long-term research with women in prison in the North of Ireland, it connects embedded, punitive responses that undermine women prisoners’ self-esteem and mental health to the brutalising manifestations of formal and informal punishments, including lockdowns and isolation. It argues that critical social research into penal policy and prison regimes has a moral duty, an ethical obligation and a political responsibility to investigate abuses of power, seek out the ‘view from below’. Challenging the revisionism implicit within the ‘healthy prison’ discourse, it argues for alternatives to prison as the foundation of decarceration and abolition.

From protest to powerlessness : a Marxist analysis of the Ontario NDP /

Using Marxist state theory as an analytical framework, this thesis explains the problems faced by the Ontario New Democratic Party government (1990-1995) in implementing a social democratic agenda. Not only was the government constrained in its ability to implement progressive policy, but it was also pushed to implement a Social Contract (involving legislated wage cuts to public sector employees) that alienated the party's base of support, making it more difficult for the party to organize in the future. Although this study relies predominantly on a reinterpretation of existing research on the topic, some primary research is used in the analysis, including interviews with members of the labour movement and former MPPs and analysis of the news media's treatment of the party/ government. Historical and class analytical perspectives are used to explain the evolution of the ONDP's structure and policies, as well as to assess the relative strength of the working class and its ability to support a social democratic political agenda. It was found that the ONDP' s unwillingness to develop a long term plan for social democracy, and its inability to act as a mass party or to build a strong working class movement, made it more difficult for the party to succeed when it formed the government. Moreover, the class nature of the capitalist state, along with pressure exerted by a well mobilized capitalist class, worked to limit the government' s options.

Souveraineté, démocratie et gouvernance mondiale chez David Held : le problème de la démocratie au-delà de l’État national

Dans le contexte de la mondialisation contemporaine, le développement d’une structure de gouvernance à plusieurs niveaux nous oblige à revoir notre compréhension de la souveraineté de l’État et de l’exercice de la démocratie. Notre objectif consiste à présenter la pensée de David Held au sujet des conséquences de ces transformations de la gouvernance politique sur la théorie démocratique. Dans un premier temps, nous analyserons les conséquences de l’atténuation de la souveraineté de l’État, dorénavant partagée avec diverses organisations supranationales, sur la théorie de l’État démocratique moderne. Nous verrons comment Held répond au déficit démocratique constaté au sein de ces organisations, en adaptant le principe de subsidiarité au système de gouvernance multicouche émergeant, et ce, afin de rétablir la congruence entre les décideurs et les destinataires de leurs décisions, caractéristique de l’activité (libérale) démocratique. Dans un deuxième temps, nous présenterons les fondements normatifs du modèle théorique qu’il préconise pour assurer la démocratisation de ce nouveau système de gouvernance. Nous verrons pourquoi, selon Held, la poursuite de l’idéal démocratique exige aujourd’hui la mise en oeuvre d’une variété de droits, inspirés des valeurs sociales-démocrates, qu’il faut enchâsser dans le cadre constitutionnel de toutes les institutions de gouvernance du monde contemporain. De plus, nous dégagerons les objectifs institutionnels qu’il faut atteindre afin de parvenir à la réalisation d’une social-démocratie mondiale. Nous conclurons avec une brève analyse critique de son interprétation du principe de subsidiarité et de son approche “du haut vers le bas” (top-down) des processus conduisant à la démocratisation des institutions supranationales.

Har den interna demokratin i politiska partier försämrats över tid?

Has intra-party democracy deteriorated over time? A widely held view in contemporary party research is that intra-party democracy, especially in traditional mass parties, has deteriorated in the age of the cartel party. This common assessment, however, relies on insufficient empirical evidence, and is scrutinized in the article. The notion of a gradual progress towards the cartel party implicitly shares common characteristics with the classic theory of Michels. In order to investigate the actual fate of intra-party democracy, central aspects of Michels theory are explored over time in a critical case, namely the Swedish SAP. If intra-party democracy is declining, this tendency should be most likely to be observed in this case. Two internal decision-making processes, surrounding two major pension reforms – one expansion in the 1950’s and one retrenchment in the 1990’s – are compared based on criteria deducted from Michels. Instead of finding a decline in intraparty democracy, the results conclusively demonstrate major improvements.

O compromisso político do serviço prestado pela Fundação Bradesco na cidade de João Pessoa

In this work we have analyzed the political commitment of the social assistance sponsored by the Bradesco Foundation in João Pessoa. This Foundation is a private institution of public interest that provides social assistance to low income populations all over Brazil. This kind of work is one of the oldest management initiatives in what is actually referred to as managers` social responsibility. This thesis assumes that managers who are in fact socially responsible should guide their actions by the principles of social democracy, so that everyone can enjoy citizens` social freedom, and guarantee their rights as well as the political awareness of social actors. Analysis of documents and a qualitative approach have been applied to the pedagogical Project of the Foundation, as well as phenomenology to study the social profile of their students. The analysis of the pedagogical project as well as the students` standpoint towards life reveals that the Bradesco Foundation is indeed committed to the social efficacy of its students. The educational proposal of the organization includes those elements that are required for teenagers` education envisaging participative citizenship. The teenagers` speech reveals that they have developed the project identity, being therefore able to take part in the process of political transformation of our time. The results indicate that the Bradesco Foundation not only guarantees some of the basic social rights for the healthy development of those who attend their courses, but also sponsors a high level education providing both a technical and a political formation

Rosa Luxemburg: breve perfil de uma revolucionária

O presente texto, que serve de apresentação à série de cartas traduzidas pela A. e publicadas a seguir junto ao original alemão (Karl Kraus), esboça em rápidos traços a personalidade de Rosa Luxemburg, tendo como pano de fundo a cultura do seu tempo. Procura-se sugerir que se Rosa é uma personagem tão rica e interessante, isso deve-se ao amálgama, existente na sua formação, entre a Bildungsbürgertum e a atmosfera revolucionária proveniente da Rússia.

A relação entre modernização neoliberal e práticas políticas atrasadas no Brasil dos anos 1990

Our goal is to investigate the reasons behind the presence of clientelist-type practices among the popular classes in Brazil, highlighting the decade of the 1990s. Our proposal gives salience to factors regarding the phenomenon's socio-political conjuncture, thereby taking us beyond explanations that rely exclusively on historical-cultural aspects or that sustain an economic bias. We use bibliographic and journalistic sources, from which we develop our own interpretation of the period. Thus, we observe that clientelist practices are encouraged to manifest themselves at the level of national political organization particularly within the federal sphere yet are also reflected at state and municipal levels, due to the coalition of political forces created through the implantation of a neoliberal project in Brazil. The latter has joined modern Brazilian social democracy and old regional oligarchies situated primarily within the PFL, PP, PTB and certain sectors of the PMDB, whose representatives are known for their attachment to patrimonialist and paternalistic practices. The inclusion of the latter in the conservative pact that has promoted neo-liberal political reform has thus meant awarding new value to such practices. Herein lies partial explanation for the vigor with which practices such as fisiologismo, apadrinhamento, abuse of state machinery, buying and selling of votes and clientelism have manifested themselves on the national scene over the course of the 1990s.

As políticas neoliberais dos governos Covas e Alckmin (1995-2006) e o movimento sindical dos professores do ensino oficial do estado de São Paulo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

O discurso da cor na construção do imaginário político: análise das informações visuais da mídia na cobertura da campanha presidencial de 2010

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A reeleição de vereadores evangélicos em Belém de 1992 a 2008: conexão, regra do jogo e comunicação com as bases

Em 2004 foram eleitos os vereadores que compunham a Câmara Municipal de Belém, tendo sido ocupadas às vagas deixadas por aqueles que não se reelegeram. Esse quadro da reeleição possibilitou a afirmação e fortalecimento de partidos políticos que, por vários mandatos, permanecem com representação política e assento no Parlamento Municipal. É o caso do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), do Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB), do Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), do Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB) entre outros.Esse grupo político tem estado representado no Parlamento municipal por um longo período ininterrupto. O campeão de renovação de mandato é o Vereador Pastor Paulo Queiroz da IEQ (Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular) que está no seu quarto mandato. Em seguida, vem o Vereador Pastor Raul Batista da IURD (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus) que está no seu terceiro mandato e o Vereador Iran Moraes da AD (Assembleia de Deus) que está no seu terceiro mandato. O ponto de partida da pesquisa, parte dos pressupostos sugeridos por Pereira e Rennó (2001) e sustentado por Downs (1958) de que, o objetivo central de um político é a busca de reeleição.Anthony Downs considera que o individuo dentro da sua racionalidade, tem a capacidade de interpretar as suas escolhas dentro de uma lógica de alternativas possíveis. Ele não se deixa ser seduzido pelos movimentos dos candidatos, mas, faz a sua escolha dentro das alternativas que se apresenta, mas mantém as escolhas racionais. Percebe-se que ao longo dos anos, os parlamentares evangélicos têm demonstrado maior força em algumas denominações em se manter no parlamento para vários mandatos. É o caso dos parlamentares da Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular, Adventista do Sétimo Dia, Universal do reino de Deus, Assembleia de Deus. O processo de renovação contínua de mandato é baseado no apoio das lideranças e nos serviços prestados aos seguimentos internos das Igrejas.

Política educacional paulista (1995-2012): dos primórdios da reforma empresarial neoliberal à consolidação do modelo gerencial

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

O clientelismo político no Brasil contemporâneo: algumas razões de sua sobrevivência

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Is Regulatory Convergence Efficient? CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 02.3, May 1992

One of the important themes in the new institutionalism is the convergence of market regulations in a world with three powerful clusters of countries (Western Europe, North America, and East Asia) on a small number of regimes, like disorganized capitalism, free market capitalism, and coordinated market capitalism. This paper examines the political-economic theory of regulatory convergence. It reconstructs and compares three welfarist approaches: the optimal regulatory regime (Tinbergen), the rule of constitutional law (Buchanan), and regulatory rivalry (Hayek). The paper concludes that most plausible results of convergence theory are completely opposite to the expressed political intentions of the theorists. Tinbergen's theory predicts neoliberalism, not social democracy. The theories of Buchanan and Hayek predict respectively a consensual or spontaneous formation of corporatist regulations, not the return of classical constitutionalism or liberalism. The paper summons new institutionalists to repair the weak scientific elements of convergence theory and to make a distinction between the ideological origins of this theory and its unintended ideological consequences.

State Transformation and the European Integration Project. Lessons from the financial crisis and the Greek paradigm. CEPS Special Report No. 130/February 2016

The financial crisis that erupted in the eurozone not only affected the EU’s financial governance mechanisms, but also the very nature of state sovereignty and balances in the relations of member states; thus, the actual inequalities between the member states hidden behind their institutional equality have deteriorated. This transformation is recorded in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the member states’ constitutional courts, particularly in those at the heart of the crisis, with Greece as the most prominent example. It is the issue of public debt (sovereign debt) of the EU member states that particularly reflects the influence of the crisis on state sovereignty as well as the intensely transnational (intergovernmental) character of European integration, which under these circumstances takes the form of a continuous, tough negotiation. The historical connection between public debt (sovereign debt) and state sovereignty has re-emerged because of the financial crisis. This development has affected not only the European institutions, but also, at the member state level, the actual institutional content of the rule of law (especially judicial review) and the welfare state in its essence, as the great social and political acquis of 20th century Europe. From this perspective, the way that the Greek courts have dealt with the gradual waves of fiscal austerity measures and structural reforms from 2010 to 2015 is characteristic. The effect of the financial crisis on the sovereignty of the member states and on the pace of European integration also has an impact on European foreign and security policy, and the correlations between the political forces at both the national and European level, thus producing even more intense pressures on European social democracy. In light of the experience of the financial crisis, the final question is whether the nation state (given the large real inequalities among the EU member states) currently functions as a brake or as an engine for future European integration.