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Based on the policy-making structures of Venezuelan government, this book examines the constitutionally allocated powers of the executive and legislature and shows how the powers of each branch are exercised given the incentives established by the electoral system and changing partisan strengths. Several institutional characteristics have led to a passive legislature and an activist chief executive. The advantages presidents enjoy as a result of their constitutional and partisan powers are demonstrated by a wealth of empirical evidence, including records of votes of censure, initiation of legislation, and the use of decree authority. Because of its dominance, the Venezuelan executive branch is the focus of interest-group pressure, which is institutionalized through consultative commissions and a decentralized public administration. The author analyzes memberships of more than 300 advisory commissions and governing boards, revealing the preponderance of posts filled by umbrella agencies for business and labor. The interaction of this limited version of civil society with policy makers in the executive branch has led to a highly protectionist development strategy and excessive government subsidies. The strategy and the political process that made it possible were both exhausted by the end of the 1980s. Venezuela was in political and economic crisis. The author places Venezuela in a comparative context with other Latin American states on three issues: the likelihood that executives will receive disciplined, majority support in the legislature; the constitutional powers of presidents; and the degree to which business and labor are formally incorporated through single peak associations. Participation and policy-making processes vary significantly across Latin American democracies, with few others reaching the level of centralization that has characterized Venezuela. At the other end of the spectrum, some Latin American institutional designs are characterized by diffusion and fragmentation. In conclusion, the author offers a blueprint to modify some of the counterproductive patterns associated with Venezuela, one of the longest-lived but now troubled democracies in Latin America.

This book presents a new framework for analyzing the political economy of budget processes in Latin America that is based on the following premises: i) the budget process must be considered as part of the overall policymaking process rather than in isolation; ii) budget outcomes cannot be fully explained on the basis of only one or two political or institutional dimensions; iii) actual practices must be considered as well as formal rules; iv) budget processes affect dimensions of fiscal outcomes besides fiscal sustainability, particularly efficiency, adaptability, and representativeness; v) political actors and their incentives must be considered at different stages of the policymaking process and in different institutional contexts. Case studies are presented for eight countries in the region, and a final chapter presents conclusions and suggestions for further research.

For over thirty years, Latin American Politics and Development has kept instructors and students abreast of current affairs and changes in Latin America. Now in its ninth edition, this definitive text has been updated throughout and features contributions from experts in the field, including twenty new and revised chapters on Mexico, Central America,the Caribbean, and South America.

The relationship between populism and democracy is contested among scholars. While some propose that populism is inherently harmful for democracy because it is anti-pluralist and confrontational, others argue that populism can reinvigorate worn-out democracies in need of greater popular participation. In A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power, Julio F. Carrión advances this debate by examining the empirical relationship between populism in power and democracy. Does populism in power always lead to regime change, that is, the demise of democracy? The answer is no. The impact of populism on democracy depends on the variety of populism in power: the worst outcomes in democratic governance are found under unconstrained populism. Carrión presents the permissive and productive conditions for why and how populism becomes unconstrained, as well as a dynamic theory of change that shows how the late victories of populists build on early ones, resulting in greater power asymmetries. A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power provides an analysis of five Latin American populist presidencies, all located in the Andes. In four of them (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), populism became unconstrained and regime change followed. In one case, Colombia, populism in power was successfully contained and democracy survived. The concluding chapter places the Andean cases in comparative perspective and discusses how unconstrained populism in other cases (Nicaragua and Hungary) also led to the end of electoral democracy. Where populism in power was constrained (Honduras and the United States), regime change did not materialize. Carrión advances a theory of populism in power that helps us understand how democracies transition into non-democracies. To that extent, the book illuminates the processes of democratic erosion in our time.

Here is the fifth supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia . This volume includes a discussion of the Mesozoic Era, covers recent discoveries in paleontology, and furthers the ectothermy/ endothermy debate from previous installments.

Anti-Empire explores how different writers across Lusophone spaces engage with imperial and colonial power at its various levels of domination, while imagining alternatives to dominant discourses pertaining to race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, and class. This project thus offers in-depth interrogations of racial politics, gender performance, socio-economic divisions, political structures, and the intersections of these facets of domination and hegemony.

La irrupción del Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación no sólo trajo aparejados importantes cambios en el campo del derecho privado sustantivo, sino que también constituye la reforma procesal más relevante que se ha llevado a cabo en los últimos 40 años. Este cuerpo normativo ha desencadenado un verdadero proceso de cambio, de reconstrucción, en el derecho adjetivo, tanto para lograr una debida adecuación entre lo material y lo formal, como así también para dar luz verde a la incorporación de una serie de institutos cuyo reconocimiento deviene imprescindible en los tiempos que corren, para que se cumplimente -de una vez por todas- con el anhelo de contar en la Argentina con una tutela judicial que sea verdaderamente efectiva.

Escribir, contar, leer historias son actividades imprescindibles en nuestra necesidad diaria por tratarde entender / conocer el mundo, a los otros, a nosotros mismos. Un grupo de expertos analiza en estas páginas, de forma caleidoscópica, los principales enfoques que surgen de esa necesidad de narrar, de contarnos, de comprendernosà así como los procesos de narración, los agentes que intervienen en ellos, etcétera. Actividad tan antigua como el lenguaje, el narrar cobra una relevancia especial en el mundo de la formación emocional e intelectual del sujeto desde el primer momento que toma contacto con los que le rodean. Con este libro se intenta poner en manos del lector una ôherramientaö que le permita adentrarse (des de distintas perspectivas) en los diversos elementos del inquietante mundo del contarnos y del leernos, especialmente a partir de la literatura infantil y juvenil.

El proyecto Ciudades Romanas de la Bética, CORPVS VRBIVM BAETICARVM (II-III), ha tenido como objetivo fundamental la recopilación de la información arqueológica más reciente y actualizada referida las ciudades de los conventus Cordubensis y Gaditanus, así como el establecimiento de los límites de los mismos; al igual que sucedería con la primera fase del proyecto para las demarcaciones del hispalense y astigitano. Con la intención de mantener el espíritu ya iniciado, así como el desarrollo metodológico, se cuenta en esta obra con síntesis temáticas elaboradas por diferentes especialistas, de manera conjunta éstas se acompañan de una entrada para cada una de las ciudades de los dos conventus; dichas entradas o schedae contienen una información jerarquizada y ordenada según grandes líneas temáticas como urbanismo, arquitectura, mundo funerario, escultura, epigrafía, diagnóstico, etc. con toda la bibliografía de referencia o específica de cada una de las entidades urbanas. Para acceder al contenido total de esta información se ha implementado en el entorno web del proyecto (http://cvb.vrbanitas.es/), una herramienta de acceso y consulta en abierto, con motores de búsqueda y una cartografía georeferenciada actualizada con los límites y posiciones de yacimientos. Con la realización de esta monografía se ve culminado un importante y ambicioso proyecto relativo al conocimiento de las ciudades de la Provincia Baetica.