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Various theoretical approaches have attempted to understand the transformations that have been taking place over the last five decades in terms of the dynamics between states, how political power is exercised and the deployment and crisis of global hegemony. Such approaches have come from different perspectives that do not always converge. This paper discusses two approaches attempting to account for these elements. On the one hand, a historical structural systemic perspective, which brings together the contributions of the critical International Political Economy and World-Systems analysis. On the other, a relational poststructural perspective that includes studies from the field of critical political geography. After exposing the tensions and complements between them, we argue in favor of the possibility and need of constructing a structural, historical and dynamic perspective that seeks to frame the challenges and opportunities for statehood in Latin America in the face of global capitalist restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the constitution of the area of studies on the history and development of political science in Latin America over the past ten years. Several studies have been proposed to account for this process showing the growth of the discipline in the region. In this paper we will highlight the main actors and their scientific and academic production, as well as the processes of institutionalization and professionalization of political science. This article aims to classify these studies from the early exploratory approaches up to the production of more sofisticated descriptive works, from a comparative perspective, in order to finally arrive at the new current trends that attempt to perform a “metatheoretical" approach with contributions from epistemology, sociology of knowledge and the history of the science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyze what personal traits define a good politician from the perspective of the Latin-American legislators. In addition to verifying whether these qualities are the same elected by citizens, in this work I compare them with the qualities that serve to win elections. Furthermore, different analyses remark the effect that political knowledge has on these preferences, making charisma more attractive among citizens with low levels of political sophistication. However, little is known about the impact of this variable for politicians. This article measures a)whether education and political knowledge also alter the perception of the deputies on what characteristics are more valued b) which of these characteristics serve better to gain elections, as well as c) the influence of constituents' political sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss the concept of neopatrimonialism, a notion that has been employed to depict the persistence of traditional forms of authority in the midst of the legal-bureaucratic institutions of contemporary states. It is argued that the concept describes a particularistic mode of appropriation of public goods. Then, it is shown how to identify a conceptual space of possibilities for neopatrimonialism to thrive. This space is established by the intersection of two dimensions: the type of political regime and the measure of bureaucratic strength of the state. Using a method of hierarchical cluster analysis, Latin American countries are classified according to indicators of bureaucratic development and portrayed in a bi-dimensional space. Based on the empirical evidence and the prior theoretical elaboration, the concept of neopatrimonialism is discussed in the light of its analytical explanatory force. It is conclude that this latter issue requires further research; hence, it has to be accompanied by other strategies of analysis on the relationship between socio-political practices and the functioning of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1981 Chile began a wave of privatization and market-friendly reforms of social security systems in Latin America; Argentina did the same in 1993. In 2008, Chile and Argentina reformed their pension systems again. Chile maintains the private capitalization system complemented with a basic pension and solidarity payments while Argentina eliminated the capitalization pillar and replaced it by a single integrated delivery system publicly administered. This paper analyzes the policy reforms of pension systems as a result of the comparison between countries, as well as between market and state led reforms and state led reforms: Chile (1981 and 2008) and Argentina (1993 and 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardoso is among the most famous thinkers on development and dependency theory. He successfully combines sociology, economics and political science to build an interdisciplinary view of Latin America's transformations. This paper analyses Cardoso's "radical" theoretical evolution between two major books, Dependency and Development in Latin America (1970) and Charting a New Course: The Politics of Globalization and Social Transformation (2001). The positions he occupied when he wrote these two books, academician-political opponent and then politician, could explain his evolution. Cardoso claims that new political and economic conditions have taken place and a new theory is thus required in order to "chart a new course". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notions of governability and Populism have been used increasingly in political sciences papers on Latin America. The lack of precision in theirs meanings increased the same way. In this article, we argue that such difficulty lies in theirs uses in three ideal types of speech registries: the academic speech, the bureaucratic speech, and the political speech. We consider that these three uses of Populism and governability, with theirs respective logics, can generate much confusion. We propose therefore some reflections that try to clarify theses notions from the logic of the academic speech, but taking into account the uses that are made in both other registries of speeches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2000, Mexican politics has changed in two important ways. First, the PRI's defeat in the 2000 elections has ended a 70-year long one-party system. Second, the president no longer holds a majority in either chamber of a bicameral congress. In what is likely to be a new era of divided government, constitutional engineers proposed a multitude of constitutional reforms to promote good governance under a separation of powers system. While some reforms attempt to decrease the likelihood of minority presidents, others aim at strengthening the constitutional powers of the president. This paper argues that a viable and desirable strategy of constitutional change should avoid these two extremes. Instead, reforms should generate incentives to promote inter-branch cooperation during divided government. This paper discusses the benefits of a partial reform consisting of two parts: 1) electoral rules that promote correspondence between the preferences of citizens and those of policy makers and 2) constitutional powers that encourage coordination between the president and the congress in the process of policy making and cabinet formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]