Search

One measure of a democratic rule of law is how the state defines the framework for the exercise of representative democracy, and who it grants the right to participate in representative democracy (i.e. who it considers to belong to the people). However, this dual nature of the right to vote raises a number of questions. For example, before the 2018 Hungarian parliamentary elections and during the campaign period, critical voices were heard criticising the system used in Hungarian parliamentary elections (including the institution of winner compensation). By contrast, the fundamental nature of the right to vote, i.e. the subjective aspect, is less often the focus of attention. In this respect, the question rightly arises as to whether the importance of the right to vote as a fundamental right has not been lost. Has the role of different electoral techniques and electoral systems not become a more important issue than the definition and possible extension of the scope of the electorate? Starting from the dual nature of electoral law, the study examines the requirements that can be imposed on electoral systems and the characteristics and challenges of electoral law as a fundamental right.

Coastal zones are biodiverse, with complex and dynamic interconnectivity between terrestrial and marine areas, and with multiple interactions between ecological and social systems. Despite on-going efforts to conserve and protect these ecosystems, destructive extraction and unsustainable resource utilization are persistent, posing challenges for governance. Issues and concerns in coastal zones are cross-sectoral and cross-boundary, often with overlapping jurisdictions. They are considered ‘wicked’ governance problems, requiring nuanced approaches to address, rather than technical quick fixes. Interactive governance is one such approach that examines relationships within and between the ecological and social systems, as well as with the governing system. Theoretically, the governability of coastal zones depends on the inherent quality of these systems and their interactions, and improving governability needs to take place in all three orders of governance. At the ‘first order’, a better understanding of the diversity, complexity and dynamics of coastal zones, and related scale issues is required. Improving governability at the ‘second order’ involves evaluating and adjusting the existing legal and institutional frameworks to improve the performance and the correspondence with the systems they aim to govern. Finally, discussion about coastal governance needs to be elevated to ‘meta-order’ where principles are set and values derived so that hard choices can be made, for instance, between conservation and utilization of coastal resources. Guided by the interactive governance framework, the paper presents an overview of coastal governance in Thailand, summarizing key features of the natural, social and governing systems associated with coastal zones, and discussing what can be done to improve coastal governability.

This article focuses on discussing governance, which is defined as the government's ability in governance. Governability is influenced by the number of parties, the degree of political polarization between parties, party participation in government, and the relationship between most of the parliament and the executive. This research was conducted using a qualitative method with a descriptive analytical approach that describes, describes, and analyzes the governability in Central Sulawesi after the election of governors and vice governors in 2015. Although it has the potential for divided government to occur in the Regional Government of Central Sulawesi because only 13 seats or 29% of 45 (forty-five) the number of seats in the Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD), but in fact throughout 2016-2020 it was running effectively. There has never been any rejection of government programs by the DPRD during the 2016-2020 government. An interesting finding in this research is that the capacity and background of the regional head from the regional head elections has a big role in building governance with the ability to establish communication and coordination with DPRD members. Regional heads with good capacities and a background in bureaucracy and politicians also influence the performance of local governments and are related to their relationship with the DPRD. The governor who governs and the interaction between the governor and the governed all contribute to governability, including the type of external influence

Context and background The role of customary land tenure institutions in land governance is immeasurable. Notwithstanding the enormous role of customary land tenure institutions in local land governance, they are fraught with problems. The governability of customary land tenure institutions is critical to good local land governance. The literature on has mainly focused on examining the role and capacity of customary land tenure institutions with very little attention to good local land governance indicators. Goal and Objectives: The goal of this paper is to assess the governability of the Odupongkpehe customary land tenure institution in the Awutu Senya East Municipal area of Ghana. The objectives of this paper are to examine the quality and capacity of the Odupongkpehe customary land tenure institution. Methodology: The study was conducted in the Awutu Senya Municipal area in Ghana. The concurrent mixed methods design was used for the study. Data were collected from 178 landowners and experts in customary and statutory land governance. Data were collected from 10th February to 24th February 2019. The semi-structured interview schedules used for data collection in this study was developed and pretested on 14th January 2019. Results: The results evinced that the governability of the customary land tenure institutions was poor because the institution failed to interact with the populace in the customary area. Furthermore, the customary institution did not have the capacity to govern since it was constrained by inadequate staff and logistics and did not collaborate with public land sector agencies. The study recommends the formulation and implementation of a Customary Land Secretariat policy to guide the activities of customary land governance structures.

The article considers the possibility of applying a competitive cooperative strategy (coopetition) to improve the effi ciency of governability. The coopetition strategy in this case is considered to be based on the blockchain technology. To achieve this goal, various approaches to governability, the coopetition strategy, as well as the applicability of the blockchain technology as a basis for the practical implementation of this strategy are analyzed. A new institutionalism is used as a methodology, and game theory methods are used. In this paper, an analysis of competitive and cooperative strategy and technology of blockchain was carried out in order to identify their applicability to improve the effi ciency of governability. As a result, factors have been identifi ed that prove the positive impact of the competitive-cooperative strategy based on the blockchain on the effectiveness of governability, as well as factors at this stage of the study that do not guarantee the full applicability of the above strategy in solving the tasks of political governance.

The social-ecological change in the Arctic is accelerated by the multifaceted effects of climate change and globalization. Among other things, this means changing human-ecosystem dynamics through altered availability, co-production, and governance of ecosystem services (ES). A group of species illustrative of this change are whales, migratory species that have played an important part in the culture and subsistence of Arctic communities for millennia. This study explores the changing human-nature interactions and whale ES governance by combining ES and interactive governance theories. A multi-method approach is applied to assess qualitatively the qualitative governability of whale ES in three Arctic coastal locations: Húsavík in Iceland, Andenes in Norway, and Disko Bay in Greenland. Based on a literature review, stakeholder mapping, observations, and analysis of 54 semi-structured stakeholder interviews, the study finds that whale ES governance involves multiple actors with differing preferences and values and that much of it happens outside of formal institutions, necessitating inclusive approaches to improve it. The study reveals some whale ES governance deficiencies and potentials, such as a mismatch between governance scales and a need for more formal governance practices based on scientific research and stakeholder inputs. Governance frameworks were present for provisioning whale ES related to whaling, but they were lacking for non-consumptive whale ES, such as whale watching. Addressing these issues can help to direct marine resource management toward sustainability by making it more inclusive, adaptive, and reflective of stakeholder needs and values. This goal could be advanced by applying the governance principles that view humans as an integral part of social-ecological systems, e.g., ecosystem stewardship and ecosystem-based management.

Resumen: El modelo constitucional español expresa una apuesta por la gobernabilidad que nace del contexto histórico propio del parlamentarismo racionalizado y se fundamenta sobre un sistema electoral establecido desde 1977. Sin embargo tanto la configuración orgánica del ejecutivo como la puesta en práctica de la función de gobierno han tenido un desarrollo bastante limitado en la práctica, y algunas tareas centrales como la orientación estratégica, la programación de políticas públicas o la coordinación general del sistema se han reducido a puras inercias. Abstract: The Spanish constitutional model express a commitment to gobernability that is born from the historical context of «rationalized parlamentarism» and is based on an electoral system established since 1977. However, both the organic configuration of the executive and the implementation of the function of governing have had a rather limited development in practice, while some central tasks such as strategic orientation, public policy programing and overall system coordination, have been reduced to pure inertia. Summary: 1. Introduction. 2. Government and governability: the starting point. 3. The function of government as a political function. 4. Government and governance: unfulfilled challenges. 5. A mediocre balance and its advantages. 6. Perspectives of historical change. 7. Final considerations.

The aim of this study is to provide possibilities for a theoretical interpretation of the foundations of the criminalization of rural social movements in Brazil. To do that, it analyzes the State as a multifaceted agent, which, for an understanding of its characteristics in specific situations, may be observed through an analysis of its everyday interventions. Thus, the governance of agrarian problems and conflicts in the countryside are represented as an expression of governability and state-building. Basing ourselves on those referents, we present a history of the relations between the State and the agrarian question under different political regimes in Brazil, with an emphasis on understanding the characteristic features of the post neo-liberal period. We set forth the idea of Brazilian neo-extractivism as a particular expression of the relations between the criminalization of rural social movements and the governance of natural resources, associated with a logic of the day to day establishment of political authority.

The debate about the operation of Brazilian political institutions is far from conclusive. It could hardly be different, since current Brazilian democratic regime is only 30 years-old. This article updates a previous one, published in 2000, in which I discuss different and rival interpretations on the functioning of the Brazilian democracy. Some new works argue that a 'dialectic synthesis' of those strands has been recently produced. This article demonstrates this argument is not accurate. Instead, my main argument is that, in spite of rich analyses, new evidences and some displacements, the interpretations and paradigms guiding that debate remain the same. On the other hand, in spite of the solid position of the interpretation sustaining how the Brazilian political system ensures governability, the current institutional debate goes far beyond this paradigm by setting new themes and approaches. To demonstrate this argument, the article presents the evolution of such debate.

Most studies on government coalitions in Latin American democracies consider the cabinet to be an organ of collective government and analyze legislative support for the president on the basis of the political party affiliation of the ministers. Given that the Argentinian case does not adjust to this perspective, by constructing the concept of cabinet trajectory, the article shows how two fundamental causes (i.e., the low degree of institutionalization of political parties and the centrality of the presidency) combined with two proximate causes (i.e., the context in which the head of state assumes and holds office, and the strategies he or she uses to govern) determine the makeup of the cabinet. The study concludes that the trade-off of cabinet posts for legislative votes does not exist in Argentina.

HIGHLIGHTSThe Anthropocene compels unlocking of ocean-related network capabilities.Orchestration of local, regional, and global knowledge networks can augment transformative capacity.Transdisciplinary network diagnostics are promising social learning tools.Strategic advice for transformational research in ocean territories are provided.This paper dedicates to understanding of what is needed to achieve the transformation of ocean governance. Based on the theory of transformative agency conceptualized in a multi-level governance context, we build on recent novel inter- and transdisciplinary research in Brazil to explore the opportunities for transformation in the dynamic, complex, and multi-level field of ocean governance. We focus this analysis on three transformation processes toward developing a socially and ecologically coherent marine protected area network as the core of a marine spatial planning process for enhanced ecosystem-based polycentric governance of the country's Exclusive Economic Zone. The findings illuminate leverage points for achieving (much needed) transformation in Brazilian ocean governance and potentially beyond. These include: connecting transformative actions into coherent narratives and testing strategic advice derived from theories of transformative agency to promote regime shifts in ocean governance systems; setting of more ambitious social mobilization targets; fostering orchestration of knowledge-networks considering multiple issues, territorial and institutional levels; implementing institutional learning experiments; supporting transformational trajectories toward co-evolutionary, polycentric, ecosystem- and area-based ocean governance systems; and pursuing gradual, incremental structural understanding of a given knowledge network field as a major driver of catalyzing transformative change. Hereby, this article advances understanding of how to better navigate the transformation toward enhanced sustainability in an important part of the Atlantic and hence of our global ocean.

This paper analyzes the results of the general elections held on November 24th, 2013 in Honduras in which Juan Orlando Hernández, a member of the conservative National Party, emerged as the winner. The results of these elections, marked by the crisis of 2009, allowed the ruling party to continue in power. The present analysis focuses on the political context in which the elections were held, as well as the main challenges the country faces. The article also discusses the effects of the electoral process on the Honduran party system, highlighting the transition from iron-clad bipartisanship to an incipient multi-party system that will condition the political scene in the years to come.

It is of interest to discuss how we are currently governed. A way that seems to operate through a given type of mentality every day helps to produce and disseminate means of conduct. ADM know-how, which circulates in the field of administration and extrapolates it, takes part in the production and dissemination of a business mentality which, in turn, is at the basis of current governability. This paper addresses the notion of government, one that does not only refer to political structures and to State management, but also to the means of action over the possibilities of action by others. It then addresses the notion of governability in different times, focusing on company or business governability, a sort of mentality that governs all. Based on that, it is possible for government to think of administration know-how as it is exercised nowadays.

After President Lula’s two terms of office, the election of Dilma Rousseff generated all kinds of different expectations, whether because of the candidate’s lack of a political career within the Workers’ Party (PT), or because of her rather uncharismatic personality and poor propensity towards political negotiations with the allied parties that favoured the governability of the previous term of office. The country she has inherited is in a much better situation than the one inherited by the first PT government, with a stabilised economy and inflation under control. The sustainable policies for reducing poverty have generated conditions that encourage the enlargement of the middle class which, together with the creation of popular credit mechanisms, have served to halt the effects of the world crisis and have generated enormous expectations of social mobility. This scenario, together with the country’s increasingly recognised presence as an important international actor, provides unprecedented possibilities for the advancement of the “development with social inclusion” project. Nevertheless, certain reforms still need to be implemented that could threaten governability: political reform, federative agreement and tax reform, as well as social reforms.

The territorial environmental stakes believes in an exponential way for a decade. The political decision-makers seize this sphere of influence and facilitate actions which promote the sustainable project. The Paris Region chooses to base its territorial development partially on the "greening urban" ideology. This Region operates actions to become the first European Ecoregion by half-dozen years. It facilitates agro-environmental decisions. One of the pillars of this territorial development is organic farming. To create a dynamics of local democracy, the Paris Region establishes participative governance based on debates, on Round Tables and public reports. This paper suggests analyzing the means used to create participative dynamics in the town and country planning, in the territorial management. This "governmentality" of the organic farming strengthens the plan of suburban farming to interest the urban voters.

Psychotherapy, defined from its etymology as “treatment of the soul”, is presented as a technological artifact –“technology of the soul”–, a product of knowledge about the internal experience of individuals, who emerge and take as a conceptual framework the dominant understanding of the cosmos, and the ideals and values of the socio-cultural context in which such experience develops itself. This article focuses on the elaboration of a brief review on the way knowledge, processes and devices, that have accompanied man in his becoming, have been configuring themselves, trying to explain, control and grasp his inner world, the “invisible” experience of his passions and emotions, which become visible through his behaviors and attitudes. Departing from this, there is an initial description about the way these technologies become power structures, a power based on the knowledge that finds its substance in the understanding of the particular cosmos, and that, from use or abuse, establish a dominion over human life and freedom.

This article analyzes the different conceptions of political representation at the foundational moment of independent Mexico. It understands liberalism as a heterogeneous and multifaceted political language that was constructed through the rhetoric of preventing despotism. Conceiving political representation in broad terms allows new elements and variables to be introduced in order to study it. The article concludes with a number of reflections that point towards a new reading of the problem of governability in Mexico after Independence.

The democratic political system of our countries,public administration and citizens have been developingsome new instruments that help publicmanagers govern well and at the same time allowcitizens to appropriately control government actions.Accountability is an important one of theseinstruments. This work tries to lay the conceptualBASES CONCEPTUALES DE LA RENDICIÓNDE CUENTAS Y EL ROL DE LAS ENTIDADESDE FISCALIZACIÓN SUPERIORJimmy Bolaños GonzálezContraloría General de la República, Costa Ricajimmy.bolanos@cgr.go.crfoundations of accountability in relation to the role theComptroller General of the Republic is to fulfill so as to generatea common language capable of functioning as abasis for addressing the practical aspects involved in thistopic. Such aspects will be dealt with in a second articlefrom a more concrete legal, administrative and operativeperspective of how they have been working in Costa Rica.

The war that broke out in Northern Uganda in 1986 – one of the most forgotten wars of our times – was the result of a long North-South conflict in the country, and has caused the displacement of 2 million people, the deaths of some 100,000 citizens and the kidnapping of 40,000 children by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) guerrilla. Repeated attempts by civil society (particularly by religious and traditional leaders) to stop the conflict through negotiation has ended, time after time, in failures that have led to new waves of violence, most of them directed against the civil population. In this context, the traditional culture of the Acholi people has played a paramount role, and has backed several reconciliation initiatives. The most successful one was the amnesty law which, since 2002, has succeeded in reincorporating more than 12,000 people from the LRA. However, the use of traditional peace processes, particularly the mato oput, clashes with a reality that is unduly complicated by the thousands of murders that have been committed, sometimes by minors who have been forced to kill. The intervention of the International Criminal Court in The Hague since 2004 has not produced a very favourable response among the Acholi society, which views this court more as an obstacle than as a means to help bring this tragedy to an end. The dilemmas created by conflicts of interest between peace and justice, and the attempts to strengthen the role of traditional leaders to reincorporate combatants returning from war into society are just some of the underlying issues in this conflict which has, furthermore, an international dimension, as it has now affected four African countries.

The study presents an overview of the ways in which the process of establishing and maintaining democratic regimes in Latin America has been analysed in recent years. To this end, the text is divided into two parts: the first contains a critical summary of the literature that analyses the processes of transition from authoritarian regimes to democratic ones, while the second examines how analysts have interpreted the democratic regimes that exist in the region. For this purpose, the second part contains three sections that briefly cover the following issues: the ways in which this type of democracies has been described, what the connection is between the nature of the regimes and democracy and, finally, the current state of the debate on the “quality of democracy”. In this last section, the author places emphasis on the dilemma experienced by analysts attempting to study the subject of democracy from an empirical or normative perspective.

En ausencia de un gobierno metropolitano, las grandes ciudades que sostienen la problemática de una gestión multinivel, es decir, donde se sobrepone la acción del gobierno central, regional y de un conjunto significativo de municipios, generan un escenario complejo para la gobernabilidad en pro de un desarrollo urbano y territorial equilibrado. Desde esta perspectiva, la gran disparidad en la configuración socioterritorial que muestra el Área Metropolitana de Santiago constituye un reflejo de la estructura de poder sobre el espacio metropolitano, donde las comunas del cono oriente muestran un mejor posicionamiento para orientar las acciones públicas y privadas a favor del interés público de su población residenteIn the absence of metropolitan level government, large cities retain the problems associated with multilevel management whereby the activities of central government, regional government and numerous municipal governments overlap, generating in turn a complex scenario for governance in favour of balanced urban and regional development. From this perspective, the significant disparity in socio-spatial configuration within the Santiago Metropolitan Area reflects the structure of power within this metropolitan space, whereby municipalities in the eastern cone are better able to shape public and private actions in support of the public interests of their resident populations.

En América Latina ha crecido la preocupación por la corrupción y, de manera especial, por encontrar fórmulas institucionales que permitan combatirla. La corrupción ha sido considerada como un importante obstáculo al desarrollo económico, un impedimento para la erradicación de la pobreza y el principal motivo de pérdida de legitimidad gubernamental, por tanto, una amenaza para la democracia. Dentro de las políticas públicas que se han planteado en la región para el control de la corrupción, la participación de los ciudadanos se ha convertido en un elemento indispensable, el cual, en términos generales, se encuentra inserto dentro de una lógica de acción pública que en años recientes asumió la denominación de gobernanza, esto es, la necesidad de comprender el gobierno como un proceso y no como un sujeto directivo, lo cual implica una multiplicidad de actores y de centros de decisión difusos. En este sentido, en el texto se plantean las formas en que los ciudadanos pueden participar en las políticas públicas que buscan luchar contra la corrupción bajo la perspectiva de la nueva gestión pública y la nueva gobernanza democrática.In the past fifteen years has been growing concern about corruption and, especially, to find ways that allow reduce it. In Latin America, corruption has been considered a major obstacle to economic development, an impediment to poverty eradication and the main reason for the loss of governmental legitimacy, therefore, a threat to democracy. Within public policies to control corruption that have arisen in the region, citizen participation has become an essential element that, generally, is into a logic of public action that in recent years assumed the name of governance, referred to the need to understand the government as a process rather than as an individual manager, hence it brings multiplicity of actors and decision-making centers, The text show possible ways of citizen participation in the public policies to combat corruption under two approaches: the New Public Management and the New Democratic Governance.

This article examines the reasons why Spain which possesses a consolidated democratic regime continues to promote democracy and even good governance in certain countries in such an uncertain, ambiguous manner. Recent events, such as the impact of international terrorism, have meant that there is an even more urgent need for providing democratic assistance to the neighbouring countries of the Maghreb region. In spite of its initial limitations and slants,the very concept of governance would represent a non-intrusive promotion of democracy. Nevertheless, Spain’s actors in the field of foreign policy and cooperation with development (as the case of Algeria illustrates perfectly) have been clearly reluctant to commit themselves to this course of action. Spain’s patent energy dependence on Algeria (a fact that is often put forward as the main explanatory reason) is called into question, with an argument based not only on the evidence of Spanish action in other countries in regions (such as Tunisia and Latin America), but also in an analysis of the discourses and instruments of Spanish foreign policy. As an alternative explanation, it is suggested that practices that have long been used in Spain’s “Arab” foreign policy, the pending reform of the external service, the Europeisation of external action and the “second-player syndrome” (i.e. second to France), provide a better explanation ofSpain’s ambiguousness and of its slow abandonment of policies that favour the status quo.

Beginning with the concept of governability, and of the different levels of governance, educational policy is considered to constitute the key stone on which democratic political systems of countries with developed and industrialized societies maintain, stabilize and empower themselves. And it is precisely from the growing levels of training of the citizens in these countries where said societies and States move toward some degrees of economic prosperity and social peace that, taken as a whole, permit the consoli- dation, stabilization and democratization of the systems. With that, this work seeks to move closer to the study of educational policy, specifically, through regulated and unregulated training paths. The thesis used in this report rests on the recognition of the determinant importance which educational policy has on the governability and participatory democratic strengthening of a political system, shaping itself as the strategic factor of public action. The progress of a country and its levels of economic development and social wellbeing are going to depend decisively and ultimately on how the variable named human capital is managed. A series of recommendations and guidelines which influence the improvement of those factors which aid good governance may be derived from an analysis of educational policy. This study will tackle the change of the paradigm experienced in said policy, which at the same time must frame itself in the theoretical concept of Sozialstaat and in the later evolution and crisis of the Welfare State.

The emergence of the social sciences has provided a network of technologies, knowledges, practices and discourses to regulate and govern society. The social sciences may play a central role in developing forms of social control. Modern 'knowledge societies' manage the production of scientific knowledge in a way that privileges the kind of thinking that is consistent with current hegemonic thought, and reduces the possibility of critical perspectives (Slaughter y Leslie, 1997, 2001). The social sciences are in the paradox of questioning the fundamentals of what they,in some sense, actively constitute. The development of post-fordist societies and our academic location in the belly of the beast (Haraway, 1991) prompts a reflection on the context, possibilities and forms of critical work in our present institutional circumstances. This paper considers the methodological principles and political implications of academic critical research.

Esse artigo tem como objetivo analisar os impactos políticos e sociais da epidemia de gripe espanhola em 1918, sobre a cidade do Rio de Janeiro, então capital federal da República. A partir da análise dos registros na imprensa carioca e de conjuntos documentais que incluem anais, relatórios e boletins de um ministério, da Prefeitura da cidade e da Câmara dos Deputados, bem como estudos da Academia Nacional de Medicina e teses da Faculdade de Medicina, analisamos a utilização da epidemia como mecanismo de engenharia política. Buscaremos focalizar os seus impactos sobre a representação de alguns atores políticos e sociais do período, bem como sobre a reafirmação de um grupo de higienistas como intelligentzia, com vocação para a liderança política e peça fundamental no processo de modernização da sociedade brasileira.The article analyzes the political and social impacts of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic in the city of Rio de Janeiro, then Brazil's federal capital. Based on an analysis of Rio de Janeiro press reports and of other documentation (including annals, reports, and bulletins from a federal ministry, the Mayor's Office, and the Chamber of Deputies, along with studies from the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine and dissertations from Rio de Janeiro's Faculdade de Medicina), we explore use of the epidemic as a means of political engineering. Our focus is on how the epidemic impacted not only the representation of certain political and social actors but also the reaffirmation of a group of sanitarians as an intelligentsia with a vocation for political leadership who played a key role in the process of modernizing Brazilian society.

A situação atual do poderio global dos Estados Unidos cristaliza um brutal desequilíbrio de forças. Porém, essa imensa concentração de poder não significa - nem garante - um exercício permanente de dominação. Até porque uma nação se mantém hegemônica enquanto, ao conduzir o sistema de nações a uma direção desejada por ela, consegue ser percebida como buscando o interesse geral e favorecendo a governabilidade mundial. A idéia de uma nova ordem mundial mais estável a partir de Bretton Woods foi rapidamente sepultada pela crueza de um mercado regido por capitais voláteis e submetido a grandes instabilidades. Apesar da pujança do sistema capitalista, a afirmação da supremacia dos mercados gerou uma onda de crises que varreu as três últimas décadas do século passado e permanece até hoje. A fragmentação das cadeias produtivas globais e a expansão mundial do comércio acabaram permitindo aos grandes países da periferia uma maior participação no mercado mundial. No entanto, com raras exceções, os termos de intercâmbio continuaram favoráveis aos países centrais e os desequilíbrios cresceram. Cabe a esses países - em especial aos Estados Unidos, como principal condutor das políticas globais - encarar a urgência de uma nova ordem mundial que inclua, fundamentalmente, medidas efetivas para a redução do seu protecionismo agrícola e industrial, regulação dos fluxos financeiros voláteis e apoio a estratégias que permitam aos grandes países da periferia incorporarem valor às suas produções locais. Já estes últimos, não devem alimentar exageradas esperanças na globalização, colocando-a apenas como uma importante perspectiva e não como o centro de suas políticas. Para isso, é necessário reconstruir o conceito de Estado nacional capaz do exercício maduro de sua soberania, informada simultaneamente por uma nova noção de identidade e pelas circunstâncias do mercado global.The current global power situation of the United States crystallizes a brutal unbalance of forces. Nevertheless, this immense power concentration neither means - nor guarantees - the permanent exercise of domination. This is also true because a nation maintains its hegemony as long as, while conducting the system of nations into a desired direction, it manages to be perceived as seeking general interest and favoring global governability. The idea of a new and more stable global order from Bretton Woods onwards was rapidly buried by the brutality of a market ruled by volatile capitals and submitted to high levels of instability. Despite the strength of the capitalist system, the affirmation about market supremacy created a wave of crises that swept through the last three decades of the previous century and continues until today. The fragmentation of global productive chains and the worldwide expansion of commerce ended up allowing for a greater participation of large peripheral countries in the world market. However, with few exceptions, the exchange terms continue in favor of the central countries and unbalance has increased. It is the function of these countries - especially the United States as the mean conductor of global policies - to face the urgency of a new global order, basically including efficient measures for the reduction of their agricultural and industrial protectionism, regulation of volatile financial flows and support for strategies that allow large peripheral countries to incorporate value into their local production. The latter, then, should not raise exaggerated hopes in relation to globalization, merely putting it forward as an important perspective and not as the center of their policies. Therefore, the concept of a national State needs to be reconstructed, which is capable of exercising its sovereignty in a mature way, simultaneously informed by a new notion of identity and by the circumstances of the global market.

O NEPAD - New Partnership for African Development - tem seus primórdios em 1996, proposto pelo atual presidente da África do Sul, Thabo Mbeki e outros líderes africanos, para erradicar a marginalização e o subdesenvolvimento africanos e promover o crescimento econômico, através da integração continental. Seus objetivos, inseridos no contexto da globalização e do African Renaissance, incorpora valores da luta antiapartheid sul-africana, restauração da auto-estima e resgate de valores pré-coloniais. O que o difere de outros planos que não deram certo na África é o vínculo inseparável entre democracia, direitos humanos, paz, governabilidade e o desenvolvimento econômico, as responsabilidades assumidas pelos participantes e a propriedade africana do plano.NEPAD - New Partnership for African Development - was originated in 1996, proposed by the current South African president, Thabo Mbeki and other African leaders, to eradicate the African exclusion and underdevelopment and to promote the economical growth, through the continental integration. It's objectives, in the context of globalization and African Renaissance, incorporates values of the fight against apartheid in South Africa, restoration of the self-esteem and recovering pre-colonial values. What differs this from other plans that did not work is the inseparable entail among democracy, human rights, peace, governability and the economical development, the responsibilities assumed by the participants and the African property of the plan.

Is the western liberal model of democracy adequate to analyze the new political regimes of the Third Wave of Democracy? After reviewing the recent literatures on democratization and economic reform, I refer to their signifying concepts, namely, governability, governance and democracy, as well as to their implicit normative biases. I give especial attention to the concept of democracy as used by those literatures, based on the so-called procedural minimum (Schumpeter/Dahl). Considered too minimum by leading authors, this definition has been expanded to include "precising" attributes. Rather than augmenting even further Dahl?s list, I here propose to include in the regime change investigation the characteristics of the decision-making process, as an analytical tool to characterize the new political systems on their own terms. I claim that this approach better exams the more or less democratic character of the building regimes in the period between elections, bringing to the fore the question of vertical accountability of the bureaucracies, issue unsatisfactorily treated by democracy theorists. The policy process approach allows as well for the identification of different types of democracy which differently combine characteristics of decision-making. Finally, with reference to the Brazilian case, I consider the type of political regime the emerging countries are able or willing to build, offering some working hypotheses to analyze them.

O artigo analisa o governo Fernando Henrique Cardoso como parte de um padrão mais geral de relações Executivo-Legislativo que se caracteriza por forte concentração de poder nas mãos do Presidente da República e dos líderes partidários. A centralização decisória que se observa nesse governo tem bases institucionais, distinguindo-se do chamado "presidencialismo imperial", de base personalista. Os poderes institucionais de agenda e o controle sobre o processo legislativo têm forte impacto na produção legal e na capacidade do governo em obter apoio para a sua agenda legislativa.This article tries to analyses the government of FHC as part of a more general pattern of Executive-Legislative relationship which are featured by a strong concentration of power in the hands of the President and the Party leaders as well. The centralization of the decisions that is noticed in this government has institutional basis, distinguishing itself from the called "imperial presidencialism", with personalistic basis. The institutional power and the control over the legislative process have a strong impact in the legal production and in the capacity of the government in obtaining the support for his legislative agenda.

Os desencontros entre o governo, de um lado, e o MST, a Igreja e as oposições, de outro, quanto à política de reforma agrária, só podem ser compreendidos se tivermos em conta o que vem a ser a questão agrária no Brasil. Num país em que o grande capital se tornou proprietário de terras, a concepção clássica da questão agrária, e das reformas que ela pede, fica substancialmente alterada. São essas alterações que propõem as condições e os limites da reforma agrária no país. São elas, também que apontam o desenrolar possível da história brasileira a partir dessa referência estrutural. A reforma agrária se tornou uma reforma cíclica em virtude da, de certo modo, contínua entrada e reentrada em cena de clientes potenciais dessa medida. O fato de que o MST e os sem-terra tenham assumido a iniciativa das ocupações, atuando o governo como suplente para fazer a reforma, não indica a debilidade do Estado democrático para realizá-la. Apenas indica que a sociedade civil, através de organizações e movimentos populares, passou a ter um papel na nova estrutura do Estado brasileiro.The misunderstandings between the government, on one side, and the MST, the Church and the opposition parties on the other side, when the topic is the agrarian reform, can only be understood if we keep in mind what this agrarian matter is in Brazil. In a country which the big capital turned to be the owner of the lands, the classical conception of the agrarian matter, and of the reforms required by it, is substantially altered. These reforms are what really propose the new conditions and limits to the reform in the country. Moreover, they also point to a possible development of the History of Brazil based in this structural reference. The agrarian reform turned to be a cyclical reform due to the continuous entry and reentry of potential clients in this scene. The fact that the MST and the landless have assumed the initiative of the occupations, being the government only a proxy for the reform, does not indicate the debility of the democratic State in doing the reform. It only indicates that the civil society, through some organization and popular movement, started to have a new role in the structure of the Brazilian State.

Se trata de tomar como hilo conductor la lectura que Manuel García- Pelayo hace del pensamiento de Maquiavelo, para reflexionar acerca de la conveniencia de efectuar una reflexión sobre nuestra vida política desde la Teoría del Estado constitucional. La Teoría del Estado parece ser una categoría prescindible para los actuales estudiosos de la Constitución, cuando los problemas a que asistimos no pueden ser satisfactoriamente explicados acudiendo sólo a las explicaciones que nos dan las normas del Derecho. Por eso se hace necesario considerar lo que ahora están diciendo los autores de Cambridge (Pocock, Dunn, Skinner, Tuck, Pagden) para saber si es posible reconstruir una Teoría del Estado que satisfaga las deficiencias del Derecho Constitucional para abordar una realidad política que parece desbordada por los problemas de la gobernabilidad, el declive de la libertad política o la corrupción

Beginning with the concept of governability, and of the different levels of governance, educational policy is considered to constitute the key stone on which democratic political systems of countries with developed and industrialized societies maintain, stabilize and empower themselves. And it is precisely from the growing levels of training of the citizens in these countries where said societies and States move toward some degrees of economic prosperity and social peace that, taken as a whole, permit the consoli- dation, stabilization and democratization of the systems. With that, this work seeks to move closer to the study of educational policy, specifically, through regulated and unregulated training paths. The thesis used in this report rests on the recognition of the determinant importance which educational policy has on the governability and participatory democratic strengthening of a political system, shaping itself as the strategic factor of public action. The progress of a country and its levels of economic development and social wellbeing are going to depend decisively and ultimately on how the variable named human capital is managed. A series of recommendations and guidelines which influence the improvement of those factors which aid good governance may be derived from an analysis of educational policy. This study will tackle the change of the paradigm experienced in said policy, which at the same time must frame itself in the theoretical concept of Sozialstaat and in the later evolution and crisis of the Welfare State.

Beginning with the concept of governability, and of the different levels of governance, educational policy is considered to constitute the key stone on which democratic political systems of countries with developed and industrialized societies maintain, stabilize and empower themselves. And it is precisely from the growing levels of training of the citizens in these countries where said societies and States move toward some degrees of economic prosperity and social peace that, taken as a whole, permit the consoli- dation, stabilization and democratization of the systems. With that, this work seeks to move closer to the study of educational policy, specifically, through regulated and unregulated training paths. The thesis used in this report rests on the recognition of the determinant importance which educational policy has on the governability and participatory democratic strengthening of a political system, shaping itself as the strategic factor of public action. The progress of a country and its levels of economic development and social wellbeing are going to depend decisively and ultimately on how the variable named human capital is managed. A series of recommendations and guidelines which influence the improvement of those factors which aid good governance may be derived from an analysis of educational policy. This study will tackle the change of the paradigm experienced in said policy, which at the same time must frame itself in the theoretical concept of Sozialstaat and in the later evolution and crisis of the Welfare State.

The article aims to link recent changes in Brazil's political and economic situation with the question of governance in a democratic setting. It shows that a set of policies are only as good as the political support which enables their implementation. As memories of the economic nightmare of the past decade fade and the costs of sustaining price stability through needed budget cuts continue to be felt, popular dissatisfaction with reform is bound to increase. The Cardoso Administration's incremental strategy of state reform and its step-by-step approach to crucial human rights issues reflect the conflicting pressures the government must balance in order to make policy advances. As democratization increases the autonomous representation of societal interests and the structure of Brazilian politics continues to erect legislative obstacles, incrementalism seems the most appropriate pace for producing real, long-lasting reform.

The article first offers some considerations regarding the concepts governability and government as used in the recent literature and, for analytical purposes, suggests the term governing capacity. In a context of economic reforms and democratization, Executive-Legislative relations form one of the key elements of governing capacity. Contesting Brazilian literature on this topic, the article grounds itself in basic policies on the agendas of the Collor and Itamar Franco administrations to argue that if there is a deficit in the implementation of a good share of economic stabilization policies and policies to open up trade, produced within relatively insulated bureaucracies, at the same time the structural reform policies submitted to Congress (social welfare, privatization, administration, taxation) have fallen short not just in the realm of implementation but in the realm of formulation as well. Underscoring the complexity of the policy-making phase, the text cites some causes, such as problems the government encounters in building stable majorities within Congress. Given this difficulty, the Executive must often engage in tough negotiations to get governmental policies approved, and it ends up entering into a pattern of conflict in its interactions with the Legislative branch. As a consequence, government leaders are tempted to favor the relatively insulated arena of bureaucracies over the parliament, with foreseeable consequences for the process of democratization within Brazil. Based on this scenario, the article asks what type of democracy Brazil can or is willing to build