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The nature and dynamics of ownership are often neglected features of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs). Seventeen cases in four countries illustrate characteristics of narrow government or broad societal ownership and forces for change over time. Refinements to the application of Gaventa's Power Cube are used to analyse such shifts from the perspective of invited and closed spaces for participation. Observations about ways in which stakeholder groups can create a more enabling environment for their collaboration are discussed. Sensitivity to sub-national conditions by weaving endogenous and exogenous forces appears to be crucial if MSIs are to be effective vehicles of choice for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Costa Rica, there is a widespread belief among the public and policymakers that the country's ‘exceptional’ universal healthcare system represents a magnet for Nicaraguan immigrants. However, examining immigrants’ actual access to social policy demonstrates the importance of legal and extra-legal mechanisms of exclusion that go hand in hand with official recognition of human rights. This paper critically assesses the relationship between migrants and the state, and public social policy in particular, in both sending and receiving country. We analyse the extent to which Nicaraguan migrant families on both sides of the Costa Rica–Nicaragua migration system incorporate public social protection in their welfare strategies. Drawing on two sets of qualitative data, we find that, on both sides of the border, migrants and their families display very similar commodified practices of welfare strategies, side-stepping the state and purchasing services in the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sensitive survey techniques (SSTs) are frequently used to study sensitive behaviors. However, existing strategies for employing SSTs lead to highly variable prevalence estimates and do not permit analysts to address the question of whether the use of an SST is actually necessary. The current article presents a survey questioning strategy and corresponding statistical framework that fills this gap. By jointly analyzing survey responses generated by an SST (the crosswise model) along with direct responses about the sensitive behavior, the article's framework addresses the question of whether the use of an SST is required to study a given sensitive behavior, provides an efficient estimate of the prevalence of the sensitive behavior, and, in its extended form, efficiently estimates how individual characteristics relate to the likelihood of engaging in the behavior. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through an examination of gender differences in proclivities towards corruption in Costa Rica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries have increasingly opened their economies to trade. Research about trade policy in developed countries focuses on a bottom-up process by identifying economic preferences of domestic groups. We know less about developing countries. We analyze how economic and political variables influenced Costa Rican voters in a referendum on CAFTA-DR, an international trade agreement. We find little support for Stolper- Samuelson models of economic preferences, but more support for specific factor models. We also isolate the effects of political parties on the referendum, controlling for many economic factors; we document how at least one party influenced voters and this made the difference for CAFTA-DR passage. Politics, namely parties using their organizational strength to cue and frame messages for voters, influenced this important trade policy decision. Theories about trade policy need to take into account top-down political factors along with economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the political rationales at work behind the particularly repressive 2006 Costa Rican immigration law and subsequent immigration reform process and resulting 2010 law through an analysis of two rival framings of immigration in Costa Rica. First, I examine how the rushed nature of the 2006 law constructed a crisis in which migrants, particularly Nicaraguans, represented urgent threats to national security. Next, I examine the 2010 law that emerged from the reform process and the alternative framings of immigration as an issue of human rights and integration that migration advocates contributed to the new law. I argue that the juxtaposition of integration and security frameworks in the new law reinforces the law's most repressive measures, contributing to an overall project of securitization and marginalization of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the socio-economic conditions of indigenous peoples (IPs) in Costa Rica as of January 2014. Topics include the government's efforts to promote a model of Integral Development Associations, consolidation of indigenous youth movements, and IP's development plan. Also discussed are the conflicts over use of indigenous forests and omission and inaction as a state policy.

Judicial autonomy from societal actors is argued herein to be a critical aspect of the rule of law and to have been overlooked by the dominance within comparative judicial politics of the role of interbranch judicial independence. These distinct concepts are parsed and then interrelated to form a typology of four “judicial regime types”: liberal regimes, partisan control regimes, clandestine control regimes, and government control regimes. These regime types are then traced in five Central American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper begins with a brief review of Costa Rica's history, vital statistics, and recent economic and political highlights. Costa Rica, a small tropical country located in a politically and economically challenged region, is without the benefit of world-class domestic resource and manufacturing sectors. Using a well-known framework to assess the performance of a national economy within the context of the wider global economy, I identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Costa Rican economy, that, in turn, need to be exploited or addressed to the end of enhancing the performance of the economy and future living standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-government is the use of technology to facilitate interaction between the government and citizens. Costa Rica has ratified major international instruments on the subject and designates its promotion in various actors within the public administration structure. However, this diversity of actors have led problems of coordination, communication, lacking political permanence in time and shortage of recourses, which together with the fact those institutions do not always fulfill their functions properly, and that there are not a real leadership on the issue. These facts have prevented the E-government reaches the desired developments levels. This document discusses and develops these elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of ratifying CAFTA in Costa Rica required traversing a contentious political landscape involving intense legislative battles, massive public demonstrations, and finally a national referendum in October 2007. By employing the mechanism of direct democracy to ratify a free trade agreement, Costa Rica made history. But how did this experiment with direct participation affect Costa Rica's democracy? This article evaluates what the referendum achieved in terms of promoting citizen engagement, equipping voters to make informed choices, resolving the CAFTA conflict in a way viewed as legitimate, and shaping citizens' relationships to representative institutions. While the referendum had positive effects, it had several negative consequences for representative democracy, which raises questions about the limits of democratic control over economic policy in the era of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three main features characterize socio-political events in Costa Rica during 2010 and 2011. First, in the political system, internal divisions within the incumbent party and across other parties in Congress, the constant reshuffles in the cabinet under divided government have challenged the new government. Second, the economic situation is improving after the most recent crisis, despite weaknesses remains. Finally, in the social realm there is a paradox, on one hand, the traditional human development indicators (life expectancy, education and social security) have improved over time whereas on the other, there have been an increasing trend in social inequality, crime as well as a worsening in the public capacities to build required infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars rely heavily on formal rules to classify legislatures, but parchment institutions may only tell part of the story about how the chamber works. Behind-the-scenes behaviour may counter-balance or temper the power distribution created by formal rules. To begin examining if formal rules are an accurate predictor of actual behaviour, we analyse standing committees in Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly. We find that despite the formal institutions that favour a majoritarian bonus, the opposition party is a full participant in the legislative process in committee sessions. Opposition deputies participate equally or more so than majority party deputies, and deputies of all parties work together to investigate bills and kill legislation evaluated to be flawed, which indicates that formal rules are only one component to understanding legislative behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two Central American countries have recently approved the presidential reelection by a Supreme Court decision. This article proposes a model to explain why this decision has been taken in a judicial institution instead of the correct legislative arena. The model shows that the decision about this question will be transferred to the judicial forum when the National Assembly is fragmented, the promoter is a ''growing coalition'' and the Supreme Court is ''goal-oriented.'' This model is supported by an empirical analysis of the Supreme Court decision affecting presidential electoral rules that took place in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political dynamic of Costa Rica in 2009 was focused on three main areas: the impact of the international economic crisis, the discussion over electoral processes in the lead up to national elections in February 2010 and the follow ups and new corruption scandals of high authorities. Firstly, the government was primarily focused on the implementation of the 'Anti-crisis' Plan, but was also called upon to direct important efforts in response to unforeseen events, such as the emergency aftermath of the earthquake of 8 January, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, and, in the second half of the year, the request made of President Oscar Arias to intervene as a mediator in the Honduran crisis. Second, in the elections of February 2010, and under the new Electoral Code, the candidate for the PLN, the party of government, was duly elected President of the Republic with a popular vote of 46.9 percent. For the first time in the country's history, the presidency is held by a woman. Finally, in the area of accountability, in the midst of the electoral campaign, new scandals continued to envelop public servants, including the misuse of state institutions' helicopters and planes for personal matters. Of particular note is the culmination of the first judicial process against the Ex-President Rafael Angel Calderón, who was condemned to five years in prison by a Criminal Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We will discuss in our communication the causes of the result of these elections, mainly in the voting for president and deputies to the Legislative Assembly. We propose that the same ones must be analyzed for their understanding and a correct interpretation of predominant the political tendencies, like the third act of triad, composing by the elections of February of 2006, the referendum on the Free Trade Agreement of Central America, Dominican Republic and the EE.UU., of October of 2008, and these elections of February of 2010. In these last ones, the Gordian knot that had tensioned to the sociopolitical forces in the last two governmental periods, with multiple consequences for the Costa Rican society is solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcome of the electoral process of 2010 confirms a trend of domination of political and economic sectors have been promoting the neoclassical reform in the country. Factors relevant to these results are: a. The good economic situation that could have the Arias government; b. The network of clientelist relationships between public officials and politicians; c. The inability of opposition parties to unite to support a proposal; d. Disparity in economic resources available to political parties; e. Poor leadership base of opposition parties; f. Attrition factors PAC by TLC; g. The role of the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of the monitoring the political conjuncture that led to the election of the first woman president of the Costa Rican republic. Starting from an analytical recuperation of the main events that establish the total set of the 2010 electoral process, the aim is to integrally order an interactive sequence of actors and phenomenon that would allow understanding from a sociopolitical perspective of lattice, scenarios, the actors and librettos that in the political electoral drama we recently experienced, and nowadays live in its consequences the restricted Costa Rican democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses key aspects of the debate on political parties and power networks, focusing empirically analyze the presence of such actors within political parties Liberación Nacional y Partido Unidad Social Cristiana and their presence on the formation of cabinets in the Costa Rican government. Highlights CINDE alliance partners, CEFSA and the Central American Academy, who control the state institutions linked to the export sector from 1986 to 2010. It discusses the limits of procedural democracy to allow such corporate trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Costa Rican electoral contest of 2010 does not alter political party system in a radical way. Instead, two main features still characterize the current post-bipartisan era. First, the plural composition of the Congress and local governments as a result of the high fragmentation that prevails in the party system. Second, in spite of the fact that electoral preferences' (volatility) decreased slightly in 2010, inter-election voting swings remain high. Finally, sixty years after the country adopted universal suffrage a woman selected president. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze the connections that occurred between the electoral offer of candidate Laura Chinchilla and the new demographic, social and sexual realities of Costa Rica, which help to understand why mainly women and older people voted for her. In addition, I explain the new challenges the Costa Rican society faces in terms of a necessary new social and sexual contract, and the prospect of its approach, or not, by the Government of the first woman President. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the first turns experienced by the electoral campaign 2009-2010 is the politicized of the issue of insecurity, a provision not seen before in the political culture in Costa Rica. The Libertarian Movement (ML) carried the baton of populist-punitive discourse in terms of (in)security. This resource, insecurity, used by the ML, became the subject into the main theme of the political campaign. Therefore, the main focus of this article is to analyze the relationship between the use of the "hard-hand" discourse, as a political resource to obtain votes in counties that have very high rates of crime, and the reducing of voter apathy in those areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the implementation of the gender quota system in Costa Rica as an affirmative action mechanism for women. It also analyses the evolution of the quota legislation in the country, which culminated with the passing of a new Electoral Code that established gender parity. The article also discusses the effectiveness of each type of legislation to increase the descriptive representation of women, as well as the impact of the quota system on the advancement of a feminist agenda of gender equality and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the possibilities and limitations of the participation from a historical reality that is found guided by the neoliberal policy and the globalization from different actors' points of view that participate in several organizations in different places Salitral, Montecillos, Güízaros, Cachí y Orotina of Costa Rica. It starts a discussion about what motivates the participation in the organization, placing the immediate needs, importance of forming a political project, and projects that improve life conditions as causes. The factors that limit participation are exposed, showing the influence of the individualism as the manipulation of the organized process of the state. In the conclusions, one try to realize on the role of participation which must give processes of realizing that make people achieve the identification of the structural causes of the main problems in order to question the capitalism system in operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses theoretical, conceptual and historical elements contributing to the demystification of the phenomenon denominated "ngo-ation" of social assistance. In particular, it discusses the political and ideological role of NGOs in the context of the state counter-reform and the strategy to privatize social services--roles gradually imposed in recent decades in Costa Rica. Special emphasis is given to the discussion about the way international financial organizations makes no distinction between civil society and NGOs, with the practical implication of depolitization and contention of the eventual emergence of anti-hegemonic features in this space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]