Comparative Politics Commons^™

Mucho Ruido Y Pocas Nueces? Rethinking Mexico's Judicial Reform In Comparative Perspective, Oscar Serratos

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

Mexico's 2024 judicial reform, which made it the first country to elect all judges by popular vote, has generated widespread criticism for allegedly threatening judicial independence and democratic governance. This Article challenges the prevailing narrative by arguing that many of these concerns overstate the reform's practical effect. Through a comparative analysis of Mexico's new constitutional framework and judicial electoral systems in the United States, the Article demonstrates that the reform incorporates structural safeguards—including balanced nomination powers, nonpartisan elections, restrictions on campaign financing, and continued judicial training—that set it apart from comparable American models. While acknowledging legitimate concerns regarding implementation and …

Examining The Results Of Revolutions In The Third World: A Case Study Of The Iranian, Libyan, And Nicaraguan Revolutions, Noah A. Mohammedelamien

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines the post-revolutionary trajectories of Libya, Iran, and Nicaragua to explain why some Third World revolutionary projects preserve and use elements of their founding ideology while others fragment, personalize, or diffuse over time. Rather than focusing on the causes of revolution alone, it analyzes the durability of religious-socialist ideological continuity after revolutionary upheaval. Using a (MDSD) comparative historical and institutional approach grounded in primary and secondary sources, the study evaluates five key dimensions across the cases: religious-socialist ideological fusion, religious elite loyalty, popular religious mobilization, institutional embedding of ideology, and external pressure. The findings suggest ideological continuity is …

Venezuela's And Mexico's Oil Industries: Policy Making Sets The Course, Camila Gimenez Valero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The puzzle of Venezuela's crisis is one that researchers often try to understand. How did one of the richest nations in the world become one of the poorest? Venezuela is nowadays seen as a country with political unrest, where people struggle to get by and with a corrupt government. However, this was not always the case. Throughout the 20th century Venezuela had remarkable economic stability. Having discovered the world's largest known oil reserves, the nation's economy quickly developed, and the country also became known for its long-standing democracy. After the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998, Venezuela began to decline …

The Fight For Education: The Rise Of Indigenous Oaxacan Teachers And Their Role In The 1980s Mexican Teacher’S Movement, Chiara Gutierrez

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the pivotal role of Indigenous Oaxacan teachers in the 1980s Mexican Teacher’s Movement, addressing a significant gap in scholarship that has often overlooked Indigenous political activism in Mexico prior to the 1990s. It argues that these teachers were critical actors whose prior organizing experience, cultivated throughout the 1970s in response to state assimilationist policies (via INI, IIISEO) and discriminatory practices (from SEP, SNTE), enabled them to significantly shape the 1980s movement. Drawing on theories of political identity (Yashar 2006), repertoires of strategies (Rossi 2023), and identity salience (Hunt & Benford), this study traces the development of their …

Labors Of Love And Loss: Exploring Relationships In Remitting Latine-American Families, Sequoyah Sv Hilton

Master's Theses

This paper examines the impact remittances have in Latin-American families across borders through qualitative interviews. Remittances, or international transfers of money, are a common support strategy of global migrant communities. There are divergent opinions on remittances, either positioning them as a great potential for developing lower and middle-income countries, or critiquing them as too heavily depended on by states and created as a survival support mechanism by communities to compensate for state neglect. While they are a massive cash flow at the international level, there is a greater need to blend analyses of remittances at the international level at the …

Fourth-Branch Institutions And Political Oppositions, Hernán Gómez Yuri, Fernando Loayza Jordán

Scholarly Articles

Fourth-branch accountability can be characterized as a constitutional trust-type mandate to provide intrastate nonpartisan accountability with a broad repertoire of institutional capacities. Fourth-branch institutions play a significant role in protecting constitutional democracies, and their role in the system of political accountability becomes especially apparent when political oppositions are unwilling or unable to perform a partisan check. These institutions partly emerge from distrust in the political branches’ ability to ensure accountability in a partisan world. Thus, they are designed to be insulated from partisan pressures and anchored to the core principles of legality and impartiality. However, fourth-branch institutions do not exist …

Pathways For Recognition: Indigenous Land Rights In Panamá, Caruna Gillespie, William Ascher

CMC Senior Theses

Indigenous communities in Panamá face the same challenge that many Indigenous communities experience around the globe: a lack of recognition of their land rights. Over the last several decades, the Panamanian government has developed policies and ratified international agreements that recognize Indigenous rights. The comarcas that institutionalize these rights have had some success. However, despite a seemingly progressive framework for recognition, Indigenous communities across the country continuously have their rights violated by conservation projects and resource extraction efforts in the name of economic development. The Panamanian government crafts recognition policies using loopholes, exceptions, and ambiguous language that allow for them …

Exploring The Factors That Influence Female Offending In The U.S. And Mexico, Dana Villasenor

CMC Senior Theses

Hollywood has painted a picture of the criminal woman as a sexy, sneaky, and often psychotic female fatale. This is because men run Hollywood. Much like movies, research on why women offend had historically focused on men as their stellar. However, towards the turn of the century and with the disproportionate rise in female incarceration, literature caught up to the fact that women and men do not experience the same socialization, standards, or reality and, therefore, have different reasons for and ways of offending. This research explores those reasons for women in the U.S. and Mexico and paints the picture …

From The Barrel To The Border: Exploring The Roots And Ramifications Of Gun Trafficking From The United States To Mexico, Alexandra Punishill

CMC Senior Theses

Nowhere is the discussion surrounding gun violence more prominent than in the United States, with the impacts of our gun-friendly culture being felt around the world. This thesis analyzes the dynamics of gun trafficking from the United States to Mexico and sheds light on its role in fueling the epidemic of gun violence south of the border. It is argued that the particular system of federalism adopted by the United States has led to a variety of state-level gun regulations that have shaped domestic gun policy and have had an international impact. Despite Mexico’s persistent efforts to combat the gun …

Positive Out Of The Negative: Tracking Renewable Energy Projects In Central America, Jordan Ethan Castillo (Miner)

Master's Theses

Central America is undertaking a vast Renewable Energy (RE) transition, due to widespread investments across the region in an array of technologies. These technologies include Community Solar, Wind, and Hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity has long been the backbone of many countries’ energy grids in the region due to the region’s long history with hydroelectricity. Ambitious climate goals coupled with diminishing hydroelectric power generation opportunities have led to an expansion of investment in Community Solar and Wind energy. The embrace of Solar and Wind has been accelerated due to declining costs for these technologies as they mature. Central America as a case study …

Student Movements, Politics, And Policy In Chile, 2001 – 2012, Leesa Rasp

Dissertations

Chile has frequently been touted as an economic miracle, the “Jaguar of Latin America”. Boasting the strongest economy in South America, due to severe neoliberal economic structural adjustments made under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, it has long been held up as the perfect exemplar of economic growth and stability, as well as the poster child for the effectiveness of neoliberal economics. After the re-establishment of democracy in 1990, political conditions improved as well; the country enjoyed a decade of stability and peace under its first two democratically-elected governments.

Yet, beginning approximately ten years after the transition to democracy, …

Recommendations For Sustainable Tourism In Patagonia: An Exploratory Analysis Of Sustainable Tourism In Costa Rica, The Nordic Region, And Thailand’S Communities, Julia K. Lowery

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores different levels of governance and its role towards actualizing sustainable tourism in Patagonia. With the growing threat of climate change, international destinations such as Patagonia are looking to continue building their tourism industries in a sustainable way. Through analyzing case studies of national governance in Costa Rica, multi-national governance in the Nordic region, and community-based tourism in Thailand, we can better understand how each form of governance has the potential to create a sustainable tourism industry. With this understanding of successful governance in my case studies, as well as understanding the historical and political forces that have …

Purity, Exclusion, And Political Order In Colombia, Osha Smith-Gittelman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the relationship between purity and order, and the ways this relationship informs and reproduces exclusionary forms of governance. The starting point for this analysis is the puzzling use of the language of limpieza social [social cleansing] as a justification for violence in Latin America. Such language is publicly disseminated by vigilantes, criminal organizations, paramilitaries, and other extralegal armed actors as a frame for violence against those presumed to be criminals, drug users, sex workers, unhoused, LGBTQ, or mentally ill. Much has been written on criminal and political violence in the region, but there has been less emphasis …

Reinventing Our Understanding Of The Left-Right Political Dichotomy: The Case Of Argentina, Sol Halle

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

What happens to a country’s political culture once populism takes root? Have Global North-centered methods of evaluation miscategorized Global South political party identification both historically and contemporaneously? As the world grapples with the continued rise of populism and its divisive rhetoric, scholars must thoroughly examine the movement’s spheres of influence beyond traditionally accepted frameworks. Understanding populist parties is vital, for they oftentimes create staggering disruptions within a nation’s political culture. These disturbances become starkly apparent in times of crises as challenges plunge everyday citizens deeper into the political sphere. The case of Argentina allows for an examination of the ways …

Why Renegotiation?: Renewal Of The South Korea-Chile Bilateral Free Trade Agreement, Montserrat Bugueno

International Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis project explores the motivations behind the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) renegotiation between Chile and South Korea. Existing studies have examined the reasons and outcomes of creating the initial Chile-South Korea FTA, but they have not focused on renegotiations between the two countries. A few investigations on renegotiations have focused on diversifying their exports and expanding their markets in each other's regions. However, most research lacks further exploration of both countries' market security concerns. By analyzing official government documents and conducting three semi-structured interviews with government officials and experts in the field, I argue that the current protectionist …

Compulsory Voting And Corruption In Latin America, Jonathan Dumdei

Senior Honors Theses

Among modern democracies, compulsory voting (CV) is institutionalized most prevalently in Latin America. Latin American politics have a long, turbulent history, and governments in the region have some of the highest rates of political corruption in the world among democracies, especially electoral fraud. This study investigates the connection between these two phenomena. Secondary empirical quantitative and qualitative research of political and cultural behavior are analyzed according to a rational choice theory decision paradigm. Demographic, experimental, and theoretical data regarding the effects of CV laws are considered in light of possible incentives and disincentives for engaging in vote-buying. This study inductively …

Narcommunication: The Messaging, Marketing, And Murder Of Organized Crime, Philip L. Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Criminal actors are widely assumed to maintain a low profile, exerting power through corruption, coercion, and clandestine networks. Scholarship that addresses public action on the part of criminal actors focuses almost exclusively on acts of violence. However, an ample empirical record demonstrates that criminal actors also communicate publicly to broad audiences. To better understand this practice, this project focuses on the phenomenon of narco-messaging in Mexico. The project asks: what do criminal actors say when they speak publicly, and why do they say it?

The core data for this project comes from an original collection of 6,178 narco-messages that appeared …

Si Los Demás Se Distancian: Acción Colectiva, Confianza Y Normas Sociales Para El Cuidado En Tiempos De La Covid-19. Análisis Del Primer Año De La Pandemia, María Antonia Chinkousky, Ricardo Pérez, Santiago Silva Jaramillo

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Este artículo revisa la coyuntura del primer año de la pandemia del COVID-19 a la luz de las normas sociales y la prosocialidad. Para esto, nos acercamos sintéticamente a la metodología de bola de nieve para analizar una serie de experiencias e intervenciones de entidades públicas y privadas que alentaban comportamientos prosociales para evitar contagios masivos en la población en 2020, en el momento más inicial de la pandemia. Los resultados de estos estudios se presentan como recomendaciones para los tomadores de decisión y otros interesados en aplicar herramientas similares para crisis de salud pública. El texto finaliza recopilando los …

La Política Deportiva Ante El Reclutamiento Forzado: La Gestión Deportiva De Los Gobiernos Municipales Del Area Metropolitana Del Valle De Aburrá Ante El Reclutamiento Forzado De Menores En Tiempos De La Covid-19, Noreida Puerta Alcaraz

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El presente trabajo analiza la gestión del deporte como alternativa de prevención para el reclutamiento forzado de menores en el Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá (Medellín, Colombia) y su reinvención en el contexto del Covid-19. Sin embargo, pese a que es una problemática que afecta a los 10 municipios que la integran, se evidencia falta de coordinación y articulación de la política deportiva a nivel metropolitano para su intervención desde lo intermunicipal. La investigación utilizó un enfoque cualitativo bajo el método de la teoría fundamentada, cuya comprensión de los datos se hizo a través de la técnica de análisis …

Respuestas Iniciales Ante El Covid-19 Por Cuatro Gobiernos Centroamericanos, José Andrés Díaz-González

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El artículo revisa las respuestas iniciales de los gobiernos de Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica y Panamá ante la pandemia del Covid-19. A partir de una revisión de documentos oficiales, se identifican y comparan las características de las respuestas que estos gobiernos ejecutan durante el primer semestre del 2020. Se concluye que, si bien los gobiernos desarrollan principalmente medidas de bioseguridad, hay diferencias importantes en las estrategias adoptadas por estos, posiblemente motivadas por las características sociales, política y económicas imperantes en dichos países. Asimismo, la incertidumbre y falta de información que se tenía en los primeros momentos de la pandemia …

Protección Social A La Infancia Y La Covid-19. Implicaciones Normativas E Institucionales De La Respuesta Del Gobierno De La Ciudad De México, Jorge E. Culebro, Janeth Hernández

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El propósito del estudio de caso es analizar la respuesta del gobierno de la ciudad de México a la crisis derivada de la COVID-19 y, en particular, la forma en que ha afectado la protección social de la infancia durante los primeros meses de la pandemia. Se analiza diseño institucional normativo de la protección social a la infancia en México, y particularmente en la Ciudad de México, así como las actividades del gobierno de la ciudad de México para disminuir el impacto de la crisis en la infancia. Teórica y metodológicamente el artículo sigue la estrategia de estudio de caso …

Editorial, Nadia Rubaii, Maria Fernanda Ramirez Brouchoud

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Content

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Programas De Transferencia Condicionada: Aplicación De La Asignación Universal Por Hijo En Tucumán, Argentina, Javier Oscar Ghio, María Laura Giusti, Esteban Marcos Duhalde, Emilia Aranda

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

En la actualidad, más del 40% de las personas en situación de pobreza en la Argentina son niños/as y adolescentes. En 2009, se creó la Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social (AUH) para hacer frente a esta problemática al equiparar los derechos de los hijos/as de los trabajadores/as formales con los de los informales y desempleados. Este documento analiza la implementación de la AUH a nivel nacional y hace foco en la Provincia de Tucumán. Busca relevar las problemáticas asociadas a la pobreza y la desigualdad. Se analiza el margen de acción que tiene cada jurisdicción subnacional: en general …

Análisis De La Regulación Y El Control De Los Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios Privatizados En Argentina Bajo El Período Kirchnerista (2003-2015), Andrea López

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Este artículo somete a estudio las renegociaciones contractuales con las empresas privatizadas, prestadoras de electricidad, gas, agua potable y telefonía básica en la zona del ámbito metropolitano y Gran Buenos Aires (AMBA), así como sus regímenes regulatorios y el devenir de los entes de control respectivos, durante los mandatos presidenciales de Néstor Kirchner y de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a los efectos de analizar el “cruce” o “tensión” entre las políticas “pro-mercado” impulsadas a partir de las reformas estructurales de los 90, las iniciativas primigenias de cambio de la institucionalidad regulatoria, las normativas finalmente aprobadas y las prácticas consolidadas -y …

¿Cuál Es El Sub-Régimen De Bienestar De Medellín-Colombia (2016-2019)?, John Alexander Carmona López

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Esta investigación reconoce las debilidades del análisis de los regímenes de bienestar apoyado en las taxonomías nacionales y se propone una “variación a lo local”, argumentando los beneficios que se tienen al delimitar los territorios nacionales por sus diferencias regionales y sus distintas necesidades locales. En este sentido, se analiza cuáles son los modos para producir bienestar en Medellín entre los años 2016-2019, cuyos hallazgos demuestran que los organismos estatales asumen que los riesgos sociales son una condición exclusiva de algunos grupos poblaciones. Y, ante una desigual incorporación de los grupos marginados y ante una alta mercantilización del bienestar, una …

Transformaciones De Los Regímenes De Bienestar En Colombia, Bairon Otálvaro Marín

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El artículo muestra el proceso de evolución de tres modelos referenciales de política social y de régimen de bienestar en los albores del siglo XXI en Colombia. Se acude al método de análisis cognitivo en políticas públicas, como estrategia para la construcción de datos, evidencias y argumentos que permiten describir e interpretar los diversos enfoques y tipos de política social implementados en contextos territoriales caracterizados por un aumento de relaciones de exclusión y desigualdad. Los resultados evidencian que los enfoques más desarrollados en Colombia son asistenciales, neo asistenciales (protección social) e inclusivos, miradas que han ido construyendo una forma de …

Un Enfoque Comparado Sobre Los Regímenes De Bienestar Para El Estudio De Las Políticas Sociales Globales, Geof Wood, Ian Gough

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Beginning from the framework of welfare state regimes in rich capitalist countries, this article radically redefines it and applies the new model to regions and countries which experience problematic states as well as imperfect markets. A broader, comparative typology of regimes (welfare state, informal security, insecurity) is proposed, which captures the essential relationships between social and cultural conditions, institutional performance, welfare outcomes, and path dependence. Using this model, different regions of the world (East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa) are compared. For many poorer, partially capitalized societies, people’s security relies informally upon various clientelist relationships. Formalizing rights …

Editorial. Guest, Carlos Andres Olaya

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Nadia Rubaii, María Fernanda Ramírez Brouchoud

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.