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This study inquiries into the evolution of the concept of Security in the Chilean Defense White Papers published in 1997, 2002 and 2010. This work consists of a conceptual critical analysis of the texts in a comparative perspective. It focuses on five variables: definition of Security; definition of Defense; referent object; sectors of Security; definition of Threat. The results bring into light a process to narrow the reach of the military instrument; an increasing political interest to separate Security from Defense; an inorganic intend to incorporate Human security; and the displacement of Threat as an articulating axis of Defense planning. As a main conclusion, the concept of security evolves significantly according to the Chilean Defense White Papers. The relevance of this issue rests upon the fact that the conceptualization of security delineates the employment of the instruments of defense. The contribution of the study consists of disaggregating the evolution of the concept of Security to further understand the political modifications to the parameters of action of the military instrument in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article aims to analyze the legal position of the student movement of the time which dynamism the process of the pre- constituent who gave birth to the 1991 politic constitution, this towards the initiative seeking of a second presidential reelection in the Colombian constitutional system; the Constitution of 1991 was a tough race in constitutional control model and this participative exercise safeguard the Political Constitutional letter; the analysis focuses on the close execution plans to the High Court ruling roaches; the article seeks to generate a sense of reflection in regards to the constituent derivative and primary on this Colombian Constitution history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dependence Theory has been deemed as an obsolete approach for the study of Latin-American reality. The success in other peripheral geographic areas that managed to position themselves at the core of the world economy by the end of the 20th century apparently meant that the said theory was not valid anymore. However, the Latin-American countries are still not capable to correct the structural deficiencies that inspired the inception of the dependence, as they are still today significantly dependent on the raw material trading. This paper aims to resume the debate on the Dependence Theory in order to recover some valuable insights for the reflection on the current socioeconomic trends in this region. This work attempts, in turn, to redefine the most rigid and obsolete theoretical aspects of the Dependence Theory in order to underline how it influenced current development discourses. In this vein, this paper highlights the parallel facts between the Dependence Theory and the academic literature on development and primary resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bogotá Organic Statute --EOB, after the Spanish acronym-- set outs the relationships between the city central administration and its 20 local districts and provides the guidelines for a district-based decentralization in Bogotá. This paper gathers three viewpoints emerging from a recent research conducted by the inter-faculty research group at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, the "Urban Policy Group" that addressed the theme of the EOB. The main idea from these reflections is how the decentralization in Bogotá has been characterized based on the EOB, in relation to elements from different models allowing defining it as the result from a hybrid process. After a review of the EOB historic background in order to understand its origin, and, having explored the debates in the Constitutional Assembly in order to explain the different trends that inspired and brought it into existence as well as the political context back then, this paper provides a design of the decentralization in Bogotá and its particularities. This way, the characterization of the decentralization model in Bogotá is described as a hybrid process between the decentralization, deconcentration and delegation that sometimes favors the decentralization economic model and, sometimes, the political model. The final reflections lead to think that instead of "becoming blurred and/or modified" due to the effect of the planning and management devices that appeared later, it is the particularities of the "decentralization model adopted in the EOB" --i.e., its largely hybrid nature-- that allow understanding what happens when going from the guidelines produced by the city central administration to the formulation and implementation of the projects. This fact requires encouraging a more fluent dialogue between the central administration and the local districts to strengthen the spaces where the citizen's voice is present as a valid speaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to approach the theory and practice of neoliberalism from a Political Discourse Analysis perspective. In the first part, it analyzes the main debates and controversies surrounding the theoretical, ontological and axiological characteristics of neoliberalism, and its applications at the state level. In the second part, he examines the methodological problems of rigorously investigating the phenomenon of neoliberalism, which are linked to the ambiguous and pragmatic character of the neoliberal theoretical body, the various stages, rhythms, degrees of depth and intensities of state neoliberalization, and the tensions and contradictions between neoliberal theory and its historical applications. In the last part, it offers a complex conceptualization and proposes some analytical operations to contribute to investigate neoliberalism and its ontic uses at the state level, through the tools of Political Discourse theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with financialization, a concept that critically describes the rise and expansion of financial capital in the economy and its social and political implications. Seen from the perspective of financialization, the Colombian pension system of Law 100 of 1993 (Congress of the Republic of Colombia, 1993) illustrates the expansion of financial capital in emerging or peripheral economies, highlighting the inferior and subordinate status of these countries with respect to the more developed economies. In these countries, the adoption of private pension funds goes hand in hand with financial liberalization and the search to expand their capital markets. Moreover, pension systems have never been far removed from economic structures; they have been created and developed within them. In Colombia, as a country whose industry did not fully awaken, the necessary conditions for the most guaranteeing pension models could not be met. Although the current Colombian model is not purely controlled by private funds, the link between these funds and the financial players is so strong that there is still unresolved tension around the complete privatization of the system. In addition, the institutional formula through which it is evident that this is a financialized system is the so-called multi-fund pension scheme. Thus, under the magnifying glass of the financialization that has governed the current pension system and its most recent changes, we can also read the announcements and reform proposals put forward by the government, unions and think tanks at the end of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the ethical foundations of a universal, individual and unconditional basic income, and its transformative potential in the world of work and social policy. Guaranteeing a right to existence, as the materialization of a normative ideal of real freedom, implies overcoming the contributory principle and promoting a situation of full voluntary employment. The combination of both aspects could lead to the emergence of a socioeconomic order that transcends the compensatory connotations of contemporary social policy and goes beyond the scope of the conservative, liberal and social democratic models of the welfare state. The paper presents the discussions around basic income in the field of the theories of justice as distribution, analyzes the idea of "work as an asset" and shows the myths that support the validity of the contributory principle. Throughout these reflections, the main criticisms of basic income from liberal, trade union, feminist, communist and republican perspectives will also be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains why Chile's foreign policy, since the return to democracy in 1990, maintained and deepened the economicist character established during the authoritarian predecessor regime. It is argued that, in addition to structural factors linked to globalization, neoliberalism and interdependence, there are domestic elements linked to the transition and its political dynamics that had an impact on the actors that shaped it. Despite being a case study, the article emphasizes the general debate on the mutual constitution between agents and structures to explain foreign policy, considering the role of the actors in a framework of external and domestic transformations. To this end, the case of former members of the Joint Study Program on Latin American International Relations (RIAL), academics who, after the return to democracy, assumed political positions, is analyzed. The renewal of the ideas of these actors, who assumed the new international practices and accepted the domestic political dynamics, contributed to the continuity of the economic pragmatism of foreign policy initiated by the dictatorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the last 15 years, Colombian migrations experimented a massive geographical expansion without precedents. Within Latin America, Argentina stands out as the main destination, and therefore, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the origins and evolution of Colombian migrations to Argentina. Resorting to statistical and ethnographical elements, the paper shows the new migratory patterns of Colombian population to Argentina, even though the current migratory trend towards this country is descending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

May 68 has been characterized and interpreted in many ways. In this paper I provide an account of three characterizations among the most important: a political crisis; a psycho-drama and a carnival; and a crisis of civilization. I also provide the reasons making me thinking that Raymond Aron is right in most of his contentions about what happened 50 years ago. I also explain the reasons why the May 68 legacy would impossible to claim. However, I contend that the anti-hierarchical criticism by the Parisian students must be taken more seriously. To do so, I make some reflections on the arguments by neuroscientist Henri Laborit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the behavior of inequality in the distribution of family income under the different macroeconomic regimes in force during the last four decades in Argentina. It also evaluates the factors explaining the changes thereof. This work examines the hypothesis that during the said decades an inequality matrix associated with a persistent structural heterogeneity in the social-occupational systems would have been established, even though if there was a context of active distributive policies. To prove this hypothesis, a model is developed to decompose the Gini coefficient, distinguishing the income contribution to the family-income inequality by different economic sectors. The information is gathered by using the Household Permanent Survey of the Argentinian National Institute for Statistics and Census, specifically, the one applied to the Great Buenos Aires as it was the only one having complete information for the study term. The findings reveal that the highest distributive inequality is explained with a higher inequity in labor earnings, higher concentration of income by the most upgraded economic sectors and the impoverishment of the low-productivity sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis of the concept Populism and how it relates to the violence in Colombia during the 20th-century last three decades and the 21st-century first decade, putting special emphasis on the pioneer work by historian Marco Palacios. We explore the idea that the conceptualization of populism in Colombia develops concurrently, on one hand, with the dispute around the notion of violence in the 20th-century second half and, on the other hand, with the idea that the "incomplete populism" was a causal explanation to the times of the bloody armed fights in Colombia. In addition, these events have made the Colombian political case instilled with an idea of exceptionality as compared to the other countries of Latin America. To do this work, we gathered some theoretical contributions from the conceptual history by Reinhart Koselleck and from the history of political languages by Elías Palti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine the connections between the hogging of lands, the oil palm tree cultivations, and the para-militarism in Colombia through the lens of the primitive accumulation. To do so, I analyze three concrete cases: the Bajo Atrato en Chocó [a river basin], Mapiripán in Meta Province, and Las Pavas in the South Bolívar Province. These three Colombian locations have undergone violent events including forced displacement and land deprivation, with subsequent projects for growing oil palm trees on a broad scale. The discussion brings into contention the agricultural biofuel international market and the need by the Colombian State to take some territories that were previously hostile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a historic essay about the 3rd Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in 1986 developed as an analysis of the international context and the discourses by Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro in the party plenary sessions. This work is justified on the basis of a need to understand the nature of the political changes by the Cuban government in the latest years of the Cold War. This era was marked by the economic precariousness and the geopolitical transitions in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purposes of this paper are to explore the state of implementation of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programmes and their contribution to the construction of integrated social protection systems in Latin America on one hand, and to discuss the most important achievements and challenges in fighting against poverty in Colombia. With this target, the article begins with a brief review of the overall situation of the CCT Programmes in Latin America. This is followed by a comparative analysis of actions undertaken in some countries in the region in order to face the main threats related to the public policies to eradicate poverty. It enables to draw an analysis about the management of such challenges in Colombia. Finally, the last part of the paper suggests some hypotheses and proposals in order to address the problems identified above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a comparison between the drug violence in Peru and Colombia. These two countries are the greater cocaine producers in the world, but present different levels of violence. In the case of Peru there are low levels of violence, whilst in the case of Colombia, the levels are high. The paper argues that the cocain cultivation and production in itself is not a source of high levels of violence. The intensity of the violence depends on the presence of other variables that will be proposed and analized here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as China is a new and unfamiliar player in Latin America, China's policymakers seem to have little differentiated knowledge of the region. Studies and documents from China typically include the Caribbean in their "broad brush approach" and diplomatic representatives are rotated through the region at a swift rate. The fact that only three of the 42 countries in the region published an official reply to China's 2008 Policy Paper suggests that there is a long way to go towards integration and adequate response, either side of the Pacific. The purpose of this paper is to explore just how differentiated the understanding and strategic vision for Latin America is among China's policy makers and representatives [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a first instance, the following article proposes an analytical itinerary around three "cursed" words (violence, populism and Gaitanism) of the Colombian historiography. In a second instance, an inquiry is suggested over those categories and over their own digressions under the light of a non-pejorative interpretation of both populism and Gaitanism. Finally, the article exhibits an exploratory hypothesis and argues that Gaitanist populism could be thought of as a particular way of processing and stopping political violence. To illustrate this proposition two specific dimensions are described to understand the Gaitanist process between 1924 and 1948: its political-comunicative practices and the oscillations between rupture and integration in the Gaitanist discursivity. By analyzing Gaitán and his followers' discursivity, we can consider that Gaitanism, as a framework of political-communicative practices, contributed to process popular demands that diminished bipartisan tensions in Colombia in the first half of the 20th century. The construction of a popular subject, and the "face to face" presentation between the leadership and the masses in the public arena, among other elements of the Gaitanist identity, served to process --in a belligerent but peaceful way-- the political and social discontent of the time. Likewise, Gaitanism as an identity process --between 1944 and 1946-- raised as a movement that arrogated the representation of a "true country" (rupture) and the construction of a restoring order for Colombian democracy (integration). In short, the proposed disquisitions in this paper seek to highlight the relevance of thinking historical processes, such as populism, through a conceptual framework aimed at the study of political identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how, from an extended ritual device, social forces changed in the postapartheid South Africa, helping reconciliation and the consolidation of national unity. In addition, the paper studies how the story-telling of this device creates a foundational myth: the Rainbow Nation. This article is the research result of the Line "History, Culture and Political Philosophy" at the Faculty of Political Science and Government at the University of Rosario. It presents a political phenomenon, almost religious, departing from concepts and theories of the anthropologists Marc Augé and Mircea Eliade. Based on secondary sources (videos, interviews, books, academic researches), the article showed how a sports event was applied as a ritual, which consolidated the social bases of the new political project of the South Africa postapartheid; and how from this ritual, a myth was built, a historical reference for the new nation. The article has an original approach insofar as it links anthropological concepts to analyze a political process; and illustrates the functioning and usefulness of rituals and myths in contemporaneity as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public choice theorists argue that political and administrative decentralization increases the efficiency in the delivery of public services in local communities. This paper departs from a critical stand of this perspective in studying the phenomenon of poor school performance. The Department of Atlántico is a case that deviates from the assumptions of public choice scholars, and hence its analysis serves to open an ontological and practical discussion on how to study processes of primary and secondary educational decentralization in Colombia. The use of a realist paradigm as a methodological backup to analyse a set of individual and group interviews at different levels of the government helps to unveil many of these implications. Themes identified in this study include the limited capacity of local authorities to design and administrate educational policies, the lack of clarity among the actors of different levels of the national education system about the use of state examinations, and the difficulty experienced by school directors of public educational institutions to access promptly to educational quality resources. These findings are all indicative of policy complexities omitted in the diagnostics of the sector published in the mainstream literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the main citizen safety strategies implemented in the United States, France, Great Britain and Latin America pointing out the choice made by their governments for repressive measures, social intervention or behavioral control. Based on the contemporary filmography on the subject, this paper shows the strategies and results and their effects on the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental conflicts reflect and reproduce power configurations. This paper assesses three environmental conflicts in Chile's post-transition in which different actors such as developers, state agencies, grassroots organizations and environmental NGOs collide over the use of natural resources. Using the literature on transnational advocacy networks as analytical framework, the paper analyzes the conditions under which local environmental conflicts reach international visibility. The paper discusses how two interdisciplinary fields such as environmental justice and political ecology could advance in a better understanding of the effectiveness of networks at international, national and local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author analyzes the conditions in which "another territoriality" manages to penetrate the symbol of the sectoriality which they are the educative public policies. After to define the limits of the educative public policy and the decentralization, in general, and the Colombian case, in individual, doing a file of the Colombian process of educative decentralization from 1982, analyzes the Program of charter schools in Bogota during the Administrations of Peñalosa In this paper, the author analyzes the conditions in which "another territoriality" manages to penetrate the symbol of the sectoriality which they are the educative public policies. After to define the limits of the educative public policy and the decentralization, in general, and the Colombian case, in individual, doing a file of the Colombian process of educative decentralization from 1982, analyzes the Program of charter schools in Bogota during the Administrations of Peñalosa and Mockus 2 that it little combines the subject treated about "pedagogy" with the subject, very controversial, of the management deprived of the educational ones and sample that yes is possible to construct one "another territoriality", different from the cradle in the school, and to practice therefore a new form of governance of its territory that it questions the "public education" and replaces the concept to him of "public service of education", rendered by" private" actors. Finally, a series of conclusions appears that insist on the fact that it is not clear if this local initiative is a conjuncture measurement or marks outline of a new territorial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a comparative study of the political emergence of Juan Perón in Argentina and Getulio Vargas in Brazil. It seeks to describe and explain how and why Peronism and Varguismo were two different political projects. Using the tools of political discourse theory (PDT), this research scrutinises the implications Perón and Vargas had for the formation of the political identities of the socio-political actors in both countries and to what extent this difference had to do with the specific ways in which both leaders intervened in the political formation. In this sense, the paper stresses the specific discursive and institutional modes of intervention that characterised these two leaders' projects and their role in the political imaginary they inaugurated. It does so by tracing the responses to Perón and Vargas by different socio-political actors and the polemic context in which those responses took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central aim of this article is to present the results of the research: Globalization of law and justice reform: Transference rules and transformation of the State in Colombia: 1992-2005. The paper presents the relationship between globalization processes in the field of law, legislative output, and transformation of the state in Colombia during the period under study, as a process of adaptation to global flows. The first part sets out succinctly the frames of reference of the investigation, emphasizing the theoretical cross pollination that allowed the interdisciplinary integration of law, studies of contemporary political theory, and contributions from international relations over the problem of globalization. The second part explains the methodological design of the research, emphasizing the tools used to analyze the legislative output of the country. Finally, as a conclusion, the paper presents the results of the research and the possible scenarios for future research on the topic in the Colombian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses aspects of the U.S. and Brazilian foreign policy. Some events relate actions linked to the political realism school and others embraced in the interdependence and globalization views. This paper explores the historical environment where the United States and Brazil followed different paradigmatic political approaches to gain access to the hemispheric market. Defence policies evolved gradually from realism into interdependence and gradually into the globalization approach. This last view gained momentum in American, while Brazil encouraged other IR views like militarisms and the sphere of influence to gain pre-eminence in the neighbour trading countries, favouring market access to multinational corporations and increasing direct foreign investment within the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the Pacific Alliance (PA) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) are economic regional integration agreements whose constitutive principles conform to the so-called open regionalism. However, when the AP was launched in 2011, with the Declaration of Lima, Mercosur had distanced from economic liberalism, and its political agenda, which had acquired especial relevance, led it to clashes with the United States. Some analysts came to speak of a confrontation between the efficient liberalizers of the PA and the inefficient statists of Mercosur. In this paper, I analyze both regional agreements. The research, based on documentary sources and statistics, aims to evaluate the ability of these two bodies to promote economic development through regional integration, an objective proposed in its constituent documents. The main conclusion is that AP is better prepared to achieve the proposed objective because of its commitment to deep integration and trade of global value chains. Another concluding remark is that political and ideological confrontation have become a disturbing element in the performance of Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a sui generis peacebuilding experience in Colombia -- the Magdalena Medio Peace and Development Programme (PDPMM). Its main purpose is to assess the extent that the PDPMM stands as a true 'peace laboratory' and paves new roads and alternative 'formulas' for peace at local and regional level, which could be replicated in other regions of the country, in a potential post-conflict scenario in Colombia. One conjectures that the PDPMM represents a valid and consolidated positive peacebuilding model at the regional level, from which various lessons can be learned, in order to build a sustainable and lasting peace in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the Master's thesis in Social Policy "Female Stray Bodies: To a social construction of gender policy in Bogotá" like a result of my own work experience as a young state official of the Protection of Children and youth District Institute (or IDIPRON initials in spanish). During the research process we attempted to construct knowledge from the experience of those who were involved in the problem of study, questioning the construction of sexualities and gender in street contexts as well as the government response that support roles and gender stereotypes in District's social service programs, aimed at children and youth inhabitant of / in street. The purpose of the paper is to present the conceptual and methodological route for the construction of a new category: stray female bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays public policies are insufficiently ambitious in order to reverse the environmental damage generated by man. Most of the literature that analyses policy changes tends to explain the incentives but do not give clear explanations about the limitation factors. We develop in this paper a reflection on policy change from the notion of transaction costs. Following a review of the three main approaches --sustainable development, ecological modernization and democratization-- we expose ten theses on the role of transaction costs in the policy change from the case of the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the formulation of the Monroe Doctrine, United States defined Latin America as his 'backyard' in the XIXth and XXth centuries. However, the global and regional transformations in the XXIst century have weakened the Doctrine, and promoted a new idea of the space, named South America. This paper analyzes the role of Brazil as a regional power, which leads the creation of this new space. Furthermore, it analyzes the role of Colombia, a United States traditional ally, facing the Brazilian leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the reference to law on public policy theory is scarce, legal interest in this topic has increased in Colombia in recent years. One reason for this connection is the repetitive reference to the concept of public policy in constitutional jurisprudence. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the narrative of the Colombian Constitutional Court about the notion of public policy since the promulgation of the 1991 Constitution until 2013. The approach to accomplish this task is the narrative analysis of public policy which is addressed primarily by Emery Roe (1994). The reconstruction of such narrative takes place in two stages: first, I explore different scenarios in which the Court refers to public policy in its narrative. Second, I analyze the formal aspect of the narrative, that is, the different ways how the Court understands the public policies and what is the legal form that these policies should take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the characteristics of the curriculum of political science in Colombia. It takes upon five dimensions it's teaching in the country: 1) the intersections and convergences in subfields of the discipline, 2) the emphasis, 3) the curricula, 4) the political contexts, and 5) formative research. The central argument is that despite the diversity in the names and content of the curriculum, there are intersections that form a shared core in the discipline. Besides intersections found, there are different degrees of development and consolidation of programs and a great variety and differences in emphasis as well as in the importance given to research training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of Germany as a key player in the regional cooperation framework for the implementation of the Justice and Peace Law and, in general, on the peace process in Colombia. Therefore, it starts with the description of the guiding principles of German foreign policy. Also, an outline of the main cooperation programs that have been created and implemented in Colombia from transition experiences of Nazi and Communist dictatorships towards peace and democracy is made. Finally, it concludes that Germany, according to its foreign policy, encourages a negotiated solution to the armed conflict and in that sense has been consolidating cooperation projects and support for Colombia, which have become transcendental tools not only for the implementation of the Justice and Peace Law, but also to build a lasting peace scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper entails an approach to the situation of the legal recognition of minorities in Europe, taking into account the legal structures that emerged after the Second World War. It reviews the development of this subject in the European system of human rights, focusing in particular on the European Court of Human Rights as well as on the activities of other European organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we focus on the evolution of the strategies of autonomy, which have characterized foreign policies implemented in Latin America since the decade of the seventies. Taking the international relations theory debate, that ranges from rationalist positions to reflectivism, as a starting point, we adopt some contributions of the realistic and transnational approaches, the dependency theories that characterize the Latin American debate, and the contributions of the constructivist approach. We consider that this evolution has three distinct stages: a traditional autonomy, from the decade of the seventies, a relational autonomy --worked further by Tokatlian and Russell (2000)--, and, currently, a process of rethinking the strategies of autonomy due to the transformations in the development models and the political regimes of some countries and the consequent changes in foreign policy interests. These changes are caused by a post-neoliberal agenda that favors regional armonization, based on the constructivist approach, over the relations with the United States, with a meaning that is different from prior periods but that preserves the contents of the sociopolitical agenda on the economic and commercial agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the dynamic consolidation of neoliberal hegemony of Carlos Menem's leadership in the Argentina of the '90s. From a discursive analysis of hegemony, which focuses on the staged disputes in the public print media, the research studies the socio-historical and political positions of the key political actors between the sedimentation stage of the menemist hegemony and Carlos Menem's reelection as president. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the causes of forgetfulness that has been a constant in the Colombian Amazon and the implications that it has had on the border and foreign policy in the country. It also argues that taking part of a group of global, regional and national transformations, ACTO has been revitalized, which can be the first step to expand the State's institutions on the Amazon territory, the starting point to taking advantage of its strategic potential, and to create synergies with other countries that are part of the Organization to confront a set of threats that defying the rainforest. In addition, the agency can be a vector of South American integration that eventually, could be quite receptive to leadership of Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinion leaders are key actors in the process of formation of public opinion. They are elites that popularize shared interpretations or frames about issues in the public agenda. The paper examines the design of a methodology for the systematic processing of framings in opinion columns and offers preliminary conclusions on the process of construction around key topics of national interest. For that purpose (I) we present a model of research on framing from a public opinion perspective; (II) introduce a methodology for the processing of public opinion columns with the technology of Global News Intelligence News Control™; (III) present the results of a two-month analysis of 1,162 columns and 18,004 positions published in the 10 printed and digital media most read by opinion leaders in Colombia; and (IV) present some conclusions about the methodology of analysis and the preliminary results, and put forward a research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-twentieth century it became increasingly evident that traditional analytical tools of the economic, political and sociological theoris were insufficient to explain the new patterns of interaction and the multinational, transnational and supranational phenomena that overflowed the borders of the nation state. New realities constituted a higher plane of an interconnected world a structure of suprastatal interactions, which dynamics and effects demanded the formulation of a unified theory. Three broad approaches: the controversy about the clash of civilizations, the discussion on globalization and the theorists of risk society suggested the possibility of such theory. This paper addresses three attempts of formulation: 1). from an economic perspective (theories of development, dependence and the “world system"); 2). from a political standpoint (the “world polity" of the neo-institutionalists); and 3). from the sociological perspective (the “global society “ of Niklas Luhmann). Our conclusion is that against both the economistic and the political approaches, Niklas Luhmann offers a less unilateral and more complete theoretical solution by transferring to a higher global level the old concept of society whose borders have long been overwhelmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Foreign Policy Analysis and the systemic study of International Politics seem to be fields that, due to their own nature, are separated from each other. However, this division is more artificial than real. Parting from the agent-structure debate, this paper proposes that each of these parts constitutes itself in its relation with the other. This premise has its foundations on the notion that ideas have actual material effects: the actors' identities and the structures that define them. Hence, Role theory and Discursive Institutionalism provide alternatives to deal with a complex reality along three levels of analysis: unit-level, microstructure and macrostructure, which are mutually complementary, instead of excluding each other out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, announced in September 2010 the creation of the National Security Council and the position of National Security Advisor. The idea behind these creations is to construct an instance of advice and coordination to allow the articulation of policies between different ministries, following the model built on this particular for the United States. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to present and reflect on the evolution and the process that shaped the National Security Council of the United States from its creation until today. This, in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of these types of organizations helping to provide some evidence that will allow a better understanding of the scope, strengths and weaknesses of these types of organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a research conducted by the Marketing Research Group at Marketing Research Group the University Jorge Tadeo Lozano of Bogotá. It addresses issues associated to how local college students face democratic processes, with emphasis on their expectations, perceptions, and political customs. The research studied abstention and participation reasons in the democratic process (voting); student's perceptions about politics, what students think of politics, their perceptions of democracy, how they understand their role in democratic processes; how they perceive politicians and their opinion of how they must be, as well as what is the importance of political parties and their relevance at the voting time. This research is divided into two stages: an initial qualitative-exploratory phase developed in group sessions, and a second quantitative and descriptive phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, significant changes in the forms of Government have occurred in Colombia, as a consequence of many different institution related factors, inter alia the availability of new tools for civil society's participation, decentralization and political parties' reform. These factors have redefined activities and relationships of local Government's actors, among themselves, the councilpersons. From the governance standpoint, this paper aims to lead to a better understanding of councilpersons and their relationships with other stakeholders that are also people's representatives: public and private organizations. Availability of empirical data on this subject is very limited in this country, and the city of Medellin is a case in point. Based on the identified trends (cooperation, mediation, competition and lack of relationship), the article highlights the prevalence of cooperative relations and concludes that the principles of "positive" governance (plurality, interdependence and cooperation in management), are tempered by several factors, including political and institutional changes and the characteristics, motivations and strategies of the actors involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political violence is a mechanism of conflict resolution used as much as denigrated. Despite the risk to justify such mechanism, there is a series of socio-political scenarios in which political violence may be justified. Based on the review of different contexts as well as international law applicable in each case, I present some contexts in which political violence could be a probable mechanism to resolve a conflict. This paper is articulated in three sections: some initial considerations in order to delimit the debate and to avoid unnecessary diversions, a presentation of cases and, finally, a general discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of a preliminary investigation that constitutes a diagnosis of the threats of drug trafficking in the Caribbean, on the basis of the so-called tendencies of the hemispheric and regional security. The natural condition of the Caribbean as a "transit zone" is characterized, along with historical and social aspects that give the region its proclivity for narco-trafficking. The geopolitics of the security in the region is also considered when evaluating the asymmetric condition of the relations between the United States and the Caribbean related to the security agenda; and when analyzing the common response of the Caribbean countries against the threats of drugs. Other problems like corruption, criminality, and the type of participation in the illegal economy, are also analyzed as part of the illicit practice framework of the drug dealing and its effects associated in the Caribbean region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1991 Constitution allows the President to nominate or appoint directors of different institutions that are not dependant of the executive branch. This is called the presidential nomination power. This paper characterizes how ex-President Álvaro Uribe used his nomination power in his two periods of government, and explains the implications of this practice for the Colombian institutionalism. The analysis was carried out by the articulation of three topics: presidential nomination power, bureaucracy and state capacity. Enhance of the state capacity requires a professional bureaucracy that performs administrative tasks without the influence of political or partisan interest. The study's main conclusion is that ex-President Uribe, by using this power, influenced the appointment of public officials that were driven by political loyalties, but lacked professional merits. This was achieved by using questionable strategies such as lists "of one", "of a party" or "of zero" candidates. As a result, ex-President Uribe shaped the recruitment of a high bureaucracy profitable for his short term policies, but that are very harmful for the state in the long run. Therefore, the use of the nomination presidential power has weakened the state capacity, has built a political patrimonial regimen and has strengthened, even more, the Colombian presidential regime. After eight years after Álvaro Uribe took office the Colombian state is less strong and democratic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to establish hor the enemy criminal law is a commitment to the reactivation of a tradition of denial of civility to the weariness of modern experience and the difficulties of utopia as a way of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ups and downs of the bilateral integration process and the economic and diplomatic crisis of the regional integration have crossed trough the Colombo-Venezuelan border in the last decade. In front of this process, this paper places the question about over the relationship between the coverage of the national press headed by El Tiempo, and the border policies advanced by the Colombian chancellery during the last ten years. In this sense, the work done establishes that El tiempo's media logic has mainly focused on official, mainly presidential speeches, and on security issues and external threats at the border. The implemented policies by the chancellery are centered exclusively on the activities and the development of integration mechanisms and on regional development. The job shows the independence of the national press from political institutions, when it ignores most of the work and advancement that has been made on the bilateral policies of integration and gional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deliberative democracy theory breaks into the 1980s as a response to the crisis of contemporary democracy. This paper takes an historical tour of its origins, discussions and advances, up to the normative work's current state of the art. The deliberative debate's evolution in the last two decades has reached such a point of maturity that today it demands concrete proposals of a tangible deliberative democratic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]