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This paper presents an overview of some relevant concepts on higher education, going through UNESCO’s and including those by some theorists who have had an influence in shaping labor and financial structures all over the globe in the last few years. The paper concludes that poor social and political training athigher education institutions favors the chances of dominant groups to continue in power without their forms of government and the way they manage economy being contested by people. Therefore, the paper suggests some changes in curricular structures at higher education institutions, so they are able to be educated not only for a labor market, but also to participate as real citizens in society.

This paper will argue that democracy should be treated as an object of policy studies. Against some opposing theoretical views stemming from political theory, I will sustain that the public policies which are relevant for democracy are those pertaining to effective political inclusion. This requires casting light on the institutional design of political regimes, on the conditions that promote democratic values, electoral competition and political representation, and on the models of participatory governance in public policy. This paper will also discuss some factors related to the processes of institutional change that affect policies related to democracy. This paper aims to stimulate a more dynamic dialogue between political theory, comparative politics and policy studies.

This paper aims to discuss the concept of democracy in Latin America, considering it as a concept and a practice socially and historically built. In these sense, the concept of Political Culture is used in order to understand the values and beliefs of the Latin American’s citizenship. The article wonders about the existing values and beliefs, and the legitimacy of a democratic system. It discusses the classical views on democracy and argues that liberal democracy is intrinsic with capitalism. Finally, the paper contributes to the debate on democracy seeking to address the distinction between formal and substantive democracies, and the cultural values that legitimize it.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the values of democracy in the opinions of the councillors of the cities of São Bernardo do Campo, Santo André and São Caetano do Sul. This paper analyzes the period of 2010 and the technique of collection and analysis data were based on the main research methods in the Social Sciences. The results were: i) democracy is stable, ii) it is superior to any other type of regime, iii) content support in some public policy and the use of voting and iv) democracy has the support of the various ideological options.

This study exposes the first phase of the process of democratization in Paraguay that began in 1987 and ended in 1992. It was based on a sociohistorical approach that used qualitative information from testimonies about the process in question, as well as descriptive statistical information that helped explain the context of the changes that took place in the referred period. From this framework, the paper exposes how the Paraguayan business elites, as the most dynamic sector of the ruling class, not only led the removal of the authoritarian regime of the ex-dictator Alfredo Stroessner, but also guided the economic management and the redesign of the institutional architecture of the republic according to their interests and the privileges obtained during the dictatorship. Among the findings, this research shows that during the "first transition" these elites created mechanisms of accommodation and neutralization of the advances in social rights, to the extent that these would imply a substantive democratization of the political system. Although the democratic aperture was presented as a necessary change, it had risky implications due to the promotion of the specific interests of the elites. In conclusion, democracy was marked by the seizure of the State by the economic sectors that were strengthened after the authoritarian regime, leaving the working classes weakened in their ability to resist and access rights.

The adoption of comprehensive institutional reforms that will establish the basis for improving the rule of law and accountability is needed to combat corruption. Nonetheless, this article posits that for these reforms to be effective the rigorous and sustained support of decisive actors is needed. Otherwise, no matter how progressive or innovative these reforms may seem on paper, institutional innovations could become ineffectual or cancelled de facto. This article advances this argument by providing an analysis of México’s National Anti-Corruption System (SNA). The SNA represents the case of an institutional innovation aimed at rebuilding accountability in a country characterized by persistent and pervasive political corruption. The analysis shows that SNA emerged from a legislative process that included the effective intervention of a network of experts and specialized organizations in this subject during a politically favorable moment due to corruption scandals that affected the incumbent government. As a result, the original initiative proposed by the government was replaced by a much more ambitious and progressive institutional framework. The analysis also shows that the SNA has been confronted with different challenges at a national and local level. Specifically, the ambivalent and weak commitment towards this system, highlighted by key actors in decisive moments, has limited its full implementation.

This paper shows part of the results of a research project conducted to identify the tensions and meeting points between state institutions of transparency, fiscalization and the allocation of resources and their instruments (platform for the open government, internet portals, rules of operation, among other) with institutions and community proceedings. The study was carried out in 12 indigenous communities of different peoples and regions in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The revision of the mechanisms of citizen participation and the efficiency of state and community mechanisms made it possible to observe until what point some favor or hinder accountability, as well as the need for an intercultural vision that can create dialogue between communities and state institutions. In that context experiences of “community comptroller” were revised with an emphasis placed on the successful mechanisms based on local norms with a high level of legitimacy, but also pointing out their limitations. Among its findings, this research shows that there is a high capacity for institutions of indigenous communities to guarantee accountability, as well as the lack of cultural relevance of the institutions of the Mexican State to recognize these mechanisms and establish coordination plans to contribute to this objective and the problems that are generated due to the gap between these two areas.

This paper aims to analyze the main characteristics and challenges of institutionalized participation in the Brazil’s health system. First, it discusses the features and principles of the Unified Health System (SUS), highlighting the importance of social mobilization in shaping the country’s current health system. Next, the characteristics and attributes of health councils and conferences are presented as institutionalized mechanisms of participation. The health councils are analyzed for parity composition and deliberative function. Lastly, the results of the case study of the health council of the state of Bahia are discussed. The results demonstrated the low power of the social representatives’ agenda and the health council’s fragile capacity to exert influence in the definition of health policy.

This paper poses the question of the present state of criticism while also analyzing, in a more circumscribed manner, the specific phenomenon of “populism”. It shows the way in which populism as appeared in the public space mainly in a pejorative sense, and it suggests, along with Laclau (2005), that this phenomenon must not be rejected as such, insofar as it contains a specific rationality that is important for the democratic process but that must also be submitted to critical scrutiny. Thus, putting forward what the article calls a “critique of populist reason”, not only does it aim at reassessing what reason means today, but it also tries to distinguish the productive from the pernicious uses of populism by analyzing the narratives and values that each “populist” discourse mobilizes.

An answer is proposed in this paper as to why it is hard to find consensus on which phenomena are considered as populist and which are not. It is argued that populism is an essentially contested concept (Gallie, 1998), which encompasses disparate phenomena from a particular notion of popular sovereignty within the democratic narrative, around which there are endless disputes. It is also proposed that in order to analyze populism taking into account these elements, it is necessary to acknowledge its normative nature, since classical definitions of populism fall short by not considering this component, the acknowledgement of which excludes the possibility of definitively solving the problem of the classic categorization of a phenomenon as populist or non-populist. A qualitative conceptual review methodology is used. Both the essentially contested concepts as proposed by Gallie and some insights on the conceptualization of the normative elements in social sciences by Connolly (1993) are addressed.

This paper will develop three themes. First, I show that the democratization, federalism, and nationalism literatures have been developed in relatively mutual isolation and that we can only make more meaningful and powerful statements about comparative federalism if we relate the three literatures to each other. Second, I demonstrate that all federal systems constrain the lawmaking capacity of the democratically elected legislators at the center. However, I argue that it is analytically and politically fruitful to study democratic federal systems as existing along a demos-constraining to demos-enabling continuum. I also make a strong case that at all points in the continuum, federal institutions can have a great impact on policy. I can not develop these arguments without directly addressing and confronting the most influential political scientist who has written on federalism, the late William H. Riker. Riker?s classic and still influential arguments about federalism stand in fundamental opposition to those I advance in this paper. Once these conceptual and methodological debates about federalism have been addressed, in the third part of the paper, I construct and operationalize the analytic framework of the demos-constraining continuum, by evaluating four propositions about federalism, using data from India, Germany, Spain, the United States, and Brazil.

In this paper we analyze the results of a quantitative survey conducted with members of the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) in order to answer three questions: Who are the members of the MP? Does the Public Prosecutor deserve the title of Guardian of Democracy? Are the members of the MP promoters of criminal prosecution or true guarantors of a more just society? The results indicate that persons in the MP are from the Brazilian elite, and they focus their actions on the criminal process, assuming the function of guaranteeing broad, collective and homogeneous individual rights. In addition, their work is office‑based, thus hindering an effective involvement with demands coming from the population. The MP is, thus, an old institution that has not effectively assumed its new functions, granted at the time of re‑democratization.

This paper proposes the construction of citizenship and democracy in the cities of Eldorado in Culiacán municipality and Juan José Ríos in the Guasave municipality. In the processes, the following elements are present: the different social culture identities that it has built the citizens of rural communities and citizens who reside in main town of the municipality, feeling of injustice generated in largely of citizens by deficient municipality public service; and struggle for the extension and political rights. Analyzing the information provided by the social actors who have participated in these lawsuits is complemented.

The subject of this paper is the judicialization of politics in democratic contemporary societies, which is a phenomenon that could have a certain relevance regarding the way popular sovereignty is exercised. Furthermore, it could affect the ways that social practices of emancipation might be regarded. In this respect, and starting out with a very specific consideration of the notion of “people” and “the political”, my intention is to analyze the different interpretations (critical and enthusiastic perspectives) about the judicialization of politics. Finally, I ask about the possibility of exploring the political-emancipatory potential of judicial disputes.

This paper claims that South American democracies have demonstrated a notable predisposition toward bilateral agreements, toward the search for arbitration/mediation, and toward the establishment of inter-democratic regional institutions. These traits have favored the resolution of the majority of regional conflicts, or if not resolution, then conflict management through different institutions. Likewise, the proliferation and consolidation of regional peace has precipitated a phenomenon of democratic peace that went unanticipated by the literature: the reconfiguration of threats, which, through its own momentum, reinforces South American peace.

Este documento analiza las causas que obstaculizan la representación de las mujeres en el ámbito de la toma de decisiones como una exigencia de congruencia entre los principios democráticos y el ejercicio pleno de la ciudadanía.Para ello se utiliza el enfoque de género, que permite explicar conceptualmente la inequidad social y política prevaleciente entre hombres y mujeres. Asimismo, evidencia la subrepresentación de las mujeres en los cargos públicos, tales como diputaciones, senadurías y alcaldías, producto de las prácticas sexistas de índole histórico. / This paper analyzes the causes that hinder the representation of women in the field of decision-making, as a requirement of consistency with demo-cratic principles and the full exercise of citizenship. It applies the gender approach, that allows to theoretically explaining the prevailing political and social inequality between men and women. It also highlights the underrepre-sentation of women in public posts and bodies such as the Chambers of Deputies and the Senate, and county councils, due to historical sexist practices.

This paper aims to reconstruct the possible relationships between peace and democracy by addressing the issue of what model of democracy better corresponds to the formation of a culture of peace. To this end, the broadly views of peace and democracy are reconstructed to criticize either minimalist or negative visions, suggesting a normative relationship between positive peace and substantive democracy. Later we will argue in favor of the deliberative democratic model as the one that best fits the requirements of citizen education and culture of peace in the internal systems. Finally, some key elements to consider in relation to the formation of democratic citizenship rooted in the values of a global culture of peace will be outlined.

This paper aims to draw attention to the incongruity of the archives service without truly democratic culture. We hypothesize that a culture of this kind, as is the case in Colombia, not only is the responsibility of citizenship, but state policies, whose agents, co-opted by the interests of international capital, combined with the good speeches corrupt practicesmore aberrant shape in general society a kind of culture is democratic only as regulations, but not in reality, thus affecting all social aspects, but especially for this particular case, in order that files are expected to meet . The text proposes that education is primarily educators, begin to give a veneer of change to this situation.

This paper presents objections to the critique of cosmopolitanism made by Rawls and Nagel who defend a concept of justice in which justice and sovereignty are closely related. The first part presents Rawls's rhetorical strategy which is opposed to the cosmopolitan idea of transforming the international order based on the demands of global economic justice. The second part covers Nagel's position which is opposed to the idea of global justice. The final section introduces Christina Lafont's presentation of a model of international policy that is geared toward justice in a global context.

La percepción de la corrupción constituye uno de los elementos centrales de la opinión pública española. Para unos, es una construcción exagerada provocada por unos medios de comunicación que han hecho de los escándalos de la corrupción una mercancía de gran demanda. Para otros, es el fiel reflejo del deterioro de un sistema político imperfecto, sin controles ni castigos, sometido a la creciente mercantilización de servicios y derechos por el empuje sin descanso del neoliberalismo. El objeto de este trabajo es demostrar el funcionamiento de las fuentes que nutren la percepción de la corrupción en la coyuntura 2012-13, justo cuando alcanzó su registro más alto, así como evaluar sus posibles efectos sistémicos. | The perception of corruption is one of the central elements of Spanish public opinion. For some, it is an exaggerated construction provoked by some media that have turned corruption scandals into high-demand merchandise. For others, it is a true reflection of the deterioration of a flawed political system, without controls or penalties, undergoing the growing commercialization of services and rights imposed by the non-stop pressure of neoliberalism. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the functioning of the sources that feed the perception of corruption at the juncture 2012-13, just when it reached its highest levels, and to evaluate its potential systemic effects.

This paper aims at elucidating the political implications of memory in the renewal of the past and the disputes for the legitimation of the present. The memories about the period of the dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983) provide an insight into the ways in which the past becomes re-actualized in light of the contestations towards democracy, and how it demonizes and praises social actors that stand in between the discourse of the military and the vindication of human rights, thus giving way to a struggle for possible narratives of the future. In this sense, the narratives of democracy and Nunca más, essential to the evocation of state terrorism, are no longer immutable and instead are mobilized in the terrain of the struggles for hegemony and social order.

This text focuses on the advance of the “punitive state” in contemporary societies, or in other words, the prominence of control rather than social protection and social rights policies. Its central topic is the increasing investment in fighting crime by contemporary democracies, which helps to consolidate the figure of the “punitive state”. The recent sociological reflections of Loïc Wacquant, David Garland, Nils Christie and Zygmunt Bauman, among others, will be used to explore this topic, which is still little discussed by the academic community. The current capitalist arrangement has almost instantaneously spread around the globe, tying the success of economic enterprises to the new face of crime policy. The paper therefore aims to offer an alternative approach to thinking about social control by addressing the so‑called “punitive state”, a policy that suits the economic, social and cultural changes under way in the last thirty years and that, according to some contemporary theorists, inaugurated postmodernity.

Este trabalho analisa o processo do desenvolvimentismo brasileiro compreendido entre a fase clássica dos anos 1950 até a perspectiva atual do novo-desenvolvimentismo, privilegiando o papel e a função desempenhadas pelo tema da democracia e da inclusão distributiva em cada arranjo. Na primeira seção, analisa-se a constelação semântica que envolve os termos progresso e desenvolvimento, procurando separá-los do processo/projeto denominado desenvolvimentismo. Na segunda seção, discutem-se as fases e características centrais do velho e do novo-desenvolvimentismo brasileiro e a perspectiva de sua subdivisão em três ondas históricas, separadas pelo aspecto político democrático e pelo tema da redistribuição. Por último, apresentam-se algumas considerações sobre o novo-desenvolvimentismo em seu arranjo democrático-inclusivo.This paper analyzes the process of the Brazilian developmentalism between the classical phase of the 1950s to the current perspective of new developmentalism, emphasizing the role and function played by the theme of democracy and distributive inclusion in every arrangement. In the first section, it is analyzed the semantic constellation involving the terms progress and development, seeking to separate them from the process / project called developmentalism. In the second section, it is discussed the phases and the central features of the old and the new Brazilian developmentalism and the prospect of their subdivision into three historical waves, separated by the political democratic aspect and by the theme of redistribution. Finally it presents some considerations about the new developmentalism in its democratic-inclusive arrangement.

In this paper we set out to review the relationship between populism and democracy by arguing against those perspectives which portray them as clashing political dynamics. In order to do this, we will specify our departure premises to understand populism qua political logic instead of taking it as a type of social organisation or a stage of economic development. By taking on board recent political experiences in Latin America - viz. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) Brazilian administration, and Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) Argentinian administration – we reach the, often missed, complexities of the populism / democracy tandem. This tandem forces us to re-think the ambiguity dwelling inside the notion of democracy. This ambiguity is built upon the tension between democracy's formal-procedural dimension and its substantive dimension. This tension opens the gates to think populist discourse in connection with democratic-institutional discourse and political practice.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the differences between the many "left" in Latin America and interpret the Argentine case, discussing the usefulness of the concept to describe this political phenomenon. We'll see how far the Kirchner government meets the objectives of the new left and if there is consistency between public policies and their results. Our argument is that the progressive rhetoric of these governments is not accompanied by appropriate public policies or by institutional reforms leading to the establishment of a more democratic and more egalitarian society.

In this paper, we present the underlying ideas of our attempt to work on local development with participatory methodologies to build a happier society. In the first part we consider theoretical matters in order to, in the second part, put forth an experience on the use of the tetralemma in participatory research on Micro Craft Cheese Makers of Tenerife.

El artículo aborda los cambios políticos recientes de la democracia y los partidos políticos de Brasil desde una perspectiva histórica comparativa. La hipótesis central es que para explicar la naturaleza y límites de los cambios electorales hay que comprender las dificultades históricas de los procesos de democratización y el peso de una matriz sociopolítica conservadora. En la primera sección se analiza la formación de una matriz sociopolítica conservadora y las debilidades de la democratización entre 1945 y 1964. En la segunda sección se aborda la dinámica de la democracia y los partidos políticos en las últimas dos décadas para identificar los límites de los cambios políticos electorales recientes.Drawing on comparative historical perspective, the article examines the recent political changes in the party system and Brazilian democracy. On the one hand, the paper explains historical restrictions on the democratization processes. On the other hand, it highlights the inheritance of conservative sociopolitics matrix on the dynamics of electoral changes. The first section analyzes the conservative sociopolitics matrix’s development and identifies democratization processes’ weaknesses between 1945 and 1964. The second section focuses on political parties and democracy development during the last decades to identify the limits of the recent political changes.