El siguiente informe de investigación tiene por objeto presentar los resultados sobre cuatro de las principales dimensiones medidas en la Encuesta Solidaridad, aplicada en la ciudad de Santiago de Chile: (1) semántica de la noción de solidaridad; (2) niveles de valoración hacia distintos tipos de solidaridad; (3) frecuencia de práctica de distintos tipos de solidaridad; y (4) la relación entre solidaridad y atribución de responsabilidad social. A partir de estos resultados se concluye que el significado que los sujetos le atribuyen a la solidaridad es múltiple y variado, y que al mismo tiempo existe una alta valoración de las diversas prácticas solidarias. Asimismo, se identifica un contraste entre las solidaridades más valoradas y las más practicadas. Por último, los encuestados vinculan fuertemente la solidaridad a una demanda por un Estado más activo y socialmente responsable.

This article introduces an analytical framework to explain the coexistence of peaceful borders and illicit transnational flows as evidenced by drug trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling, weapons trafficking, and terrorism in the Americas, a region characterized by international peace, domestic peace, and regional integration. Under the assumption that peaceful relations among neighboring countries enable the incursion of transnational nonstate actors across their borders, the article poses this main question: Under which conditions might peaceful borders enable illicit transnational flows? There is much more variance in the incidence of these illicit transnational flows across borders than in the existence of international peace. The article examines two major variables: the degree of governance and institutional strength of the bordering states; and the prevalent socioeconomic conditions of the bordering states.

German scholarly concern with Latin America has a long and interesting tradition that began before Alexander von Humboldt's famous journey to Latin America at the beginning of the 19th century.

Well-known research in entomology, for example, was carried out by Maria Sybilla Merian, who was active in 1699 in Surinam. Similarly, a long and protracted cooperation exists between German and Latin American mining research on the major mining centers of the colonial Latin American world: the Bolivian highlands and Mexico. Alexander von Humboldt was able to build directly on these established and generally accepted contacts, especially in Mexico, where he found old college friends from Freiberg (Saxony) in decisive positions in Mexican mining affairs.

El artículo analiza los movimientos indígenas de México, los cuales exigen del gobierno central y de la sociedad en general el reconocimiento de México como una nación cultural y lingüísticamente plural. El municipio, implantado inicialmente en México por los españoles como instrumento de conquista, ha sido esculpido por los indígenas como un espacio desde el cual pueden defender su derecho a ser diferentes y a contrarrestar las políticas estatales. En espacios locales, independientemente de las posiciones políticas y las discusiones ideológicas, los indígenas han mantenido, recreado o elaborado formas de gobierno que se distinguen de aquellas localidades consideradas mestizas o no-indígenas. También las comunidades, localidades, en distintos momentos históricos se han valido de esta institución como un medio de defensa, resistencia e impugnación de las políticas del Estado.

This paper presents a tentative explanation of the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution using a “micro-political” model of political profit, governmental efficiency, and political stability applied to data on the history of Somoza's fall. The revolution is explained as the outcome of a loss of stability by a government that attempted to control a greater share of the resources of the nation than its capabilities to persuade and coerce the population would allow. The initial results of the model, though preliminary, permit us to raise some important questions about the future of Nicaragua's political economy.

Would I be wrong in detecting a whiff of odium scholasticum? I am clearly not popular for poking fun at the language of modern social science, but I remain utterly unrepentant. It reminds me too forcibly of Section E, Umbugotology and Ditchwateristics, of Dickens' Second Meeting of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything. But worse, in my paper I “ideate” some fanciful notions on autonomy.

“Statistics are the poetry of Latin America” was Frank Tannenbaum's discreet version of “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” This is a widespread enough view, even now, when numbers are fashionable, and a fair number of my colleagues suggest any series will do to illustrate their well-conceived articles. A few skeptics refuse to go in for misplaced fashion. A Mexican economist, working in the statistics in the boondocks, said he was told to apply a correction coefficient to his numbers, to make them consistent with his boss's earlier reports. He quit, and became an essayist. An Argentine economist said that when his division head wanted to show growth, the investigators were sent to big firms; slumps were reported by surveying the output of small firms.

Present conditions in the international energy market and the problems they pose for Latin America hardly need emphasis, especially the uncertainty with respect to the availability and price of specific forms like oil. These concerns are, of course, aggravated by the need to respond to the short-term severe dislocations in the energy market, while at the same time taking coherent steps toward long-term solutions of national energy problems. Indeed, how should oil importing countries offset price increases, which exacerbate national deficits and debt service; deal with inflation, which raises the cost of developing indigenous resources; and successfully increase exports, when a number of other countries around the world are pursuing similar export expansion policies? While in broad terms the international energy market imposes a set of constraints upon all Latin America, there is a wide variety of responses among the countries themselves. The oil importing countries (Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Brazil) face a set of problems different from that of more-or-less self sufficient nations (Argentina, Colombia), which is in turn quite different from the major oil exporter (Venezuela). The needs of each country are, therefore, a combination of the international context and the specific situation within a country, and this is reflected in the nature of their energy planning and policy institutions.

Importantes protestas laborales ocurrieron en la minería latinoamericana en la última década. Este articulo compara las movilizaciones de contratistas en Chile y Perú, analizando por qué, a pesar de varias similitudes entre países, surgieron diferencias en sus dinámicas sindicales. En el primer caso, los sindicatos perduraron en el tiempo y coordinaron a nivel nacional, mientras que en el segundo las protestas no culminaron en organizaciones sólidas o articuladas. Sobre la base de entrevistas y trabajo de archivo, argumento que es crucial entender la permanencia de los líderes sindicales y sus redes políticas en Chile, y la precariedad no sólo laboral, sino organizativa, del caso peruano.

O projeto de integração regional Mercosul inclui o ensino de espanhol e português nos países membros. A Argentina e o Brasil têm leis obrigando a ofertar essas línguas aos estudantes no ensino médio, porém os processos de promoção, financiamento e implementação desses compromissos, como o contexto de implementação dessas iniciativas, são marcadamente diferentes. Neste trabalho analiso os últimos vinte anos de política lingüística regional à luz de fatores extralingüísticos e discuto algumas das razões que podem estar influenciando a maior autonomia regional do ensino de português em Buenos Aires, em contraste com uma maior dependência do ensino de espanhol em São Paulo vis-a-vis a Espanha.

Two differing views of the economy of contemporary Cuba continue to coexist. One portrays it as dynamic, largely unaffected by inflation, providing full employment for its citizens, diversified, and the unquestioned leader within Latin America in real economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s. The logical conclusion to be drawn from this view is that the Cuban economic model and its implementation in the island have been a success and that other developing countries in Latin America and elsewhere would do well to emulate the Cuban paradigm.

Las hipótesis sobre la relación entre competencia política y gasto particularista predicen consecuencias opuestas. Una sugiere que la competencia política —el gobierno sin mayoría<— constriñe al ejecutivo y reduce el particularismo, la perspectiva opuesta predice un mayor particularismo como resultado del intercambio de apoyo legislativo por beneficios. Ambas descansan sobre un supuesto que no siempre se cumple: la presencia de actores con poder de veto en el congreso. Este artículo argumenta que este supuesto es crucial para ambas hipótesis y muestra que allí donde aquel no se cumple estas últimas no se sostienen. Explora los efectos del gobierno con y sin mayoría en contextos de debilidad institucional del congreso a través de un análisis del gasto en bienes públicos locales de los gobiernos subnacionales en México y Argentina y muestra que el gobierno sin mayoría no conduce a ninguno de los resultados anticipados por los modelos existentes.