Observations on Latin American Constitutionalism

1967 ◽  
Vol 24 (01) ◽  
pp. 46-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Busey

Scholars are in substantial agreement that Latin American constitutionalism leaves much to be desired. First, there is the wide gap between constitutional formulations and actual political practice. No one would contend that any constitution, Latin American or otherwise, corresponds exactly to reality. There are provisions in the United States Constitution which are no better observed than are those of the Latin American documents. Even so, there can be little doubt that the gulf between theory and reality is far wider in much of Latin America than it is in many other parts of the world. Though many provisions of other constitutions do not correspond to actual political practice, Latin American stipulations on significant principles of government are often so much at variance with reality as to be totally misleading for the description of their political systems. Professor Martin C. Needler puts it quite bluntly: Quite clearly, many constitutional provisions are honored only in the breach; and yet great stress is placed upon constitutional forms and procedures, even where these mask political realities quite discordant with their intent.

2019 ◽  
pp. 86-102
Author(s):  
Susana Sueiro Seoane

This chapter analyzes Cultura Obrera (Labor Culture), published in New York City from 1911 to 1927. Pedro Esteve, the primary editor, gave expression to his ideas in this newspaper and while it represented Spanish firemen and marine workers, it reported on many other workers’ struggles in different parts of the world, for example, supporting and collecting funds for the Mexican revolutionary brothers Flores Magón. This newspaper, as all the anarchist press, was part of a transnational network and had a circulation not only in many parts of the United States but also in Latin American countries, including Argentina and Cuba, as well as on the other side of the Atlantic, in Spain and various European countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 463-480
Author(s):  
Enrique Ogliastri ◽  
John Ickis ◽  
Ramiro Casó

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to test the universality of the behavioral theory of negotiation developed in the United States, particularly the integrative/distributive models, and to find negotiators' prototypes in international negotiations conducted in a Latin American country.Design/methodology/approachAn open questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 104 resident foreigners (expatriates) who reported the negotiation patterns of Costa Ricans. The qualitative data were coded in 52 variables (inte-rater reliability Fleiss' Kappa K= 0.65). A total of ten variables were selected to measure distributive/integrative patterns of negotiations. Latent class analysis (LCA) uncovered the latent structure of negotiations.Findings(1) The distributive (70% found in the sample) and integrative (30%) negotiation models hold in this culture. (2) The incorporation of handling emotions and interpersonal orientation in the integrative model seem to be an important theoretical and practical trend.Research limitations/implications(1) A larger sample size is needed to compare with data from other countries of the region and the world. (2) The use of emotions and interpersonal orientation in the integrative negotiation paradigm require further investigation. As practical implications, detailed negotiation advice is offered to Costa Ricans as well as to expatriates working there.Originality/valueTo identify negotiation patterns in an understudied region of the world, the distributive/integrative models of the behavioral theory of negotiations are a key focus with which to extend the literature. There are important elements of culture within the negotiation patterns, in line with trends of an evolving paradigm of integrative crosscultural negotiations.


1977 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene Yeager

Students of late nineteenth century history have long dismissed the world industrial expositions as glittering, but not highly significant reflections of the gilded age. What emerges from the literature of the period, however, is a sense of the overriding commercial importance of these exhibitions. Nineteenth-century observers consistently linked the fairs to the general growth of world trade and to the expanding commercial hegemony of the United States. More specifically, contemporaries agreed that the expositions served to develop trade and investment ties with Latin America. Among the Latin American countries represented in the expositions, Mexico was the most important and consistent participant.


Author(s):  
Eugenia Tarzibachi

Abstract The introduction of commercialized disposable pads and tampons during the twentieth century changed the experience of the menstrual body in many (but not all) countries of the world. From a Latin-American perspective, this new way to menstruate was also understood to be a sign of modernization. In this chapter, Tarzibachi describes and analyzes how the dissemination and proliferation of disposable pads and tampons have unfolded first in the United States and later in Latin America, with a particular focus on Argentina. She pays particular attention to how the Femcare industry shaped the meanings of the menstrual body through discourses circulated in advertisements and educational materials. Tarzibachi explores how the contemporary meanings of menstruation are contested globally, as the traditional Femcare industry shifts its rhetoric in response to challenges from new menstrual management technologies, new forms of menstrual activism, and the increasing visibility of menstruation in mainstream culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Quan ◽  
Nguyen Bich Thao

Currently, civil procedure legal science in the world begins to study the application of fair procedural rights. Meanwhile, Vietnamese civil procedure legal science seems to pay attention to the proceedings instead of the procedural rights. In this context, the paper examines the application of rights of due process around the world and in Vietnam. From there, the author suggests a number of appropriate orientations in this area that Vietnam should apply in the near future in order to match the trend in the world and the reality of Vietnam. Keywords: Civil procedure, due process, rights of due process, human rights. References: [1] Rhonda Wasserman, Procedural Due Process: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.[2] E. Thomas Sullivan and Toni M. Massaro, The Arc of Due Process in American Constitutional Law, Oxford University Press, 2013.[3] Khoa Luật Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, Giáo trình Luật tố tụng dân sự Việt Nam, NXB. Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội.[4] European Court of Human Rights (2013), Guide to Article 6: The Right to a Fair Trial (Civil Limb), http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_6_ENG.pdf.[5] C.H. Van Rhee & Alan Uzelac (eds.), Truth and Efficiency in Civil Litigation: Fundamental Aspects of Fact-Finding and Evidence-Taking in a Comparative Context, Intersentia, 2012, pp. 5-6.    


Author(s):  
Alderí Souza De Matos

Latin America is a significant part of the so-called two-thirds world. During the twentieth century, the region witnessed the vigorous growth of the Protestant churches. One of them is the Presbyterian communion, whose first congregations were established in the 1850s. For more than a century, Presbyterian denominations in the United States and Scotland made an enormous investment in the evangelization of Latin America. Nevertheless, despite their significant presence in Mexico and Brazil, Presbyterian churches represent a small percentage of the region’s total Protestant constituency. They have, however, made contributions to society that are out of proportion to their numbers. Besides their important spiritual and ethical emphases, they have impacted countless individuals, families, and communities through their educational and medical efforts. Their greatest challenge today is to establish clear priorities and devote their energies to strengthening Presbyterian work in the countries they have already reached and implanting their faith in the areas where it is absent. Latin American Presbyterians are convinced that the Reformed faith can greatly benefit their part of the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 691-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Valladares ◽  
Ricardo Simões ◽  
Wanderley Bernardo ◽  
Ana Carolina Basso Schmitt ◽  
Maria Regina A. Cardoso ◽  
...  

SUMMARY BACKGROUND: Hypovitaminosis D is considered a global public health issue. Knowledge of its true dimensions will allow us to design interventions and plan preventive measures that can have a significant impact on human health. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D, defined as a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration < 30 ng/ml, in postmenopausal women around the world, as well as to identify the potential associated factors. METHODS: A systematic review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses recommendations. Specific search terms were consulted in Medline, Excerpta Medica, and Latin-American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature databases, with no restriction for the year or language of publication. RESULTS: Of 451 studies initially identified, 32 were selected for analysis. Collectively, those 32 studies evaluated 21,236 postmenopausal women, of whom 16,440 (77.4%) had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations < 30 ng/ml. The reported prevalence of hypovitaminosis D ranged from 29% (in the United States) to 99.4% (in China). In six of the studies, the prevalence was above 90%. CONCLUSIONS: If the criterion is the 30 ng/ml cut-off point, the majority of postmenopausal women in the world could be classified as having hypovitaminosis D. Among the studies evaluated, the lowest prevalence reported was nearly 30%. Neither latitude, region of the world, nor laboratory methodology were found to be associated with the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D.


1985 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiza Beth Fernandes

Recently, considerable attention — both within the United States and around the world — has been focused on the role and involvement of the Catholic church in worldly problems related to peace, the nuclear threat, the economy, and education. Of particular importance is the Latin American scene. In this article, Luiza Fernandes discusses the evolving role and the increasing involvement of the Catholic church on behalf of the poor and persecuted in what is considered the largest Catholic country in the world — Brazil. She focuses on what are known as Basic Ecclesiastic Communities, which were developed in Brazil within the Catholic church and now number over 80,000. Based partially on her own experience with these communities, Fernandes describes their function and the concerns of the participants. She stresses the interaction of politics, religion, and education and the role of the latter two in understanding and challenging the inhuman and unjust conditions under which the vast majority of Brazilians live today.


Author(s):  
Pablo J. López ◽  
Marcelo Rougier

This chapter shows that, although the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) mandate remained unchanged over the course of over fifty years from its creation, the Bank’s lending policies in Latin America changed over time, consistent with the prevailing policy framework in developed countries. Unlike in other multilateral development banks (MDB) with a presence in the region—especially the World Bank—Latin American countries played a bigger role in the IADB’s decision-making process from the very moment the regional bank was created. However, donor countries, in particular the United States, enforced IADB policy guidelines, with a varying degree of conflict over the different periods. The authors establish that the institution underwent a transition phase, which began in the 1980s, marking a move away from a developmental role associated with state-led industrialization processes. The IADB became a supporter of liberalization and deregulation policies in the 1990s and then, from the 2008‒9 global crisis, played a new active role for development.


1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell H. Fitzgibbon

“Do not give to a people institutions for which it is unripe in the simple faith that the tool will give skill to the workman's hand. Respect Facts. Man is in each country not what we may wish him to be, but what Nature and History have made him.” Bryce, Modern Democracies, I, 206.With minor exceptions, the panorama of constitutional growth in the Western Hemisphere reveals two main streams. The United States Constitution, the British North America Act of 1867 (which is the Canadian fundamental law), and the organic laws of the various New World British possessions of today all stem, obviously, from English constitutional and institutional ancestry. The constitutions of the twenty Latin American states, on the other hand, all reflect in varying degree the experience and institutions of their three mother countries. These modern constitutions are, it is true, influenced by alien examples at one point or another, but the core is undubitably Latin. More narrowly, the inspiration is Hispanic; and still more narrowly, Spanish.It is not easy to explain in detail the degree of similarity between French political institutions and those of the Iberian peninsula in the centuries between the emergence of the several national states and the political revolutions in Latin America. At least, the French belonged to a not unrelated family. A much closer relationship is easily discernible among the political institutions of the three main Iberian entities that ultimately became the national states of Spain and Portugal, viz., Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. It is often forgotten that for many generations no political or constitutional “Spain” existed, that Aragon and Castile were as distinct from each other in most ways as either of them was from Portugal, that an easily possible union of the ruling houses of Castile and Portugal—supplanting the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand—might have changed the whole subsequent course of history.


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