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This paper discusses the political and institutional factors that shaped the emergence and consolidation of a universal health system (SUS) in Brazil after the transition to democracy in the late 1980s. It argues that a combination of political incentives and political, fiscal and institutional capacities have been at the root of the process of creating such a system. First, the political incentives have been associated with a competitive political system leading a race to serve poor constituencies and to the policy communities and activists within and outside the state. SUS benefitted from this political dynamic and thus became politically sustainable. Second, fiscal capacity and sustainability have been secured by a massive increased taxation and earmarked social expenditures. Third, the system´s success stems from the institutional capacity to run a complex decentralized system. The system appears to reach its limit in terms of the capacity to extend coverage in a context where there is universal formal entitlement to health, but some 30 per cent of the population has access to private insurance. Despite many improvements, many challenges continue to beset the delivery of health care in Brazil, and addressing them adequately will require significant policy changes, not only additional resources. However, finding resources has proven increasingly costly politically and improvements will have to be achieved through efficiency gains. Politically, this is a situation of a zero sum game rather than that of the positive game typical of coverage expansion. Most importantly, the perceived increased personal risks are leading citizens to support creating new resources for the system and for policies to improve the quality of care. A new window of opportunity thus seems to have been opened.

AbstractWhen did liberal political theory, or perhaps liberal political economy, begin? Although many would trace their beginnings to the writings of Adam Smith, David Hume, or perhaps John Locke, in fact many of the propositions we today recognize as forming the core of liberalism were articulated in the first half of the seventeenth century by an unduly neglected group called the Levellers and their leader John Lilburne. In this essay, I first give some historical background and context to the Levellers and Lilburne. Next, I articulate several of their liberal positions, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of commerce and trade, and I examine their justifications for these positions, which I argue were both novel and radical. I conclude by exploring the contemporary relevance of the Levellers and argue that they should be considered as among liberalism's most important founders.

This paper sought to outline mechanisms for selecting high quality leaders into public office having identified the failure of political leadership as the bane of economic development and democracy in Africa. In the first stage of the screening process, certain elements of costs are imposed on the intending politicians so as to deter the entry of dishonest politicians into politics. This is accomplished via the inverse relationship between the degree of honest and the costs of participation. The unique thing is that separating equilibrium that makes participation costs zero for honest individuals and heavy for their dishonest counterparts could in principle be obtained. Interestingly the mechanisms that generate information about the past of intending politicians also impose heavy costs on groups which supply this information. This process should yield an equilibrium that includes only honest and competent politicians in the political system, leading to more accelerate economic development.

To comply with ideals of multiculturalism and diversity, postsecondary institutions incorporate Latino students into distinct campus cultures. These cultures influence how students interact with one another, the university community at large, and communities outside of campus, ultimately shaping how students inhabit Latino politics. Drawing on data from 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork with six student organizations and 60 in-depth interviews, I compare Latino student organizations in a liberal arts college, a research university, and a regional public university. Building on inhabited institutional theory, I identify dimensions of campus cultures that work in interaction with students to produce three divergent forms of ethnic political expression: deliberative, divisive, and contentious. Inhabited institutionalism helps explain why Latino politics takes distinct forms in specific academic contexts and suggests that strong collegiate incorporation may paradoxically serve to suppress Latino student engagement in political activism outside the campus gates.

The starting point of this article is the complexity of the current political panorama of religion. In Latin America, religion is present in manifestations of political agents as well as politics are present in religious expressions. Before a diversity of existent models, this article analyzes the Brazilian situation. Religiosity is an indelible characteristic of the Brazilian people. The historic heritage of Catholicism and the growth of Pentecostal Evangelical Churches reveal the laicism of State as an incomplete and fragile process. Civil society presupposes an existence of citizens who are, also, religious. These assumptions raise two fundamental questions: considering that religions are expressions of pluralism of national identities that shape citizenship, how can one give meaning for the presence of religion in politics? How can a religion find its adequate spot in politics without damaging the laicism of State and without secularizing/politicalizing itself? This article contributes to this discussion

Political sensitivity is always a challenge for the scholar doing fieldwork in nondemocratic and transitional systems, especially when doing surveys and quantitative research. Not only are more research topics likely to be politically sensitive in these systems, but in trying to collect precise and unbiased data to give us a quantitative description of a population, we are sometimes doing exactly what the government – and sometimes certain members of that population -- would like to prevent. In this chapter, I discuss some of the methodological and ethical issues that face researchers working in these contexts and describe strategies for dealing with these issues. I argue that in these contexts a "socially embedded" approach to survey research that carefully attends to the social relationships inherent in the survey research process can help alleviate problems of political sensitivity, protect participants and researchers in the survey research process, and maximize data quality.

It is generally recognized that Adam Smith argued in The Wealth of Nations in favor of independence for the American colonies. The explicit grounds on which Smith based this argument have not been held to close
scrutiny, however. In recent years, Donald Winch has attempted to right the
balance between studies of Smith's economics and his politics. Which raised
the following questions : Did Smith favor independence of the American
colonies on political or economic grounds ? Since Smith was not always
explicit in this regard, what particular grounds can be inferred from what is
generally known about Smith's politics and/or his economics ?
This paper analyzes and explains the grounds for Smith's argument in favor or American independence. It adopts a holistic approach that seeks to integrate Smith's political and economic thought, and utilizes a benefit-cost framework to explicate Smith's final position on the question of American independence.

The political challenge to the post-World War II order in shipping has been issued in the context of the North-South debate, but American power and interest are central to current developments. In the bulk and tanker sector the United States retains a strong interest in stability and successfully defends the existing order. In the liner sector, on the other hand, the United States has participated in recent assaults on the postwar order, producing great tension between Europe and America. There is a strong correlation between this growing maritime conflict and the political processes anticipated by the general theory of hegemonic stability. But "hegemony" and "power" are distinct concepts. Instability in international shipping arises neither from America's loss of power in shipping nor from challenges from Europe and the Third World. Rather, instability reflects American attempts to establish a closer identity between the existing regime and short-term national interest.

Research on the political implications of economic conditions is separated into two relatively distinct bodies of literature. I bridge the theoretical gap between them by examining the effects of economic crisis on electoral outcomes in Latin America from 1982 to 1990. An analysis of 21 competitive elections indicates that crisis conditions undermine support for incumbents and provoke high levels of electoral volatility but without necessarily fostering the growth of political extremism or the exhaustion of elite consensus associated with the breakdown of democracy. The results also suggest that the relationship between economic conditions and electoral instability is mediated by party system structure rather than democratic age. Paradoxically, the findings buttress prior research on electoral outcomes in the comparatively stable and homogeneous Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations while undercutting theoretical frameworks elaborated with specific reference to the breakdown and consolidation of Third World democracy.

This paper is in closed access. ; The essay examines various communication strategies for advocating acceptance of climate science in the face of psychological and ideological impediments. It surveys some key literature, offers case studies of Lego, Shell, Greenpeace, Edelman, and public relations, and culminates with a hortatory logic based on the recent Papal encyclical. The focus is on issues pertaining to the United States but with examples and ideas from elsewhere.

Review: Reigning the River: Urban Ecologies and Political Transformation in Kathmandu

Historians have traditionally turned to free trade and laissez faire to explain the development of political economy during the Enlightenment. Reinert argues that economic emulation was the prism through which philosophers, ministers, reformers, and merchants thought about imperialism, economics, industry, and reform in the early modern period.

Die Forschung zur digitalen Spaltung (Digital Divide) oder auch Beteiligungsspaltung (Participation Divide) hat diverse Voraussetzungen einer partizipativen Internetnutzung untersucht. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei eine immer größere Vielzahl förderlicher "Literacies" oder Kompetenzen. Um einer zunehmenden Unübersichtlichkeit dieses Forschungsfelds entgegenzutreten, haben erste konzeptionelle Studien das umfassendere Konzept der "digitalen Mündigkeit" vorgeschlagen. Basierend auf einer interdisziplinären Literaturanalyse erarbeitet der vorliegende Beitrag eine Definition der "digitalen Mündigkeit", und führt das Konzept durch eine entsprechende Operationalisierung erstmals einer empirischen Analyse zu. Basierend auf einer Befragung von 1.044 deutschen Internetnutzenden wird der Einfluss der digitalen Mündigkeit - neben soziodemographischen Faktoren, politischer Orientierung und Regierungsvertrauen - auf die politische Online-Beteiligung untersucht.