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Nora Rabotnikov's book, En busca de un lugar comun (In Search of a Common Space) covers s diversity of theory & practice, but the central problem she tackles is how to recover the collective, common, & general dimensions of the public. She first reviews Kant's project on the public & then comments on the views of Reinhart Koselleck, Hannah Arendt, Juergen Habermas, & Niklas Luhmann on the recovery of the public space. It appears that the public has been eliminated in the modern system of first person, agent, & subject. Rabotnikof elaborates on the three main obstacles to the construction of the public space -- the anti-political temptation, Mafioso realism, & confusion between moral & moralism; these could be said to constitute the closed & steel circuit of amoralism in theory & practice. Rabotnikof at times succumbs to this circuit & at other times avoids it. M. Pflum

The electoral contest for the presidency of Mexico in 2006 is analyzed by means of an agent-based computer model. By conceiving the contest as a complex, adaptable system it is possible to formally study the forming of preferences based on political discussion networks. Certain statistical regularities observed at the district level can be replicated with the model. In particular, the model accurately reproduces the frequency of percentages of votes received by the three main candidates. Similarly, evidence is presented that the discussion networks and the influence of the media are critical in explaining the volatility observed in individual preferences throughout the campaign. Adapted from the source document.

Some democracies around the world -- including those from Latin America -- present equal or higher levels of state repression than the global mean of autocratic regimes. Despite the political and normative relevance of this phenomenon, comparative research on democratic repression is scanty and poorly systematized. Introducing the distinction between centralized and decentralized state repression, and considering advances derived from the global agenda and area studies of Latin America, this article presents a review of theories and empirical explanations that can contribute to the construction of a theory of democratic state repression. Moreover, this paper presents a catalog about the challenges related to the processes of theory generation and empirical evaluation, and offers alternatives to those challenges. The main conclusion is that modeling the use of state violence in terms of principal-agent relations (elected politicians-state security agencies, state security agencies-citizenship) LA-area studies offer fruitful analytical tools for comparative research on democratic state repression. Adapted from the source document.

An attempt is made to delimit a nongovernmental public space in relation to state & market spheres, based on a restatement of the relationships between individuals, community, & society. The author's intention is to systematize society as well as the new values of the new citizens' political culture, the structure of political agents, & new mediation forms of vested interests. The subject is indeed relevant, not only because of knowledge, but also as a standing proposal that is expanding in the whole world. It conceives a new social order based on social cooperation & evenness, introduced as an alternative for the democratization of social life as well as of economic institutions & state institutions. 11 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper discusses the circumstances & incentives that lead some dictators to create or maintain judicial institutions in their regimes. A game theory model is thus developed with partial data in which it is assumed that dictators are agents seeking to maximize revenues by means of taxes. The model reveals that there are two key factors accounting for the creation of parliaments: a greater share of mobile capital in the economy & a dictator with a high discount factor. They both increase the likelihood of creating such an institution. There are two other implications resulting from the model & which are confirmed in the empirical part: dictatorships with parliaments levy lesser tax rates & increase investment levels. 5 Tables, 1 Figure, 2 Appendixes. Adapted from the source document.

This article deals with Burke's complex political thinking. On the one hand, he is a whig defending some of the basic principles which were to be developed by nineteenth-century liberalism. On the other hand, his criticism of the French Revolution and its main agents, as well as his exaltation of the traditional Constitution, provide a significant part of the arguments we will find later among conservatives and counterrevolutionaries. This article also points out the fact that, among the extensive Burkean bibliography, some classical works are still essential: Leo Strauss is unavoidable in order to understand Burke's hostility towards theory; Pocock has proficiently dealt with Burke's connections and differences with the Scottish School; and Meinecke is essential in order to analyze the supposed traditionalism and historicism of the British thinker. Adapted from the source document.

The article is based on the assumption that Political Science has not produced a satisfactory explanation for the way that the different proportional electoral formulas (D'Hondt, Ste. Lague.) really work. This is the reason why a new theory is offered. The theory is informative (about the bias) & more uniform, clearer & whole that the former ones. In others words: systematic. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

"Solid analysis of reform proposals for Ecuadorian social security system in context of theory and experience of other countries. Argues against privatization based on Chilean model"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57

The purpose of this work is to assess how the public agenda setting is influenced by a variety of factors, such as competing issues, cultural change, mass media, the actual condition of problems, & particular interests & values. From a conceptual perspective, this study is based on theories such as the theory of the attention cycle of public issues, the theory of cultural change in a post-materialist sense, & the agenda-setting theory. In order to survey the impact produced on agenda-setting by the said factors, the authors use aggregate & particular data from Spain & other European Union countries, including temporal series. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

In this article I empirically test three of the most significant theories about the emergence of a European identity. The three approaches considered here are, respectively: first, a "cultural" theory, which understands identities as being based on ethno-cultural factors generated through a long-term (historical) process; second, an "instrumental" theory, which conceives of identities as being based on self-interested calculation (whether economic or political); & a third "civic" theory, which understands identities as being based on agreement over rules for peaceful political co-existence. I also pay attention to a general common preoccupation, within these theories: the relation between citizens' European & national identities. The empirical test of these theories exploits Eurobarometer data. In recent years, many researchers have become increasingly dissatisfied with the way these surveys poll attitudes towards the EU. The article contributes to this debate by designing special new questions to measure national & European identities which were included in Eurobarometer 57.2 & are used here for this analysis. The results provide only partial support for the theories mentioned above. None of them is completely correct, although some parts apply either to the national or the supra-national level. The article points also to the factors that make national & European identities compatible (or inclusive), & the factors that explain why these two identities are more compatible in some countries than in others. Tables, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article verifies the relevance of a specific political vice, namely, flattery, in John Locke's political thought. It is shown that for Locke flattery originates in learned agents whom incite aspirants to political power, appealing to the pride that typically characterizes them. This political vice, therefore, endangers the survival of political regimes of limited & decentralized powers since it incites, by catering to pride, an unchecked desire for power & domination over others. In this way, the importance of citizens' capacity to contain passions & vices, which pertains besides to Locke's moral & educational philosophies, is clarified in view of the construction & maintenance of a limited regime, based on the consent of the governed, & protective of freedom. 23 References. Adapted from the source document.

Critical theory is based on a group of works by investigators from Germany & the US, particularly associated with the Frankfurt school, which approach Marxism, psychoanalysis, & anthropology from a critical perspective. For critical theory, the necessity of sensual human happiness becomes an inseparable part of the emancipatory revolution of human society. In contradistinction to a culture of the masses, cultural industry, a product of administration & planning, is proposed. The tension between imagination & daily life is resolved in the form of routine. Work time & leisure time are fused in a process that subordinates temporal awareness to consumption. Progressive technical domination becomes a means of repressing the masses. P. Farrell

This article analyses the viability of Benford's Law in the forensic study of the detection of electoral frauds. According to this law, the initial digits of a set of numbers follow a logarithmic distribution as long as the data has not been disturbed. Implementation of this law in socioeconomic data -or in other types of data -- depends on the presence of a two-fold randomized process: events of a distribution, and probability distributions selected from a reduced group. Through agent-based models, it is demonstrated that this law does not offer a robust test to distinguish between clean elections and elections that have been manipulated. In the model-in-question, partisan preferences are modified by means of social transmission and the parameters are calibrated with data from the Mexican 2006 elections. Adapted from the source document.

New decision-making & consulting mechanisms have been created that limit diplomatic agents' traditional field of action. Clear examples are the frequent bilateral, multilateral, regional, or universal meetings in which diverse actors participate. Political parties also develop their own diplomacy & have their own mechanisms of international reach, eg, the International Socialist Party, the International Christian-Democratic Party, & the International Liberal Party. Most of this unofficial diplomacy is done through the intense international labor of nongovernmental organizations & mass media (media diplomacy). In sum, the technological development, the great changes of our times, the increasing relationship between nations, societies, & individuals, the phenomena of globalization, the simultaneous participation of multiple actors, & other factors have not only modified the traditional diplomatic functions, but have also impacted the structural, theoretical, ideological, & legal assumptions on which, until now, the international order & diplomatic exercise have been based. Adapted from the source document.