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This article offers a comparative perspective on judicial involvement in policy change in Latin America during the last decade and a half. Drawing on the literature on new institutionalism and the judicialisation of politics, and on case studies from Latin America's two largest countries, we propose a comparative framework for analysing the judicialisation of policy in the region. On the basis of this framework, we argue that institutional structure is a primary determinant of patterns of the judicialisation of policy. In particular, institutional characteristics of the legal system affect the way political actors fight to achieve their policy objectives and the kinds of public justifications used to defend policy reform.

An overview of environmental policy in Brazil since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019 suggests that the rise to power of a new political elite has led to a radical change in Brazil's trajectory of climate change initiatives and environmental protection. The new elite is associated with the disruption of two factors historically relevant for the design of environmental policy: the participation of civil society in the governance of public policy and multilateralism in matters of environment policy. Uma análise das políticas ambientais brasileiras desde a tomada de posse de Jair Bolsonaro da presidência da República em Janeiro 2019 constata que o aparecimento de uma nova elite política acarretou em uma alteração radical na trajetória do Brasil com respeito às suas iniciativas sobre a mudança climática e a preservação ambiental. Houve uma perturbação de dois fatores por causa desta elite política que eram historicamente importantes pela elaboração de políticas ambientais: a participação de organizações de sociedade civil na governança de políticas públicas e o multilateralismo.

In the contemporary era, societies are divided, and political polarization is increasing. One of the most powerful instruments the government can use is general standard education, specifically citizenship education. We will look at the case of Estonia, because Estonia's main political cleavage is the ethnic cleavage between the Estonian and the Russophone community. Our main research question is as follows: How would it be possible to use democratic citizenship education to decrease in the future the socio-economic inequality between different communities in Estonia? We will outline the context of ethnic socio-economic inequality in Estonia and show how these differences have been at least partially influenced by the current education system in Estonia and how citizenship education can be used to reduce these inequalities in the future. We will conduct an empirical analysis of the curriculum, and this will be followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews. In the discussion, we will make suggestions to the current Estonian citizenship education policy and offer various insights into tackling this issue ; This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857366.

The impact of social inequality on children has enormous implications for young people throughout their life journey by negatively impacting their health, well-being and life chances. Following the democratisation of Brazil, significant change resulted in improvements to the social welfare and health care systems, which had begun to address long-standing social and health problems. This article critically explores the implications of current retrograde right-wing populist political government policies for Brazilian children within the context of efforts to reduce income inequality and improve the life chances of children. While recognising the enormous challenges of poverty, racial discrimination, precarity and socio-economic conditions, social work has recognised that the enactment of the profession requires political engagement and action against all inequality in professional practice. The implications of retrogressive policy are explored, and the authors call upon the profession globally to recognise these structural socio-economic challenges and question whether social work can afford not to be engaged in seeking change.

El presente trabajo intenta abarcar el arco que va de la actual discusión acerca de los resultados de PISA a las tareas desarrolladas por el Consejo Alemán de Educación (Deutscher Bildungsrat) en las décadas de 1960 y 1970. Al mismo tiempo, se buscará dar una mirada a la investigación realizada por la OCDE en la República Federal de Alemania años antes del relevamiento de PISA de 1999-2000. En el mencionado espacio temporal, se había instalado en Alemania la conciencia de que era de toda necesidad una reforma educativa. Fue esta la idea que promovió la fundación del Consejo de Educación, cuya misión era, ante todo, la de fomentar una reforma educativa a nivel fundamental. Por ello, cobra importancia aclarar las razones de la persistencia de la "miseria educativa" en Alemania y las causas que llevaron al fracaso de las propuestas del Consejo de Educación. Una razón de peso es la que se deja ver en la relación – hasta hoy conflictiva – entre las ciencias de la educación y la política alemanas. ; The article covers the time from the present discussion on the results of the PISA study back to the German Educational Council of the 1960s and 70s, including the OECD study of the Federal Republic of Germany which preceded the PISA survey of 1999-2000. During that period,. Germany, too, was characterized by a conviction that the German educational system was in need of a reform of both head and limbs. This insight led to the foundation of the German Educational Council, the main task of which was to initiate a fundamental educational reform. This raises the question of why the plight of German education could continue for so long and why the German Educational Council did not succeed in putting through its reforms. One of the main reasons seems to be the relation between German educational science and politics, which, even today, is not the best. ; Grupo de Investigación FORCE (Formación Centrada en la Escuela) Universidad de Granada

C. Jencks's Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America (New York: Basic Books, 1972) is an example of social policy research which is also policy advocacy or normative political argument. His empirical analysis of the short-term & long-term effects of education is aimed at discrediting the "equality of opportunity" model for reducing social & economic inequality. He argues that we must move from concern with "equality of opportunity" to direct emphasis on "equality of results." Jencks cannot make a convincing case, however, because of a failure to pay sufficient attention to underlying normative assumptions concerning both the meaning of the concepts of equality & equality of opportunity & the nature & purpose of education. His argument is fundamentally misdirected because of a lack of awareness of the normative implications of both the position he is attacking & the position he is advocating. Because of the role of social science as a legitimating symbol in debates over educational policy, it is particularly incumbent upon policy analysts to clarify their own normative assumptions & to justify them in terms of a larger theoretical framework. Policy research as policy advocacy is likely to fail as long as it neglects fundamental issues in normative political theory. Modified HA.

Abstract This paper aims to estimate the long-term impacts of an austerity policy in the Brazilian regions. Our main contribution is to measure those effects using a dynamic interregional general equilibrium model, capturing the indirect impacts in sectors and regions, in addition to the direct effects of the expenditure cuts. The main results show that the fiscal adjustment would attenuate growth in most of the Brazilian states by 2037. Municipalities located in the poorest regions would be relatively more affected. Furthermore, the adjustment would have a negative impact on regional inequalities in all scenarios, both at the state and municipal levels.

Histories of Brazilian media regulation typically emphasize a major transformation with the passing of the federal constitution in 1988, contrasting censorship during the military period of 1964‒1985 with age rating, or "indicative classification," thereafter. Contemporary conflicts among child advocates, television broadcasters, and the state as monitor of the industry's self-regulation are grounded in a much longer history of age rating in popular media. Drawing on an examination of files from Brazil's Ministry of Justice and interviews with current examiners, this article provides a history of age ratings for television in Brazil and of the processes by which classification decisions are made. We argue that the desire to limit young people's access to television through age ratings has had significant ramifications in Brazil, evident in the formation of legal regimes, reform of institutional practices, and even the revision of time zones.