Suchergebnisse

According to the Principal-Agent Theory, the institutional mechanisms of control are considered key elements to counteract corruption, since they provide relevant information to the principal about the actions of the agent and contribute to increased transparency. Based on this theoretical framework, this paper points to the analysis of an empirical issue: how political corruption via party financing is controlled in the Spanish political system. More specifically, this paper tackles the question of why the successive attempts to counteract corruption through party finance reform have failed. With that aim in mind, special attention is given to both the approval process of the Party Finance Act 1987 and the subsequent unsuccessful attempts of reform during the 90's. In each specific context, the impact of the various scandals that occurred, as well as the different interests of the actors involved in the process of decision making (the main political parties) are studied. Finally, this paper states that the current lack of consensus that prevents reform in Spain is explained by the loopholes in the existing law, which represents a structure- induced equilibrium in terms of Shepsle. In other words: the status quo remains because 'not to reform the law' is a point of equilibrium induced by the Party Funding Act itself, which blocks the consensus between the different parties.

Existing case studies of control of political corruption often lack a theoretical framework that can provide for systematic empirical research and comparisons between cases and countries. To remedy this, we apply principal-agent theory qualitatively to study the United Kingdom, with a particular emphasis given to an in-depth study of control measures employed to Parliament, the Executive and political parties. We give a detailed account of the approach undertaken to control political corruption in these risk areas for corruption, and discuss its implications and why some types of measures prevail over others.

En julio de 2016 se cumplen cincuenta años desde la publicación del conocido como Informe Coleman, sin duda, una de las publicaciones de mayor impacto para la sociología de la educación y que estuvo rodeada de una fuerte controversia desde un principio. Este número monográfico de la Revista Internacional de Sociología de la Educación aprovecha dicho aniversario para retomar algunos de los debates generados a partir de sus resultados. Con este primer artículo introductorio se pretende contextualizar esos debates y el propio informe. Para ello se recuerda el marco social y político que dio lugar al estudio de Coleman y sus colaboradores, así como sus objetivos, metodología y las principales cuestiones en él analizadas. Se aborda también el impacto que ha tenido a lo largo de estos cinco decenios. Por último, se sitúa al lector en el principal debate académico y social que suscitó el informe, aquel que gira en torno a la importancia que tiene sobre las desigualdades educativas el origen socioeconómico frente a los factores escolares. Este constituye también el eje principal de la discusión de los otros tres artículos que componen el número.

At the aftermath of the 2008 financial and socio–economic crisis, there had been a boom of nationalist parties in Europe that included anti–immigration measures in their programs. In this study, we analyse the relationship between socioeconomic status and anti–immigrant sentiment at the regional level by using geographically weighted regression. In doing so we use data from the fist years of the financial crisis, when most of European countries were beginning to experience its consequences at an economic, social and political level. Our findings confirm the suitability of spatial analysis to explain regional differences in attitudes towards immigration. Although inter–country or macro–regional comparisons might be useful to explain anti–immigrant sentiments, the general validity of these large–scale geographic areas could be questioned when descending to a regional level. The information provided at the regional level might be useful to identify regions where policy makers should aim integration policies to reduce citizens' negative attitudes towards immigrants.