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Begin New Search Topic International Relations Political Geography South America Publishing Institution Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

1. Las condicionantes internas de la política exterior de Brasil y México

Author:
Jorge A. Schiavon and Octavio Amorim Neto
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
Brazil's foreign policy is an example of continuity, while Mexico's foreign policy is characterized by change. The foreign policy of both countries is conditioned by both international and domestic variables. This working paper describes and explains comparatively the way in which the domestic politics of Brazil and Mexico are key factors in determining their foreign policies. The document is divided in two sections. The first and more important analyzes the mechanisms through which domestic institutional, economic, and political variables impact and determine the foreign policies of both countries; this section is divided in two parts, one on Brazil and the other on Mexico. The second section explores the consequences of domestic institutions in Brazil's and Mexico's foreign policies in the adminstrations of Vicente Fox y Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after they took office in 2000 y 2003 respectively, using both cases to discuss the central findings of this research.
Topic:
International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, Central America, and Mexico

2. The Central-Local Division of Power in the Americas and the Renewed Mexican Federalism (Old Institutions, New Political Realities)

Author:
Jorge A. Schiavon
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This research paper explores whether the central-local division of power is an important institutional variable in the operation of political systems in the Americas. It develops a typology of central-local divisions of power in the hemisphere based on two specific characteristics that differentiate them (federal-unitary and centralized-decentralized), and discusses the relevance of the institutional and partisan configurations of the system in the workings of this variable. Then, it constructs a veto gates and veto players model in order to analyze the causal mechanism through which the centrallocal division of power impacts political systems in the Americas. It then presents two examples (with variations in time and space) to support the argument that the central-local division of power's relevance depends on its type, the institutional configuration, and party composition of the system. In doing so, it analyses the Mexican federal system, arguing that renewed Mexican federalism and its consequences in terms of democratic governance and the efficient provision of public policies is a result of the concurrence of old institutions with the new political reality, that is, the intersection of the old institutional framework and the new partisan configurations of the Mexican political system.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
America and South America

3. The World in their Minds. Geopolitical Thought and Inter-State Conflict in South America's Southern Cone

Author:
Farid Kahhat
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The overall topic of this paper is the relationship between regime type (e g, democratic or authoritarian) and foreign policy orientation (i.e., relative proneness towards conflict and cooperation) for South America's Southern Cone from the 1970s into the 1990s. its specific purpose is to offer an explanation of the relationship between regime type and foreign policy orientation in the 1970s. I will argue that, unlike what we would expect from a balance of power perspective, political regime is indeed crucial to understanding foreign policy orientation in the case under scrutiny. But I will suggest that changes in foreign policy orientation within the region in the last decade or so might owe more to the vanishing of authoritarian regimes than to the return of democratically elected leaders. However, I will not make universal claims about authoritarian regimes. I suggest, rather, that the pervasive influence that a geopolitically driven discourse of international politics had over the military establishments within the region is crucial to understand the relative conflict proneness of the authoritarian regimes that prevailed during the 1970's.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa and South America