Brazilian Political Science Review

11-29

Authors: Renato Boschi & Flávio Gaitán

The present article discusses the conditions for the adoption of development strategies in Latin America in the aftermath of the neoliberal reforms, focusing specifically on the role of political institutions as a component of the productive regimes in selected countries. Development is treated as an endogenous process, which is shaped over time in terms of trajectories that are continuously redefined according to specific political conjunctures. Having moved from restricted democracies or authoritarian regimes and autarchic economies to mass democracies operating in the context of open economies after the market-oriented reforms, persistent structural inequalities presently constitute the major axis framing the definition of development policies. More so than in advanced countries where the State is treated as epiphenomenon of their respective productive regimes, in the case of the Latin American semi-periphery the State is the crucial actor for the reversal of vicious circles and negative complementarities stemming from the extreme structural and social inequalities within and between countries in the region. Following a brief discussion on development and economic growth in the definition of the post-neoliberal agenda, the article examines institutional indicators for economic performance of contemporary governmental coalitions in selected countries, focusing on State policies favouring development such as financing, technological innovation, training of labour and social policies. Next, we concentrate on the analysis of political institutions and the role of political elites capable of generating national projects for sustainable development strategies, showing some of the differences between these countries. We conclude with a brief discussion on the adequacy of contemporary political economy approaches to understand processes of capitalist transformation in the periphery, calling attention to the need for a redefined regional perspective on development issues.

60-97

Authors: Clarissa Dri

The Mercosur Parliament was created in 2005 to represent the peoples of the region. The constitutive documents affirm the necessity of reinforcing and deepening integration and democracy within Mercosur through an efficient and balanced institutional structure. In order to examine the potential role of the Parliament in strengthening the institutional framework of the bloc, this paper aims to analyze its first years of activities. What is the institutionalization degree reached by the assembly so far? The research is grounded on the idea that the more institutionalized the legislature is, the more it will influence the political system. The article carries a comparative approach that considers the earliest steps of the European Parliament. In terms of methodology, the qualitative analysis is based on documental research and on some direct observations of Mercosur Parliament’s meetings. The main conclusions are related to the restricted level of institutionalization of this new assembly, in spite of its innovative features regarding the Mercosur structure, and to its proximity with the initial period of the European Parliament.

127-154

Authors: Janina Onuki, Pedro Feliú Ribeiro & Amâncio Jorge Oliveira

The aim of this article is to discuss the distribution of preferences of members of the Chilean and Argentinian Congresso n foreign policy issues through the analysis of roll call votes. This goal is guided by the debate in Latin American literature concerning the decision-making process in foreign policy. The predominant argument focuses on the Executive as the principal decision-maker, disregarding the Legislative as relevant in this field. Thus, legislators would tend to abdicate from their preferences in determining foreign policy. Confronting this argument, we have many studies emphasizing the importance of domestic actors in the foreign policy decision-making process. This article proposes to analyse two case studies in comparative perspective: the lower houses of the national parliaments of Argentina and Chile. The result is that the party ideology is a relevant explanatory favor of deputies’ votes. Although the argument is more evident for the Chilean case, it is possible to argue that there is a similar pattern to the structuring of deputies’ votes in the two countries, both on the domestic and on the international arena. The methodology used makes it possible to infer legislators’ preferences by means of roll call votes and of the construction of maps of deputies’ ideal points in foreign policy terms, as well as the correlation between Chilean and Argentinian parties’ ideological classifications. Votes on foreign policy questions during the 2002-2006/2007 legislatures are considered.

11-39

Authors: Maria Celina D’Araujo & Camila Romero Lameirão

We focus here on a new theme among studies on the Social Sciences in Brazil, namely, the presence of social scientists in high-level office in the federal government, whether as directors or advisers. In general, studies on the social sciences in Brazil are devoted to examining the academic profile of their founders, the contents prioritized in the disciplines, processes of institutionalization and methodologies adopted, among other aspects. However, there has never been an examination of the place of the social scientist in the division of labour of the state bureaucracy, in the market and close to those in power. By means of empirical research, we have ascertained that individuals with this academic background have a notable presence in the Lula da Silva government (2003-2006; 2007- ). Our hypothesis is that this presence cannot be explained chiefly by the specificity of the knowledge produced by this set of disciplines. Instead, one has to look at other variables, especially social scientists’ link with the public service.

58-92

Authors: Gustavo Biscaia Lacerda

The article presentes a comparison between some aspects of the socio-political theories of Auguste Comte and John Rawls. Its aim is to highlight certain elements that approximate and distance the two authors from one another in terms of political objectives and theoretical-methodological procedures, particularly on the basis of the Comtean perspective. The result is surprising: applying the mutatis mutandis methodological clause, i.e., considering the different socio-political contexts, there are more elements that approximate Rawls to Comte than elements that distance them from one another. After the introduction, an argument in favour of comparison as an analytic resource is presented: next, some aspects of Rawl’s thought, then of Comte’s, are set out. I conclude with a comparative assessment of the two.

104-128

Authors: Sérgio Praça

This essay critically analyses how historical institutionalists and rational choice scholars study institutional stability and change. Special attention is paid to the thorny issued of how political actors’ preferences are formed, with historical institutionalists considering preferences as endogenously formed, and rational choice analysts postulating that preferences are fixed and exogenous. An argument is made in favour of the perspective that considers preferences as being formed within the functioning of the political system over time, endogenously. The essay also proposes the incorporation of ideas and non-decisions as tools to elucidate processes of change.