Economic crisis and democratic consolidation in Spain, 1973-82

This Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy after the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 has been viewed in many ways. Political historians and political scientists generally deem it an outstanding success. Yet many economists and economic historians have been remarkably critical of the process. This article analyses how the long-drawn-out process of democratic consolidation caused policy-makers to neglect other unresolved issues, not least the country's enduring economic crisis which dragged on from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. Lack of political legitimacy, weak governments and, to a certain extent, the perceived requirement for consensus held back the Madrid authorities from tackling head on many of Spain's fundamental problems, especially in the field of economic policy. From the beginnings of the crisis in 1973 until the summer of 1977, when voters went to the polls for the first time in more than four decades, Spain was governed by a series of weak and unstable administrations. In addition, the political authorities were seriously challenged by a resurgent opposition. After June 1977, against a disturbing background of low growth, rising inflation and incipient inflation, the minority centrist government of Adolfo Suárez finally resolved to take firm action

Economic crisis and democratic consolidation in Spain, 1973-82

This Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy after the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 has been viewed in many ways. Political historians and political scientists generally deem it an outstanding success. Yet many economists and economic historians have been remarkably critical of the process. This article analyses how the long-drawn-out process of democratic consolidation caused policy-makers to neglect other unresolved issues, not least the country’s enduring economic crisis which dragged on from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. Lack of political legitimacy, weak governments and, to a certain extent, the perceived requirement for consensus held back the Madrid authorities from tackling head on many of Spain’s fundamental problems, especially in the field of economic policy. From the beginnings of the crisis in 1973 until the summer of 1977, when voters went to the polls for the first time in more than four decades, Spain was governed by a series of weak and unstable administrations. In addition, the political authorities were seriously challenged by a resurgent opposition. After June 1977, against a disturbing background of low growth, rising inflation and incipient inflation, the minority centrist government of Adolfo Suárez finally resolved to take firm action.

Comentarios sobre la Hacienda Pública de la Dictadura de Primo de Rivera

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Hernández Andreu y la crisis de 1929

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Dysfunctional Light-Evoked Regulation of cAMP in Photoreceptors and Abnormal Retinal Adaptation in Mice Lacking Dopamine D4 Receptors

Dopamine is a retinal neuromodulator that has been implicated in many aspects of retinal physiology. Photoreceptor cells express dopamine D4 receptors that regulate cAMP metabolism. To assess the effects of dopamine on photoreceptor physiology, we examined the morphology, electrophysiology, and regulation of cAMP metabolism in mice with targeted disruption of the dopamine D4 receptor gene. Photoreceptor morphology and outer segment disc shedding after light onset were normal in D4 knock-out (D4KO) mice. Quinpirole, a dopamine D2/ D3/D4 receptor agonist, decreased cAMP synthesis in retinas of wild-type (WT) mice but not in retinas of D4KO mice. In WT retinas, the photoreceptors of which were functionally isolated by incubation in the presence of exogenous glutamate, light also suppressed cAMP synthesis. Despite the similar inhibition of cAMP synthesis, the effect of light is directly on the photoreceptors and independent of dopamine modulation, because it was unaffected by application of the D4 receptor antagonist L-745,870. Nevertheless, compared with WT retinas, basal cAMP formation was reduced in the photoreceptors of D4KO retinas, and light had no additional inhibitory effect. The results suggest that dopamine, via D4 receptors, normally modulates the cascade that couples light responses to adenylyl cyclase activity in photoreceptor cells, and the absence of this modulation results in dysfunction of the cascade. Dark-adapted electroretinogram (ERG) responses were normal in D4KO mice. However, ERG b-wave responses were greatly suppressed during both light adaptation and early stages of dark adaptation. Thus, the absence of D4 receptors affects adaptation, altering transmission of light responses from photoreceptors to inner retinal neurons. These findings indicate that dopamine D4 receptors normally play a major role in regulating photoreceptor cAMP metabolism and adaptive retinal responses to changing environmental illumination.Fil: Nir, Izhak. The University of Texas Health Science Center; Estados UnidosFil: Harrison, Joseph M.. The University of Texas Health Science Center; Estados UnidosFil: Haque, Rashidul. Emory University School of Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Low, Malcolm J.. Oregon Health and Science University; Estados UnidosFil: Grandy, David K.. Oregon Health and Science University; Estados UnidosFil: Rubinstein, Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Iuvone, P. Michael. Emory University School of Medicine; Estados Unido

An approach to permutation symmetry for the electroweak theory

The form of the leptonic mixing matrix emerging from experiment has, in the last few years, generated a lot of interest in the so-called tribimaximal type. This form may be naturally associated with the possibility of a discrete permutation symmetry ($S_3$) among the three generations. However, trying to implement this attractive symmetry has resulted in some problems and it seems to have fallen out of favor. We suggest an approach in which the $S_3$ holds to first approximation, somewhat in the manner of the old SU(3) flavor symmetry of the three flavor quark model. It is shown that in the case of the neutrino sector, a presently large experimentally allowed region can be fairly well described in this first approximation. We briefly discuss the nature of the perturbations which are the analogs of the Gell-Mann Okubo perturbations but confine our attention for the most part to the $S_3$ invariant model. We postulate that the $S_3$ invariant mass spectrum consists of non zero masses for the $(\tau,b,t)$ and zero masses for the other charged fermions but approximately degenerate masses for the three neutrinos. The mixing matrices are assumed to be trivial for the charged fermions but of tribimaximal type for the neutrinos in the first approximation. It is shown that this can be implemented by allowing complex entries for the mass matrix and spontaneous breakdown of the $S_3$ invariance of the Lagrangian.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, minor corrections and acknowledgment added. To appear in IJM