An Analytical Framework

Why do regional powers such as Brazil, South Africa, or Russia undertake different collective strategies to supply public goods in their regions of influence? When do those states prefer to delegate competences to existent multilateral financial institutions, such as regional development banks (RDBs), and when do they prefer to make use of their own national financial instruments? Why do those states create new RDBs that challenge the existing ones? The article builds and tests a set of hypotheses based on the interplay between capabilities and legitimacy to help answer these questions using contemporary South America as a case study. Through a process tracing analysis carried out for the period 2000–15, the article explains the different strategies undertaken by two states, Brazil and Venezuela, to supply infrastructure in the region, ranging from the use of the Brazilian National Development Bank to the creation of a new Bank of the South. It is suggested that the low capabilities and legitimacy expectations of both states explain the rising importance of external actors in the supply of regional public goods that we are currently witnessing in South America

Development Banks and Regional Powers: An Analytical Framework

Why do regional powers such as Brazil, South Africa, or Russia undertake different collective strategies to supply public goods in their regions of influence? When do those states prefer to delegate competences to existent multilateral financial institutions, such as regional development banks (RDBs), and when do they prefer to make use of their own national financial instruments? Why do those states create new RDBs that challenge the existing ones? The article builds and tests a set of hypotheses based on the interplay between capabilities and legitimacy to help answer these questions using contemporary South America as a case study. Through a process tracing analysis carried out for the period 2000–15, the article explains the different strategies undertaken by two states, Brazil and Venezuela, to supply infrastructure in the region, ranging from the use of the Brazilian National Development Bank to the creation of a new Bank of the South. It is suggested that the low capabilities and legitimacy expectations of both states explain the rising importance of external actors in the supply of regional public goods that we are currently witnessing in South America

Regímenes de Integración Regional: La construcción institucional de los mercados del sur global

The essay introduces the concept of regional integration regime as an analytical tool for the comparative study of integration processes in emergent economies. Using this concept, the author analyzes in first place the historical path of regional integration in South America and Southeast Asia, establishing the structural relations between regional integration and capitalist development. In second place, the institutional characteristics of contemporary integration regimes are described. The paper concludes advancing some hypotheses –based on political economy– about the depth of the integration and the nature of change within these regional regimes.El presente ensayo introduce el concepto de régimen de integración regional como una herramienta analítica para el estudio comparado de los procesos de integración en economías emergentes. A partir de este concepto se analiza el desarrollo histórico de la integración regional centrándose en Sudamérica y el Sudeste Asiático, estableciendo los vínculos estructurales entre integración regional y desarrollo capitalista, para luego describir las características de los regímenes de integración contemporáneos. El artículo finaliza presentando algunas hipótesis desde la economía política acerca de la profundidad de la integración y la naturaleza del cambio en estos regímenes

ENERGÍA DE BAJA INTENSIDAD: gobiernos, mercados e instituciones en el regionalismo energético de América del Sur

A pesar de haber sido considerada un área prioritaria de cooperación, el regionalismo energético sudamericano muestra signos de estancamiento, evidenciados por las infructuosas negociaciones de un Tratado Energético Sudamericano. Este artículo explica la paradoja de por qué, no obstante la voluntad política, las favorables condiciones estructurales para la integración, y la creación de instituciones regionales ad hoc, el regionalismo energético no consiguió pasar de las declaraciones intergubernamentales a la implementación de políticas. Se argumenta que ninguna de las instituciones creadas ha sido capaz de mediar la divergencia entre mercados y entre preferencias gubernamentales. Se requiere por tanto de un nuevo consenso que replantee la necesidad y la capacidad de la región para llevar adelante la agenda de integración energética. A un nivel más general, el caso del sector energético brinda lecciones importantes acerca de los desafíos futuros que enfrenta la cooperación regional en materia de políticas públicas en Sudamérica.Palabras-claves: Regionalismo. América del Sur. Integración energética. UNASUR-IIRSA. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br

El campo de las ciencias sociales en Chile: ¿Convergencia disciplinar en la construcción del objeto de estudio?

El artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación empírica que busca caracterizar el campo de las ciencias sociales en Chile, en el período 2000-2006, en cuanto a su proceso cognitivo, comparando entre las disciplinas. Para ello se constituyó un corpus de 479 publicaciones en las cuales se reportan investigaciones cuyos autores son sociólogos, cientistas políticos y antropólogos. Se analizó la forma en que, en tales investigaciones, se construyen los hechos científicos, en cuanto a encuadramiento paradigmático, construcción teórico conceptual y procedimientos metodológicos

Organizaciones regionales y mecanismos de protección de la democracia en América Latina, el Caribe, y la Unión Europea

How can regional organisations such as the EU, the OAS and UNASUR contribute to the protection of democracy in their respective member states? This study explores the performance of regional organisations in Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union and concludes that governments design democracy protection mechanisms with a strong intergovernmental bias that gives ample political discretion in reacting to eventual violations by offenders. The European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced successive waves of democratisation. Starting from the 1970s, almost all countries in both regions can be qualified as democratic. In several cases, though, these democracies can be labelled as imperfect. Moreover, some countries have experienced instances of anti-democratic involution (in the most extreme cases) or an erosion of democratic institutions. Membership of regional organisations has contributed greatly to transition to democracy and democratic consolidation. Both scholars and political leaders perceive that regional organisations have played a significant role, among other mechanisms through democratic conditionality. In most cases, these regional organisations have included provisions to verify that their member states remain democratic (and/or obey other values such as rule of law). But the relationship between the mechanisms for scrutinising compliance with these values and the performance of the organisation applying them remains underexplored. This study analyses the institutional design of mechanisms of democracy protection (MDPs) in regional organisations in the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. Three elements of the institutional design result particularly relevant: the procedures for activation of MDPs and the role of different actors (i.e. governments and/or autonomous organisation bodies); the mechanism for verification and review; and the type of sanctions in combination with the procedures to adopt them. The study concludes by making the case that intergovernmental decision-making for MDPs leaves ample room for political discretion and suggests a number of possible elements for improving institutional design

El enfoque de las prácticas

Los problemas del desarrollo que enfrenta Chile desde aproximadamente una década son cualitativamente diferentes a los que enfrentó en etapas anteriores. El artículo propone una perspectiva conceptual que sea adecuada al tipo específico de desafíos que tiene actualmente el país. Para ello justifica y define la pertinencia de la perspectiva de las prácticas en relación al análisis del desarrollo. En el pasado el principal desafío de la política y de las políticas públicas consistió en cómo diseñar las transformaciones institucionales y de infraestructura necesarias para desencadenar causalmente los cambios sociales pretendidos por las elites. Hoy, en cambio, las dificultades del desarrollo que enfrenta Chile tienen uno de sus principales orígenes en la persistencia o aparecimiento de fenómenos a nivel de la coordinación de la acción de las personas y grupos que no pueden ser ni adecuadamente observadas ni eficazmente intervenidas desde una perspectiva que relegue las prácticas sociales a un segundo plano. Para fundamentar esta tesis, el artículo expone los fundamentos del enfoque de las prácticas a partir de los aportes conceptuales de diversas teorías elaboradas en las ciencias sociales. Dicho enfoque teórico sustentó las indagaciones empíricas contenidas en el Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 2009.The problems of development faced by Chile since about a decade are qualitatively different from those faced in earlier stages. The article proposes a conceptual perspective that is appropriate to the specific type of challenges that the country currently has. For that, it justifies and defines the relevance of the perspective of practices in regards the analysis of development. In the past, the main challenge of politics and public policy consisted in designing the institutional and infrastructure changes necessary to causally trigger social changes desired by the elites. Today, the development challenges that Chile faces have as one of its main roots the persistence or appearance of phenomena at the level of coordination of action of individuals and groups that can not be adequately or effectively operated or observed from a perspective that relegates social practices to the background. To substantiate this thesis, the article outlines the foundations of the perspective of practices  starting from the conceptual contributions of various theories developed in social sciences. This theoretical approach was on the basis of the empirical research in the 2009 Human Development Report

El enfoque de las prácticas

Los problemas del desarrollo que enfrenta Chile desde aproximadamente una década son cualitativamente diferentes a los que enfrentó en etapas anteriores. El artículo propone una perspectiva conceptual que sea adecuada al tipo específico de desafíos que tiene actualmente el país. Para ello justifica y define la pertinencia de la perspectiva de las prácticas en relación al análisis del desarrollo. En el pasado el principal desafío de la política y de las políticas públicas consistió en cómo diseñar las transformaciones institucionales y de infraestructura necesarias para desencadenar causalmente los cambios sociales pretendidos por las elites. Hoy, en cambio, las dificultades del desarrollo que enfrenta Chile tienen uno de sus principales orígenes en la persistencia o aparecimiento de fenómenos a nivel de la coordinación de la acción de las personas y grupos que no pueden ser ni adecuadamente observadas ni eficazmente intervenidas desde una perspectiva que relegue las prácticas sociales a un segundo plano. Para fundamentar esta tesis, el artículo expone los fundamentos del enfoque de las prácticas a partir de los aportes conceptuales de diversas teorías elaboradas en las ciencias sociales. Dicho enfoque teórico sustentó las indagaciones empíricas contenidas en el Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 2009.The problems of development faced by Chile since about a decade are qualitatively different from those faced in earlier stages. The article proposes a conceptual perspective that is appropriate to the specific type of challenges that the country currently has. For that, it justifies and defines the relevance of the perspective of practices in regards the analysis of development. In the past, the main challenge of politics and public policy consisted in designing the institutional and infrastructure changes necessary to causally trigger social changes desired by the elites. Today, the development challenges that Chile faces have as one of its main roots the persistence or appearance of phenomena at the level of coordination of action of individuals and groups that can not be adequately or effectively operated or observed from a perspective that relegates social practices to the background. To substantiate this thesis, the article outlines the foundations of the perspective of practices  starting from the conceptual contributions of various theories developed in social sciences. This theoretical approach was on the basis of the empirical research in the 2009 Human Development Report

LTE Adaptation for Mobile Broadband Satellite Networks

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Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011