Rights in the Time of Populism: Land and Institutional Change Amid the Reemergence of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in Colombia

In Colombia, right-wing leadership returned to power after winning the presidential elections in 2018 in a campaign in which they opposed the previous government, primarily because of the negotiations and peacemaking with the FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo ‘Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia—People’s Army’), Colombia’s largest guerrilla organization. Globally, there is a vibrant academic debate about how to characterize the current rise of right-wing populism or authoritarianism, but more profound insights from each country’s situation and its political economy implications are needed. The victory in Colombia was due to numerous factors, including the support from some rural elites who have historically obstructed the enforcement of redistributive land policies. However, the populist aspirations of the right-wing government have been persistently frustrated not only by social unrest and political mobilization but also because of the enforcement of institutions previously incorporated into the country’s political scenario. Specifically, in terms of agrarian political economy, two sets of human rights-oriented institutional changes are relevant regarding this matter: (a) the Land Restitution Law enacted in 2011 and (b) the Comprehensive Rural Reform contained in the Agrarian Chapter of the Peace Agreement between the national government and the FARC-EP in 2016. The purpose of this paper is to ground the ongoing theoretical and political debate about the rise of different forms of populism and right-wing authoritarianism in the current Colombian political context, and its implications on the countryside. The analytical contribution of this paper is twofold: On the one hand, I propose an alternative for explaining the nature of the current political regime in Colombia as right-wing authoritarianism; on the other hand, I analyze some features of such regimes in terms of its disputes with the enforcement of human rights-oriented institutions, that are in force as the result of political processes triggered by peasants’ mobilization

Perturbative Four-Point Functions In Planar N=4 SYM From Hexagonalization

We use hexagonalization to compute four-point correlation functions of long BPS operators with special R-charge polarizations. We perform the computation at weak coupling and show that at any loop order our correlators can be expressed in terms of single-valued polylogarithms with uniform maximal transcendentality. As a check of our results we extract nine-loop OPE data and compare it against sum rules of (squared) structures constants of non-protected exchanged operators described by hundreds of Bethe solutions.Comment: 39 pages + appendices, 19 figure

Unstable particles in non-relativistic quantum mechanics?

The Schroedinger equation is up-to-a-phase invariant under the Galilei group. This phase leads to the Bargmann's superselection rule, which forbids the existence of the superposition of states with different masses and implies that unstable particles cannot be described consistently in non-relativistic quantum mechanics. In this paper we claim that Bargmann's rule neglects physical effects and that a proper description of non-relativistic quantum mechanics requires to take into account this phase through the Extended Galilei group and the definition of its action on spacetime coordinates.Comment: Prepared for the proceedings of VIII DGFM-SMF Worksho

Latin American migrants and the Larrikin principles: reflections on the convergence of cultural values

This paper explores how Latin American migrants see the values attached to their identities and cultures and the convergence or divergence with others\u27 cultural values in the Australian context. Abstract What Latin American migrants regard as common sense and cultural logic are shaped by the processes by which language and cultural are learned, used and changed in everyday life in their countries of origin. In the \u27new\u27 society, these complexities are ignored and imagined in simplistic ways represented by stereoptyped "surface culture". In this paper, I analyse how Latin American migrants see the values attached to their cultures and native languages, and their convergence or divergence with othesrs\u27 cultural values within the Australian context. I emphasize the relevance of migrants\u27 culture as a resource that multicultural Australian organisations have, even if it is not recognised. As a Mexican migrant in Australia, I reflect on my own experience to ask how our native cultures shape our behaviours as members of organisations in which we work, socialise, negotiate our cultural values and identities. Through auteothnography, I explore the process of cultural transformation under migration situations by referring to two interrelated cultural levels, "surface culture" and "deep culture", as central to understanding the complexities of cultural imaginings. Through this distinction I explore paradoxical feelings that emerge during the process of involvement in the migrants\u27 new environment

Expanding Health-Care Access in the United States: Gender and the Patchwork 'Universalism' of the Affordable Care Act

This paper focuses on the ways in which women in the United States are impacted by the 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (usually referred to as ACA or 'Obamacare'). The ACA's three main goals of expanding access, increasing consumer protections and reducing costs while increasing quality of services will improve coverage, access to services and types of services that benefit women (and men). However, universal coverage remains illusive due to employer-based insurance coverage that allows firms to make decisions about coverage type. This patchwork universalism is the result of political decisions to extend rather than transform the current health-care system and as such reproduces many of the previously existing problems of uneven costs and coverage. The paper argues the ACA is consistent with other sets of US social welfare and labour market regimes that stratify access to social protections by income, race/ethnicity and gender as well as provide individual states with administrative and policy authority. The paper concludes that the passage of ACA will vastly improve health-care coverage in the United States, however, will continue to leave millions of people uninsured. This paper was produced for UN Women's flagship report Progress of the World's Women 2015-2016 and is released as part of the UN Women discussion paper series

The effects of regional scientific opportunities in science-technology flows: Evidence from scientific literature cited in firms' patent data

From a spatial perspective, it is well known in the literature on innovation and technological change that scientific research undertaken in the universities plays an important role as an instrument for stimulating economic growth. In general, the analysis of particular spaces, such as high technology districts or regional systems of innovation, has shown, by means of a descriptive methodology, the relevance of scientific research as a driver of regional development. With the application of spatial econometric methods, important contributions have also been made in clarifying the spillover effects of university activities. However, quantitative research on these aspects in regional contexts is still very limited. The objective of this study is to advance, from a quantitative point of view, in the knowledge of the science-technology flows from a regional perspective. We set out to answer the following kinds of question: How are science-technology flows distributed regionally? Which sectors of industry are the most dynamic in their employment of scientific knowledge? Which are the scientific fields that are most closely associated with regional industry? What factors influence the regional variability of science-technology flows? How does regional expenditure on scientific research affect science-technology flows? The methodology utilised in this study is based on the scientific citations in patent documents (NPC), and has previously only been applied in national contexts. In other words, we assume that the NPC citations, or the scientific citations, are an adequate measurement of the science-technology flows in regional contexts, too. After describing the spatial and sectorial patterns, we propose to identify the explanatory factors by modelling the citations in patent documents (taking this variable as a proxy for the science-technology flows) in function of a set of three blocks of explanatory factors: businesses (microeconomic variables), industries (sectorial variables) and spatial contexts (variables of location and of the scientific environment). The model is of the microeconomic type and the most appropriate formulation, given the nature of the endogenous variable, is that of the counted data type. The statistical data originate from a comprehensive review of the 1,643 patents applied for by 1,129 companies, and published during the years 1998 to 2001, both inclusive. The basic source of data is the domestic patent documents themselves, published by the Spanish Office of Patents and Trade Marks. This information has been tabulated to obtain regional indicators of science-technology flows and the variables for inclusion in the model. The statistical treatment of the primary information and the operation of the model provide us with objective data that may serve as an additional point of reference for reflecting on the incidence on the regional productive system of specific measures taken under regional scientific policies.