Democracy, support for democracy and corruption: A longitudinal study of Latin American countries

Although often unable to satisfactorily solve the problem, democracy (especially enduring democracy) is commonly believed to reduce corruption. Yet, both Transparency International and the World Bank continue to attach a high risk of corruption to Latin American countries: corruption and impunity remain prevalent in the area, despite consolidating democratic regimes and recent anticorruption reforms. Using level of democracy and its endurance, as well as information on the perceptions of democratic performance and corruption obtained from the Latinobarometro, we analyzed a panel data covering the period 2005-2010 in 14 Latin American countries. Our main results show that levels of democracy and citizens' assessment of government fairness have a positive impact on corruption. However, satisfaction towards democracy has the opposite effect: when citizens believed democratic governments and public administrations to be efficient, they also perceived that gains against corruption had significantly decreased.<br /

Democracy, Support for Democracy and Corruption. A Longitudinal Study of Latin American Countries

Although often unable to satisfactorily solve the problem, democracy (especially enduring democracy) is commonly believed to reduce corruption. Yet, both Transparency International and the World Bank continue to attach a high risk of corruption to Latin American countries: corruption and impunity remain prevalent in the area, despite consolidating democratic regimes and recent anticorruption reforms. Using level of democracy and its endurance, as well as information on the perceptions of democratic performance and corruption obtained from the Latinobarometro, we analyzed a panel data covering the period 2005-2010 in 14 Latin American countries. Our main results show that levels of democracy and citizens' assessment of government fairness have a positive impact on corruption. However, satisfaction towards democracy has the opposite effect: when citizens believed democratic governments and public administrations to be efficient, they also perceived that gains against corruption had significantly decreased

Characterization of dust activity on Mars from MY27 to MY32 by PFS-MEX observations

We present spatial and temporal distributions of dust on Mars from Ls = 331 in MY26 until Ls = 80 in MY33 retrieved from the measurements taken by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) aboard Mars Express. In agreement with previous observations, large dust opacity is observed mostly in the southern hemisphere spring/summer and particularly over regions of higher terrain and large topographic variation. We present a comparison with dust opacities obtained from Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) - Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) measurements. We found good consistency between observations of two instruments during overlapping interval (Ls = 331 in MY26 until Ls = 77 in MY27). We found a different behavior of the dust opacity with latitude in the various Martian years (inter-annual variations). A global dust storm occurred in MY28. We observe a different spatial distribution, a later occurrence and dissipation of the dust maximum activity in MY28 than in other Martian years. A possible precursor signal to the global dust storm in MY 28 is observed at Ls = 200 - 235 especially over west Hellas. Heavy dust loads alter atmospheric temperatures. Due to the absorption of solar radiation and emission of infrared radiation to space by dust vertically non-uniformly distributed, a strong heating of high atmospheric levels (40 - 50 km) and cooling below around 30 km are observed.Comment: in press in Icarus. 47 pages, 15 figure

Processi di Democratizzazione e Legittimità Politica: Un’analisi Comparata

La sopravvivenza di un regime politico è legata alla capacità dei propri cittadini di distinguere tra performance del sistema e sistema politico in sé: in questo articolo ci proponiamo di approfondire la natura e la forza di tale apprezzamento nelle diverse aree del mondo protagoniste della più recente ondata di democratizzazioni. Le nostre osservazioni si baseranno, in primo luogo, su una serie di interviste realizzate nei paesi in cui si sono affermati i nuovi regimi. Questa analisi sarà integrata da studi più propriamente dedicati a identificare ed esaminare alcuni tratti salienti delle rispettive culture politiche e l’impatto sui processi di democratizzazione della cosiddetta società civile, domestica e internazionale. La legittimazione dei nuovi regimi politici è influenzata in modo determinante anche dalle prevalenti culture e fedi religiose, le cui implicazioni per i nuovi regimi democratici analizzeremo in dettaglio. All’interno del quadro generale proveremo, infine, a sottolineare le peculiarità di particolari regioni e aree geopolitiche

Democracia y democratización en África subsahariana: algunas valoraciones comparativas

El objetivo del artículo es, por un lado, resumir las conclusiones ya alcanzadas por la comunidadcientífica sobre los actuales procesos de democratización en el África subsahariana y, por otro,reflexionar crítica y comparativamente sobre el desarrollo de los estudios politológicos acerca deeste tema. La intención es aclarar dónde y en qué medida existe un mayor consenso entre los estudiososy en qué casos, por el contrario, las opiniones son mayormente discordantes, de manera quesean oportunas nuevas y diversas aportaciones en la investigación. Tras una breve introducciónhistórica, se apuntarán las evoluciones políticas más recientes. Nuestra atención se centrará despuéssobre algunos elementos que parecen especialmente útiles para explicar el curso de las transformacionespolíticas en el área: el desarrollo socioeconómico, el papel del Estado, de la nación y de lasnuevas instituciones democráticas, así como el influjo de la cultura política, la legitimidad y el factorreligioso. Se concluirá con algunas observaciones sobre la importancia de los factores internacionales

Design Method for Contra-Rotating Propellers for High-Speed Crafts: Revising the Original Lerbs Theory in a Modern Perspective

The main theoretical and numerical aspects of a design method for optimum contrar-rotating (CR) propellers for fast marine crafts are presented. We propose a reformulated version of a well-known design theory for contra-rotating propellers, by taking advantage of a new fully numerical algorithm for the calculation of the mutually induced velocities and introducing new features such as numerical lifting surface corrections, use of an integrated modern cavitation/strength criteria, a modified method to consider different numbers of blades among the two propellers, and to allow for an unloading function in the search for the optimal circulation distribution. The paper first introduces the main theoretical principles of the new methods and then discusses the influence of the main design parameters on an emblematic example of application in the case of counter rotating propellers for a pod propulsor designed for fast planing crafts (35 knots and above)