In some countries, bicameral discrepancies are solved by the formation of a conference committee. In Chile, conference committees are exclusively and automatically formed when the second chamber rejects a bill passed in the first chamber or when the first chamber rejects the modifications to its original bill made by the second chamber. This article postulates 4 hypotheses for the determinants of conference committee formation. It tests them for the case of Chile’s sequential legislative process (1990–2018) using 2,183 bills that reached the stage where a conference committee could be formed. The 482 conference committees that resulted were more likely to be formed when chambers were controlled by different majorities, when passage required special voting thresholds, when bills were more important for the president, and when the bills had more approved amendments, but they were not more likely if the bill was introduced by legislators rather than the executive.

Despite the growing interest in the theme of corruption, one cannot yet speak of a body of research and analysis sufficient to the creation of inductive theory. This is not to say that there has not been interesting empirical and theoretical work done. However, most of this work has dealt with variations to the legal definition of corruption as being the illegal use of public office for private gain or, as V. O. Key, Jr. put it, the uninstitutionalized influence of wealth in a political system. The relationship between “power” and corruption has been a subject of analytical speculation since Plato posed, and Machiavelli revived, the “dirty hands” dilemma.

The impact upon Europe of the discovery and conquest of the New World is conventionally described in terms of political and economic effects. That there was an aesthetic and intellectual impact of equallygreat import is seldom recalled. The discovery and exploration of a totally new and unknown world of strange beasts, flora, and human beings affected European predilections and patterns of thought in a fashion which can only be likened to the reaction of thoughtful men today, when confronted with the wonders and potentialities implicit in the exploration of outer space.

This paper is an attempt at an interdisciplinary analysis of some of the problems relating to financial activities, decisionmaking, and social structure among elite Latin American kin and business groups. It represents a cooperative effort by two economists and an anthropologist that results, we believe, in a view of these problems that is of significance to both disciplines.

As Kaplan (1965) has pointed out, the great difficulty in developing true interdisciplinary research arises in translating the concepts and theories of one field into those of the other, or in developing a new common conceptual framework. What this paper does, very briefly, is to take the basic Tobin-Markowitz model, which is an attempt to describe the decision-making process of an investor putting together a portfolio in a risky world, and modify it to allow for the difficulty of obtaining accurate information about the economic environment in Latin America.

The long-term effects of the April 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union extend far beyond that nation's borders. To be sure, radioactive materials spewed into the atmosphere at Chernobyl covered a wide swath across Europe and provoked a strong reaction from neighboring states. More important and potentially more long-lasting, Chernobyl caused the world to undertake a fundamental rethinking of its position on nuclear power and to consider whether the benefits continued to outweigh the risks.

In countries as different, in energy resources, economic circumstances, and political systems, as Austria, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, public opinion has been a powerful force behind the reconsideration of decisions already taken to build new nuclear power plants or to place in commission plants which are close to completion. Even in Eastern Europe, pressure from environmentalists has compelled governments to address publicly — albeit superficially — the benefits and risks of nuclear power.

La Constitución reformada de 1860 dejó a Buenos Aires, nuevamente, sin capital. La Constitución de 1853 había convertido a Buenos Aires en capital de la república; pero los reformadores de 1860, como es sabido, tuvieron sus razones para postergar la señalación de una ciudad como capital del país. El estudio de estas razones corresponde a otras páginas. Aquí consignamos la protesta, la indignación de Alberdi. Sus principales escritos que se refieren a este hecho aparecieron entre 1875 y 1877. Tienen la valentía de costumbre. Son la voz del hombre que había propuesto a Buenos Aires como capital, que la había visto convertida en cabeza de la nación y, de pronto, encuentra otra vez al país sin capital, como en tiempos de Rosas. Mitre y Sarmiento, según Alberdi, habían sido los culpables de este retroceso. Los dos habían sido el azote de la nación y de Buenos Aires. La reforma reaccionaria de 1860 había restaurado el régimen económico con que Rosas había despotizado y empobrecido al pueblo de Buenos Aires durante veinte años. Rosas había vuelto el país al tiempo de los virreyes. Florencio Várela había demostrado que Rosas había restaurado el sistema virreinal.

O papel representado pelo muar, na economía nacional, através da historia, foi de marcada importancia. Sem a sua contribuicáo, tendo em vista, principalmente, a reconhecida capacidade que possui, de transportar cargas diversas a distancias excepcionalmente grandes, muito do que foi alcancado, na criacáo de riquezas, jamais teria sido possível obter. Durante mais de século e meio, desde o descobrimento das minas auríferas, ao entardecer do século XVII, até a alvorada da era ferroviaria, em 1867, sua colaboracáo foi de marcante relêvo.

De início, atendeu ao abastecimento dos varios pontos de mineracáo no territorio nacional, suprindo-os de víveres e mercadorias de consumo, e o que mais necessário fósse. Depois, propiciou o desenvolvimento da producáo acucareira paulista, nao apenas para o abastecimento regular dos sertóes brasileiros, mas igualmente para a exportacáo, conduzindo-a ao porto de Santos.

This paper raises the question whether the current wave of macro-economic and structural reforms in latin America should be viewed as a decisive change in the continent's long-term development strategy or as part of but another stop-and-go cycle, for which the continent has been known in the past. While no unambiguous answer is provided, the paper outlines what is still needed in the way of persistent micro-economic policy change if obstacles of political economy, including an abundance of natural resources and relatively easy access to foreign capital, are to be overcome.

Throughout most of its history, the importance of the Panama Canal — to the United States, to Panama, and to the international shipping community — was never questioned. This situation changed when the political confrontation between the United States and the Noriega regime took place in the 1980s, and most of the media began to suggest that the usefulness of the Panama Canal was on the decline and no longer of much importance to world trade. In this regard, the media seriously misrepresented the facts. Let us take a closer look at the Canal in order to gain a better perspective on the actual situation.

Prior to World War I, the volume of trade going through the Panama Canal, though a useful transportation artery, was relatively small. In fact, in 1929, its peak pre-War year, the total volume was just 30 million tons.

The potential democratizing effect of political decentralization reforms has been a matter of substantial theoretical and empirical debate. This article analyzes the effect of local democratic institution building on the political attitudes and behavior of citizens living in small towns in Uruguay. More specifically, using a natural experiment design, this research seeks to establish the causal impact of recently established elections of local authorities on individuals' political engagement. It develops a comparative case study analyzing the consequences of this institutional innovation in two towns. It shows that individuals from the town where citizens have the opportunity to elect their local authorities have more positive attitudes toward politics than those from the town without such elections.

Irresponsible fiscal behavior by subnational units is a concern for federal or decentralized systems, especially in the developing world. States' expenditures in Brazil have been no different. Still, spending varies considerably among the Brazilian states, even after controlling for their financial resources. This article provides a political explanation for the variation in current spending, focusing on intergovernmental political relationships. It argues that credit claiming for pork distributed in a state plays a crucial role and that governors elevate state spending in order to make up for their loss in political credit from the pork distributed by the president. Analyzing data from the period 1996–2005, it finds that expenditures decrease as the relative number of federal deputies from the state governor's party increases compared to the number of deputies from the president's governing coalition when the national agenda encourages federal pork distribution in the states.

A long process of free-market reforms and gradual democratization seems to be dismantling Mexico's corporatist system of labor representation. A thorough analysis of the country's corporatist institutions yields theoretical reasons to believe that Mexico's practice of labor relations is indeed changing. An empirical examination of the nation's labor congress and ruling party during the two previous presidential administrations (1988–2000) demonstrates that corporatism is being transformed at a practical level, although the process of reform has been complex and uneven at best. The continuing strength of an officialist labor sector will complicate the task of establishing a new system of labor representation, a problem that may have important implications for future democratic consolidation.