Generalizability of extant findings about media treatment of women in politics is uncertain because most research examines candidates for the legislature or heads of government, and little work moves beyond Anglo-American countries. We examine six presidential cabinets in Costa Rica, Uruguay, and the United States, which provide differing levels of women’s incorporation into government. These cases permit us to test hypotheses arguing that differences in media treatment of men and women cabinet ministers will decrease as women’s inclusion in government expands, and that media treatment of women is more critical when women head departments associated with masculine gender stereotypes. Results show that greater incorporation of women into government is associated with fewer gendered differences in media coverage, tone of minister coverage is more favorable for women who hold masculine stereotyped portfolios, and that the media does present qualifications of women cabinet ministers.

The historiography on Uruguay during the Cold War has identified the period 1959–62 as a key juncture in the process of political polarisation that culminated in the fall of democracy in 1973. Based on the analysis of press articles and other documentary sources, I describe the role played by the main fraction of the Partido Colorado (Red Party) led by Luis Batlle Berres in promoting polarisation of the Uruguayan political system in those years. My findings contradict the conventional depiction of Batlle Berres as a moderate who tried to prevent the polarisation provoked by other agents.

This research note takes advantage of a novel dataset to analyze legislators’ behavior in Uruguay’s Parliament. Comparing the positions of legislators based on floor speeches and roll-call voting, it discusses the relationship between discourse and voting among individual legislators and parties. The dataset contains more than 57,000 speeches from more than 1,000 Uruguayan legislators between 1985 and 2015 and its related R package. The study estimates the parties’ policy positions on the basis of two data sources, roll-call votes and floor speeches, and then compares both results. Contrary to expectations, no clear association appears between the two scaling methods, demonstrating that vote and legislative speech may reflect the behavior of individual legislators with potentially conflicting goals. Strategic calculations or party discipline may be plausible explanations for the divergent results obtained from text and roll-call scaling methods.

The use of veto points to block policy change has received significant attention in Latin America, but the different institutional venues have not been analyzed in a unified framework. Uruguay is exceptional in that political actors use both referendums and judicial review as effective ways to oppose public policies. While the activation of direct democracy mechanisms in Uruguay has been widely studied, the surge in the use of the judicial venue remains underexplored. This article argues that veto point use responds to the ideological content of policies adopted by different coalitions and the type of interest organization affected. It shows that policy opponents predominantly activate referendums when center-right coalitions rule and judicial review when center-left coalitions govern. It illustrates the causal argument by tracing the politics of court and referendum activation. This approach helps to bridge the gap between research on direct democracy and judicial politics, providing a unified framework.

Los cazadores recolectores del este de Sudamérica ajustaron, durante el Holoceno, sus conductas territoriales a las fluctuaciones climáticas y ambientales. Estas sociedades implementaron una estrategia económica con una tecnología caracterizada por puntas de proyectil en piedra tallada. Estos cazadores fueron responsables de innovaciones técnicas y variabilidad en las formas y dimensiones de las puntas. Dichos cambios fueron estimulados por el menor tamaño de la fauna del Holoceno, la caza en ambientes anegadizos, la disponibilidad de materias primas y la experimentación de nuevas técnicas de propulsión. El sistema técnico buscó resolver los problemas planteados por la movilidad a través del reciclaje de puntas dañadas. Se analizaron 25 puntas de proyectil provenientes del este de Uruguay. Se relevaron aspectos tecno-tipológicos; se empleó lupa binocular (5× a 72×) y microscopio metalográfico (50× a 400×). Los análisis traceológicos, con base experimental, dan cuenta de fracturas en el ápice y confirman que se trata de puntas empleadas en armas arrojadizas. Los rastros registrados y algunos residuos sugieren que estas puntas fueron enastiladas y transportadas en un carcaj. Las observaciones realizadas parecen confirmar que parte de los ejemplares estudiados corresponden a puntas de flecha usadas con arco, una innovación de gran impacto en las tierras bajas.

Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay today account for well over a third of world exports of cellulose, yet this industry only came into existence in the late twentieth century. The evolution of this industry across the three countries is the object of this study. This nascent industry required direct government support in all three countries to be successful. Forestry laws and government investments in research, education, and factory construction were all needed to encourage local and foreign capital. There were differences among these countries in their linkages to other economic sectors as well as their export mix. But in all three countries, the forestry industry was part of a general modernization of agriculture that allowed for successful competition in world markets.

The dating and routes by which humans colonised South America continue to be debated. Recent research in Uruguay has yielded new Palaeoindian lithic finds from the southern shores of the coastal Merín Lagoon. The author's analysis of a group of Fell points—comparable to other regional examples—shows that this widespread artefact was produced using locally available materials and that they were repeatedly resharpened and repaired until no longer functional. The finds from the Merín Lagoon permit consideration of changing sea levels and their influence on colonisation routes, resource exploitation and archaeological preservation. The Atlantic coastline may have been one possible route of entry for early colonisers of South America.

Why hasn’t Uruguay enfranchised emigrants yet? This study examines an underresearched case of nonenfranchisement and engages with debates on external voting, diaspora politics, and citizenship beyond borders. Building on qualitative and participatory methods, the analysis unveils the obstacles to franchise reform despite significant progress from 2004 to 2019. Although external voting was not enacted legally, emigrants’ voting rights were debated, formally acknowledged, and encouraged. It is not the lack of norm entrepreneurs but the cumulative effect of indecisive actions that perpetuates a counterproductive dynamic and de facto uneven access to this right. An unresolved debate simultaneously advances conversations but precludes compromises, turning resolution deferral into an implicit form of regulating emigrants’ political inclusion or exclusion. Presenting original evidence, this study expands existing accounts, highlights the interaction between institutional and social drivers of change, and invites further research on the role of policy diffusion, domestic politics, and timing.

Este trabajo está centrado en el estudio de una de las primeras formas de manejo ganadero de la época colonial en la Banda Oriental. Aborda específicamente el análisis de un conjunto de corrales de palmas ubicados en el sureste del Uruguay, en la frontera con Brasil. Está basado en un enfoque interdisciplinar en el que se combinó el trabajo con la población local, el análisis historiográfico, la prospección remota y sobre el terreno, el análisis morfométrico de la totalidad de los corrales y las palmas que los componen, y el análisis fisicoquímico del sedimento (análisis de fosfatos y partículas biosilíceas). El artículo propone que estas estructuras son uno de los cerramientos ganaderos más antiguos (siglos diecisiete y dieciocho) de la Banda Oriental, vinculados a formas indígenas de manejo vegetal y animal que se fueron reajustando durante la colonización europea de este sector fronterizo del Cono Sur de América.

This article analyzes how policy ideas already adopted in Europe, particularly in France, were taken into consideration for the design of Uruguay’s National Public Assistance (NPA) policy. Established in 1910, the NPA was a pioneering government social policy for the time and for the region.

Some have argued that the design of the NPA law followed the secular and republican model instituted in France at the end of the nineteenth century when France established the Assistance Publique, particularly regarding the extent of public assistance to the poor, the role of the state in the provision of health care (as opposed to charity-based provision) and the centralization of health-care services (as opposed to a decentralized health-care system).

We analyze how these revolutionary ideas were discussed by the technicians and politicians who participated in the process that culminated in the approval of the law in Uruguay discussed these revolutionary ideas. We explore the factors that motivated the creation of the commission that developed the law. We also review available documentation on the drafting of the bill and the parliamentary debate that culminated in its approval. We find that the design of the NPA included many ideas diffused mainly from France. The French model was not simply emulated, however. Rather, the authors of the NPA thoroughly analyzed and considered the features and main consequences of the Assistance Publique, suggesting that diffusion in this case was more a process of learning than of simple mimicry.

This study seeks to explain the rise and performance of “segmented neocorporatism” in Uruguay in light of contemporary theories of wage coordination, largely framed by the Varieties of Capitalism school and its recent critics. First it argues that the legacy of a centralized labor law framework, and a unified union movement, combined with Frente Amplio’s decisive labor empowerment from above to launch neocorporatist wage coordination in the period 2005–10. Second, it analyzes the stabilization of the coordinated model in 2013–19, in times of sluggish growth and labor tensions, evinced in the control of inflation pressures and social conflict. The article concludes that the macroeconomic combination of supply-side and Keynesian policies and the inclusion of precarious workers shaped an egalitarian version of corporatism with important challenges ahead.