Content Type: Working Paper / Political Geography: Spain

1. The Politics of “What Works”: Evidence Incentives and Entrepreneurship in Development Organisations

Author:: Pablo Yanguas
Publication Date:: 01-2023
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:: Over the last two decades, national development agencies have committed to results-based approaches and to putting evidence at the centre of their decision-making. For evidence “optimists”, this is a much-needed corrective to past practice; in contrast, “pessimists” worry about ideology masquerading as science, and results-based approaches contributing to the further depoliticisation of development. This paper argues that reality falls somewhere in between these two extreme interpretations, and that the experiences of development organisations are varied enough to warrant further interrogation, not into whether evidence shapes policymaking, but into how it does so, and whose evidence matters most. The paper seeks to address these questions through an analytical framework that highlights the process of contestation between evidence agendas against a backdrop of policy complexity, professional barriers, and organisational incentives. A brief review of evidence from development cooperation agencies – with spotlight cases from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom – reveals that institutionalisation and entrepreneurship play a critical role in enabling and shaping evidence-based policymaking. This leads to clear implications for practitioners, whose focus should be not only on getting the right kind of evidence, but on getting the politics of evidence right.
Topic:: Development, Entrepreneurship, and Incentives
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain

2. Employment Effects of Offshoring, Technological Change and Migration in a Group of Western European Economies: Impact on Different Occupations

Author:: Michael Landesmann and Sandra Leitner
Publication Date:: 03-2023
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:: This paper estimates conditional demand models to examine the impact of offshoring, technological change, and migration on the labour demand of native workers differentiated by four different types of occupational groups: managers/professionals, clerical workers, craft (skilled) workers and manual workers. The analysis is conducted for an unbalanced panel of five economies Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, and Switzerland covering the period 2005-2018. Our results point to important and occupation-specific effects: offshoring seems to have beneficial employment effects for native craft workers in this set of economies, while negative effects for native manual workers across a wide set of industries (including manufacturing and services industries) and managers/professionals in manufacturing. Furthermore, there are important distinctions whether offshoring occurs in other advanced economies, in the EU13 or in developing countries. The analysis of the impact of technological change shows the strong positive impact which the additional IT equipment has on most occupational groups of native workers (with the exception of manual workers), while robotisation in manufacturing showed strongly negative impacts on the employment of all groups of workers and especially of craft workers. Increasing immigrant shares in the work forces showed strongly negative impacts on native workers – however, considering only the partial substitution effects and not including the potential for productivity and demand effects – and this is mostly accounted for by immigration from low- to medium-income source countries.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance, Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, Foreign Direct Investment, Employment, Competition, Income Distribution, and Offshoring
Political Geography:: Europe, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria

3. Regional Diffusion of Foreign Demand Shocks Through Trade and Ownership Networks

Author:: Lionel Fontagné and Gianluca Santoni
Publication Date:: 09-2022
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:: International demand shocks are transmitted within the trade and ownership firms' networks and impact directly or indirectly domestic firm productivity and labor misallocation. Considering manufacturing firms for Italy, Spain and France over the period 2009-2017, we quantify these transmission channels from the global economy to the domestic firms, and within the domestic economy across locations, sectors and firms. We compute in a shift share fashion international demand shock at the district-sector-year level as plausibly exogenous to individual firms. Our results confirm that global shocks are transmitted through trade networks and that this transmission is largely mediated by firms' ownership networks both across and within the borders of the three countries.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, Demand, and Productivity
Political Geography:: Europe, France, Spain, and Italy

4. The ‘Magnificent Seven’ of European Defence Integration

Author:: Spyros Blavoukos and Panos Politis-Lamprou
Publication Date:: 06-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:: Defence cooperation in the EU is growing, reflecting the European citizens’ view of the EU as a security enhancer. This policy paper takes stock of current developments and analyses the positions of seven EU member-states on defence integration (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, and Greece). The ‘Magnificent Seven’ are key players in this process, not least because of their large defence budgets and their engagement in the existing forms of cooperation. We examine the defence budget of the seven countries and their breakdown, as well as their participation in Battlegroups, EU military operations and missions, and PESCO projects. The analysis provides significant insights on the national defence priorities. The seven countries form overlapping clusters, according to their political status and aspirations in the European integration process, their economic condition, their geographical location, and their relations with the US and NATO. All of them are facing significant dilemmas and engage in subtle balancing acts, which explains the slow and arduous path of European defence integration.
Topic:: Defense Policy, Military Affairs, European Union, and Regional Integration
Political Geography:: Europe, Greece, France, Poland, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Portugal

5. Do gendered laws matter for women’s economic empowerment?

Author:: Marie Hyland, Simeon Djankov, and Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg
Publication Date:: 03-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: reater legal equality between men and women is associated with a narrower gender gap in opportunities and outcomes, fewer female workers in positions of vulnerable employment, and greater political representation for women. While legal equality is on average associated with better outcomes for women, the experience of individual countries may differ significantly from this average trend, depending on the countries’ stage of development (as proxied by per capita GDP). Case studies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, and Spain demonstrate this deviation. Especially in developing countries, legislative measures may not necessarily translate into actual empowerment, due mainly to deeply entrenched social norms, which render legal reforms ineffective. Women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable employment in low- and lower-middle-income economies but less likely than men to be in vulnerable employment in upper-middle- and high-income economies. Analysis of a 50-year panel of gendered laws in 190 countries reveals that country attributes that do not vary or change only slowly over time—such as a country’s legal origin, form of government, geographic characteristics, and dominant religion—explain a very large portion of the variation across countries. This finding suggests that the path to legal equality between men and women may be a long and arduous one. Nevertheless, the data also show that the past five decades have seen considerable progress toward legal gender equality. Gendered laws do evolve, suggesting a role for legal reforms in women’s economic empowerment.
Topic:: Gender Issues, Law, Women, Inequality, and Economy
Political Geography:: Africa, Europe, South Asia, India, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Spain

6. COVID-19 credit-support programmes in Europe’s five largest economies

Author:: Julia Anderson, Francesco Papadia, and Nicolas Véron
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Bruegel
Abstract:: In 2020, European governments mitigated the economic impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and other pandemic-fighting programmes through a host of initiatives. These included efforts to support credit, such as guarantees for bank loans, particularly to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We present and analyse detailed information about those national credit-support programmes implemented in the context of fiscal policy, in Europe’s five largest national economies (besides Russia) in 2020: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The information was collected through thorough examination of published material and extended exchanges with national authorities and financial sector participants. The analytical part of the paper focuses on two aspects: How countries have dealt with the many trade-offs that emerged in designing and implementing the programmes; What explains the differentiated usage of the facilities in the examined countries, as well as its levelling off in the second half of 2020. Section 1 defines and describes the programmes. Section 2 presents the trade-offs we identified in programme design and implementation. Section 3 explores the factors explaining actual usage in the five countries and over time. Section 4 concludes. Annexes provide details on the programmes for each country (Annex 5) and in summarised matrix form (Annex 4).
Topic:: Business, Fiscal Policy, COVID-19, and Credit
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy

7. Cyber Defence in NATO Countries: Comparing Models

Author:: Alessandro Marrone and Ester Sabatino
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: In 2016 NATO recognised cyber as a domain comparable to the air, land and sea ones, in consideration of the growing number of cyberattacks and of their negative impact on the cyberspace, as well as on the “real world”. Both NATO and its member states have launched initiatives to better tackle the cyber challenge both operationally and in terms of capability development. Nevertheless, among major NATO’s members a common approach to cyber defence is still missing, thus generating a division among countries that pursue a more active defence – US, UK and France – and those that prefer a more defensive approach – Germany and Spain.
Topic:: Defense Policy, NATO, National Security, and Cybersecurity
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, France, Germany, Spain, and United States of America

8. Factsheet: Unaccompanied Minor Children (Los Menas)

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 05-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: MENAs (Menor Extranjero no Acompañado, or “Unaccompanied Foreign Minors”) is the term used to describe minors (under the age of eighteen) who arrive in Spain with no parents or guardians. The children come primarily from North Africa and are predominately Muslim. In recent years, right-wing politicians and groups in Spain have targeted and stigmatized them by employing anti-Muslim tropes.
Topic:: Migration, Muslims, Unaccompanied Minors, and Los Menas
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and North Africa

9. Factsheet: Hogar Social Madrid

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 08-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: Hogar Social es un movimiento social y político de extrema derecha creado en Madrid en 2014, que cuenta con filiales en otras ciudades como Toledo, Granada y Zaragoza. La líder del movimiento, Melisa Domínguez Ruiz, militó previamente en el partido político Movimiento Social Republicano (MSR). Los miembros del Hogar Social han expresado ideas xenófobas, vinculando delincuencia e inmigración. Los musulmanes han sido un blanco especial de sus críticas. En 2016 Hogar Social llevó a cabo en una acción violenta contra la principal mezquita de Madrid.
Topic:: Islamophobia, Muslims, and Hogar Social
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

10. Factsheet: Vox Party

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: The VOX Party is a far-right, nationalist political party in Spain that advocates discriminatory policies against Spanish Muslims and Muslim immigrants. VOX has achieved significant political success in regional and national elections since its 2013 founding, while building a political narrative that Spain must be “reconquered” from Muslims again—a reengineering of the centuries-old mythology of Reconquista. The party’s political messaging employs derogatory rhetoric against Muslims broadly and Muslim women in particular, while declaring a “civilizational clash” between Spain and Islam.
Topic:: Nationalism, Discrimination, Islamophobia, Far Right, and VOX Party
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

11. Factsheet: Ceuta and Melilla - Two Muslim Cities in Spain

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: Ceuta and Melilla are autonomous Spanish cities in North Africa. Both cities act as the border between Spain and Morocco. Although they each have autonomous governments from Spain, their educational systems are managed by the regional Spanish government of Andalusia and institutions such as the Catholic church and the judiciary are under the jurisdiction of Andalusia. While Ceuta and Melilla are majority Muslim, their neighborhoods are separated between Muslims and Christians from the Iberian Peninsula. The Muslim populations of both cities face discrimination.
Topic:: Discrimination, Islamophobia, Borders, Autonomy, and Muslims
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, North Africa, Ceuta, and Melilla

12. Factsheet: Hogar Social

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: Hogar Social is a right-wing Spanish social and political movement created in Madrid in 2014, now with chapters in other cities including Toledo, Granada, and Zaragoza. The movement’s leader, Melisa Domínguez Ruiz, previously worked in the right-wing political party Republican Social Movement (Movimiento Social Republicano, or MSR). Hogar Social members have expressed xenophobic sentiments, including linking crime and immigration. Muslims have been a particular target and in 2016, Hogar Social took part in a violent action against Madrid’s main mosque.
Topic:: Social Movement, Far Right, Political Parties, and Hogar Social
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

13. Factsheet: Reconquista Trope

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 09-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: The historical myth of the Reconquista has been one of the most recurrent tropes used by far-right parties in Spain. The controversial concept—contested by many scholars— has been reappropriated, misinterpreted, and misused to build political bases and campaigns on anti-Muslim hate, conspiracy theories, and white nationalism in Spain and across Europe.
Topic:: Nationalism, Islamophobia, Far Right, Conspiracy Theory, and Reconquista
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

14. Factsheet: Cooperation Agreement of 1992

Author:: Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:: 10-2021
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:: The Cooperation Agreement of 1992 is a legal framework established by the Spanish government and the Islamic Commission of Spain to guarantee the rights of Muslims living in Spain. Included in the agreement were essential aspects of development and citizenship, such as the teaching of Islam to Muslim children and the regulation of worship places. Although almost thirty years have passed since the signing of the agreement, several issues key to Muslim life—such as the increasing need for Muslim cemeteries—have yet to be solved.
Topic:: Islam, Religion, Treaties and Agreements, and Muslims
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

15. Immigration and Offshoring: Two Forces of Globalisation and Their Impact on Employment and the Bargaining Power of Occupational Groups

Author:: Michael Landesmann and Sandra Leitner
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:: This paper estimates conditional demand models and, using a joint approach for the period 2008-2017, examines the impact of immigration and different measures of offshoring on the labour demand and demand elasticities of native workers in four different types of occupational groups: managers/professionals, clerical workers, craft (skilled) workers and manual workers. The analysis is conducted using data for four EU economies: Austria, Belgium, France and Spain. Our results point to important and occupation-specific direct and indirect effects of immigration and offshoring. Both offshoring – particularly services offshoring – and immigration have negative direct employment effects on all occupations, but native clerks and manual workers are affected the most, and native managers/professionals the least. Generally, offshoring exerts a stronger direct negative employment effect than does immigration. Our results also identify an important (labour demand) elasticity-channel of immigration and offshoring and show that some groups of native workers can also actually gain from globalisation through an improvement in their wage-bargaining position. Overall, our results indicate a deterioration in the bargaining power of native manual workers arising from both immigration and offshoring; an improvement in the bargaining position of native craft workers in the case of both immigration and offshoring; and an improvement in the bargaining position of native clerical workers and managers/professionals in the case of offshoring only. Finally, our analysis of the cross-effects of immigration highlights the important role of migrant managers/professionals for the labour demand and demand elasticities (bargaining power) of native clerical workers, craft and manual workers.
Topic:: Globalization, Labor Issues, Immigration, Employment, and Work Culture
Political Geography:: Europe, France, Belgium, Spain, and Austria

16. Who Are These Bond Vigilantes Anyway? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt Ownership in the Eurozone

Author:: Tobias Arbogast
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:: This paper examines the ownership structure of eurozone public debt and the distribu- tional consequences thereof. Through both a comparative perspective and an explorative case study of Italy, this paper asks two research questions. Firstly, it asks who holds gov- ernment debt in Spain, France, Germany, and Italy. I focus in on Italy to provide, to the author’s knowledge, the first highly disaggregated view of the holding structure of public debt. Secondly, for Italy I study distributional effects by examining who benefits from the interest received on government debt. This is accomplished through an investigation of the various stakeholders associated with public debt. Results indicate that most of the public debt is held by private and public financial institutions but rarely directly by households. Both direct and indirect beneficiaries of the interest received on government bonds in Italy turn out to be largely wealthy households, reflecting the unequal ownership of wealth more generally. However, prominent public financial institutions are also significant beneficiaries, which likely ameliorates a possible regressive distributional effect of the public debt hold- ing structure. The paper discusses the results with an eye on inequality and contributes to further study of the political economy of public debt.
Topic:: Debt, Inequality, Financial Institutions, and Public Debt
Political Geography:: France, Germany, Spain, and Italy

17. Covid-19 bends the rules on internal border controls: Yet another crisis undermining the Schengen acquis?

Author:: Saila Heinikoski
Publication Date:: 04-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: Free movement within the Schengen Area has been challenged in recent years by national measures: from internal border checks after the ‘migration crisis’ to the closure of borders in the Covid-19 crisis. This is the first time in the history of Schengen that member states have categorically refused entry to other EU citizens who are not registered residents or cross-border workers. Seventeen Schengen countries have submitted a notification on reintroducing internal border control due to Covid-19: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland. The use of Schengen provisions was creative: 12 states justified their internal border controls as a case requiring immediate action (Art. 28), France and Denmark expanded their already existing internal border controls (Art. 25), Finland appealed to the ‘foreseeable event’ clause (Art. 25), and Slovakia and Poland introduced ‘healthcare-police measures’ (Art. 23) before launching border controls (Art. 28). The crisis illustrates the need to reform Schengen in order to maintain the legitimacy of commonly agreed rules.
Topic:: Regional Cooperation, European Union, Public Health, Schengen, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:: Europe, Finland, Norway, France, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Estonia, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Iceland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia

18. Strengthening Coordination in River Basin Governance in Southern Spain – Cooperation, Incentives and Persuasion

Author:: Nora Schütze, Andreas Thiel, Pilar Paneque, Jesús Vargas, and Rodrigo Vidaurre
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:: The Guadalquivir basin in Spain struggles with reducing agricultural water consumption to comply with water quantity provisions of the European Water Framework Directive. Improved cross-sectoral exchange, transparency, monitoring and revision of water rights are needed to address this challenge.
Topic:: Agriculture, Natural Resources, Water, and Transparency
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

19. Approach to the Spanish External Image Applied to the Economic Intelligence / Aproximación a la imagen exterior española como herramienta de inteligencia económica

Author:: José Pablo Martínez Romera
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
Abstract:: The measurements of external image carried out in recent years to guide the "country-brand" strategies could have the potential to be used as economic intelligence tools. This way, public authorities would be able to foresee variations in those variables linked to the preferences of foreign citizens, such as investments, exports, tourism or immigration; helping them to design politics in these fields.
Topic:: Economics and Intelligence
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

20. Spanish election spurred on by fear of breakup: Winner must reckon with regional parties

Author:: Teemu Tammikko
Publication Date:: 04-2019
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: Whoever wins the Spanish parliamentary elections on 28 April is headed for difficult coalition talks, as the left and the right are still deeply divided, despite the fragmentation of the party system. Small regional parties are likely to gain more weight than their size would suggest.
Topic:: Elections, Election watch, Local, and Party System
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

21. Personal Income Tax Policy Choices of Spanish Autonomous Communities in 2016: A Comparison with Canada of the Rate Structure

Author:: François Vallancourt, Jesús Ruiz-Huerta, and Violeta Ruiz Almendral
Publication Date:: 01-2018
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Fundación Alternativas
Abstract:: Since 2009 Autonomous Communities have started to set their own Personal Income Tax rates for the first time. This is both the result of the 2009 rule change and the difficulties to get other public revenues during the years of the Great Recession. We will examine what the Autonomous Communitie s explicit choices have been and see how they compare to what Canadian Provinces have done. Before 2000, these provinces other than Québec were required to use a surtax approach that saw provinces collect personal income tax as a% of federal taxes (tax on tax) using the same number of brackets, boundaries of brackets and progressivity structure. Since 2000 they can and have chosen to use a tax on income approach as noted above. Thus they must make similar choices to those of Autonomous Communities for their Personal Income Tax since 2000.
Topic:: Economics, Global Recession, Tax Systems, and Recovery
Political Geography:: Europe, Canada, Spain, North America, and Western Europe

22. Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of the Collaborative Economy (IRSDACE).

Author:: Luis Fernando Medina Sierra
Publication Date:: 11-2018
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Fundación Alternativas
Abstract:: The present document has three goals: first, present an overview of the main legal and regulatory developments regarding the digital platforms; second, reflect the diversity of view that these technologies have generated among the social actors (unions, workers, government and enterprises) and third, offer a comparative framework to make sense of this diversity and the challenges it presents for labor relations and social dialogue. The institutional response has been so far mainly reactive, giving rise to ambiguities that may generate conflicts in need of resolution. But the structure of the different industries where these platforms have been introduced is such that the workers' experiences, their opportunities and their incentives to organize are all markedly heterogeneous. Given the way in which digital platforms redefines the labor relationship between workers and companies, any possible regulation will entail a serious rethinking of key aspects of the welfare state.
Topic:: Human Welfare, Labor Issues, Regulation, and Digital Economy
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, Western Europe, and Mediterranean

23. The challenges facing the ‘new’ Spain

Author:: William Chislett
Publication Date:: 01-2017
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Elcano Royal Institute
Abstract:: Although some Spaniards joke that the country has got along fine with a caretaker government for 315 days, this year has been a lost one. There are some pressing issues that need to be tackled now that there is finally a functioning government. But the new Popular Party (PP) government no longer has an absolute majority. As a minority administration it will have to negotiate its laws and reforms in a deeply fragmented parliament, the result of the upending of the PP and the Socialist Party (PSOE) by two new parties, the far left Unidos Podemos (UP) and the centrist Ciudadanos (C’s). The government has a lot on its plate, including the following: (a) belatedly approving the budget for 2017 and meeting the EU’s threshold for the deficit (3% of GDP) in 2018 (a target imposed by Brussels that the PP persistently missed); (b) deciding what to do about the push for independence in Catalonia (the region’s government says it will hold a referendum on the issue in September 2017 regardless of whether the central government approves it or not); (c) cleaning up corruption in the political class; (d) making the judiciary more independent; (e) possibly deepening the labour market reforms in a bid to reduce the still very high unemployment rate (18.9%); (f) reforming an education system whose early school-leaving rate of 20% is close to double the EU average; (g) bolstering the ailing pension system hit by a sharp fall in the number of social security contributors and a rapidly ageing population; and (h) making its voice heard more in the post-Brexit debate.
Topic:: International Relations and Brexit
Political Geography:: Spain and European Union

24. Sí o no? Will Catalonia go it alone?

Author:: Janko Bekić
Publication Date:: 07-2017
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO)
Abstract:: The United Kingdom and Spain have many things in common. Both countries are former empires, constitutional monarchies and parliamentarydemocracies;of�iciallytheyare unitary states, however, devolution in the UK and the model of autonomous communities in Spain make them “federations without federalism”. Furthermore, they are both plurinational, in the sense that Britishness and Spanishness serve as overarching identities for the stateless nations of the English, Scots and Welsh within the UK, and the Castilians, Catalans, Basques and others within Spain (although, one could argue that the English and the Castilians are the real “owners” of the two countries). In the past, London as well as Madrid fought minority nationalisms with violence, triggering terrorist attacks by armed separatist and secessionist groups like the IRA and ETA. More recently, the central governments of the UK and Spain have been faced with peaceful and democratic independence movements in Scotland and Catalonia, to which they responded quite differently. While London allowed the Scottish independence referendum of September 2014, and promised to honor its result, Madrid remains adamantly opposed to a similar plebiscite in Catalonia, and vows to disrupt it with all legal means at its disposal (which, ultimately, includes the use of force). The differing approaches of British and Spanish governments to secessionism within their borders are mirrored in their foreign policies: the UK recognized the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state, while Spain (along with four other EU members) refuses to do so.
Topic:: Federalism, Autonomy, and Independence
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Spain, Catalonia, Scotland, and Western Europe

25. Iberian Electricity Sector: A transition towards a more liberalized and sustainable market

Author:: Agustin Garcia, Maria Teresa Garcia-Alvarez, and Blanca Moreno
Publication Date:: 02-2017
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:: In recent years, important policy developments have impacted the electricity market in the European Union (EU), affecting the cost of energy and resulting in changes to countries’ electricity generation mix. This paper details the Spanish and Portuguese attempts to transition to a cleaner energy economy. At the end of the last century, Iberian countries started the process of liberalizing their electricity market and promoting the use of renewable energies in the electricity mix. Their objectives included establishing a “greener” energy supply, opening new employment opportunities, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, and pursuing a more sustainable economy and society. Assuming a leading role in the energy transition process has been a novel and challenging endeavor for both countries. The economic crisis only increased those challenges, leading to mixed results. In addition to covering the evolution of the Iberian electricity sector, this paper identifies key considerations for the future.
Topic:: Energy Policy, European Union, Electricity, and Fossil Fuels
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, Portugal, and Iberia Peninsula

26. The Abandoned Trustees. Explaining Corruption in Local Government

Author:: Salvador Parrado, Victor Lapuente, and Carl Dahlström
Publication Date:: 11-2016
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
Abstract:: This paper engages in the debate about how different ways of organizing relations between politicians and bureaucrats affect corruption. Research has established robust correlations between the political autonomy of bureaucracy and low corruption, on both national and regional levels, but there are few studies that explore the causal mechanisms linking these two phenomena. We do so by comparing public procurement processes in two similar Spanish cities, interviewing all important actors. We show that relatively independent bureaucrats—so-called trustees—can act as checks to prevent political moral hazard. Yet, in order for this to occur, other institutions must support the trustee, such as a merit-based human resources policy, rules, and standard operating procedures, transparency and independent watchdogs. There is thus no silver bullet to defend us against corruption, but having these mechanisms in place makes it much more costly for politicians to oppor- tunistically bend public procurement processes to favour bribe-paying contractors.
Topic:: Corruption and Political Power Sharing
Political Geography:: Spain

27. A new step towards a common European defense

Author:: José Enrique de Ayala Marín
Publication Date:: 04-2016
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Fundación Alternativas
Abstract:: EU security has reached a critical point unparalleled since the end of the cold war. The threat of Jihadism, instability in Eastern Europe, failing states and human trafficking are problems it must deal with at a moment at which the United States is seeking to play a lesser role in European defence. Although as many as 34 civilian and military operations have been conducted during the 16 years in which the CSDP has been active, this instrument is far from being sufficient to meet the EU's security requirements. Of the various areas in which the CSDP must now be strengthened – which range from strategy definition and the development of common capacities to financing and force structure – the most important is Command and Control, a point that has been resolved at the political-strategic level but remains pending at the military-strategic level due to the lack of a permanent European operational headquarters (OHQ) that obliges the Union to negotiate specific agreements in every instance that one is required. None of the three current options for establishing an OHQ satisfies the availability, rapid response and capacity requirements for conducting CSDP operations. The use of NATO assets contemplated in the Berlin Plus agreement has for all intents and purposes been blocked by the diplomatic deadlock between Cyprus and Turkey, the response provided by national OHQs (which are not exclusively devoted to EU defence) is slow, and the capacity of the EU Centre of Operations is severely limited. This problem can only be resolved by creating a permanent, joint, combined, modular and sustainable European Operational Headquarters (EOHQ) with the planning, command, control and coordination capacities needed to guarantee that a 6 military commander can carry out his responsibilities in close coordination with the commander of civilian operations and the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability. An EOHQ would give the CSDP the visibility and rapid response capability it must have to work effectively in an increasingly unstable environment in which heightened security measures are essential and the launch of new operations is inevitable. Its establishment would have a multiplier effect in that it would lead to other initiatives that would pave the way for the expansion of the CSDP – a crucial step towards the common European defence envisioned in EU Treaties that should be a key EU objective. Promoting the creation of this structure and participating in its realisation should be one of the priorities of those Member States, including Spain, that are in favour of strengthening the CSDP as part of a process of political convergence, and consider such a measure to be the most appropriate, urgent and effective action to afford European citizens a higher level of security and a collective contribution towards the achievement of the paramount goal of peace.
Topic:: Security, Regional Cooperation, Military Strategy, Violent Extremism, and European Union
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Brussels

28. The role of consumer generated contents in the music industry: conflicts and perspectives

Author:: Hector Fouce
Publication Date:: 04-2016
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Fundación Alternativas
Abstract:: Digital culture already is the present in which we live. The wounds of transition from the analogue model are being gradually left behind and a new model of culture has taken root in our societies. A model whereby users are no longer limited to consume what the media and cultural societies generate, but are now active elements in their circulation and, often, of creativity itself. Evidentently, this new model has generated disruptions and transformations, which, in the case of music, were initially dramatic. But right now the music market is taking advantage of the oportunities in the Internet, and has been growing during the last four years, with the digital market in Spain receiving in 2016 over one hundred million Euros -61% of its revenue. (Promusicae, 2017), while a new panorama is consolidating with new actors, new relationships among them and new ways of action from authors, industries, technologies and users. This work will explore the exisiting interweaving tensions, endeavoring to point out some ecommendations towards a horizon that brings together the potentialities of technologies, the fair remuneration of those whose way of life is music, and the daily practices of the listeners who make music so important .
Topic:: Mass Media, Culture, Internet, and Digital Culture
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Western Europe

29. China in Latin America: Repercussions for Spain

Author:: Mario Esteban
Publication Date:: 10-2015
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Elcano Royal Institute
Abstract:: Relations between China and Latin America are complex, strengthening, notably asymmetrical and fundamentally economic. Ties have intensified rapidly in recent years, to the extent of shaping the evolution of countries in the region and their processes of regional integration. Spain cannot afford to remain indifferent to this phenomenon, given its close links to this part of the world. The strengthening of ties between China and Latin America has a double-edged impact on Spanish interests. On the one hand, the headway that China is making in the region translates into a loss of Spanish influence and attraction in one of the traditional spheres for Spain’s foreign policy. On the other hand, the greater presence of China can contribute to the development of the region and is generating opportunities for cooperation and synergies with Spanish players, both public and private, on multiple stages.
Topic:: International Affairs and Geopolitics
Political Geography:: China, Latin America, and Spain

30. The 2015 Spanish General Election: Political parties’ international priorities

Author:: Elcano Royal Institute
Publication Date:: 12-2015
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Elcano Royal Institute
Abstract:: The Elcano Royal Institute, which is about to celebrate its 15th anniversary, has been working on three tasks over the course of its short but active history that are appropiate to a laboratory of ideas. In the world of think tanks, where the English language predominates, the three words that denote these tasks all begin with the letter “A”: analysis, assessment and advice. Our institute does indeed concern itself with carrying out international and strategic studies with the greatest degree of rigour possible and, as a result, throughout this time we have been providing both our society and the foreign reader interested in a Spanish perspective with serious and sophisticated knowledge on these matters. But our efforts extend beyond the provision of solid and detached analyses, because there is also a significant critical and, above all, prescriptive component, which is what sets us apart from an exclusively academic research centre. Setting out from a position that is independent but also committed to the collective interests of the country, our reports and documents venture to assess prospective opportunities and threats, indicate our shortcomings, identify good comparative practice, and note potential innovations that might enable Spain (whether its public sector, its civil society or its population in general) to insert itself into globalization and the process of European integration.
Topic:: Globalization, International Affairs, Elections, and Democracy
Political Geography:: Spain

31. Where Next for the Euro Zone?

Publication Date:: 02-2015
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Economist Intelligence Unit
Abstract:: The political and economic events taking place in Greece and across Europe are shaking confidence in the future of the euro zone, and the spotlight has been focused on where the economic future of Europe lies. This report provides a snapshot of The Economist Intelligence Unit's outlook for some of Europe's most important as well as some of its most fragile member states: Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland. Each article analyses current political and economic events, forecasting short- and long-term trends that help you to influence decision-making and economic outcomes for your business.
Political Geography:: Greece, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Ireland

32. The Basque Conflict and ETA: The Difficulties of an Ending

Author:: Teresa Whitfield
Publication Date:: 12-2015
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: Violence at the hands of the Basque separatist organization ETA was for many years an anomalous feature of Spain’s transition to democracy. This report, which draws on the author’s book Endgame for ETA: Elusive Peace in the Basque Country (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2014), explains why this was the case, examines both the factors that contributed to ETA’s October 2011 announcement of an end to violence and the obstacles encountered in moving forward from that announcement to disarmament and dissolution, and extracts lessons relevant for other contexts.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Armed Struggle, Territorial Disputes, and Counter-terrorism
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

33. The Europe We Would Like to Inherit: Toward a Visionary New Pragmatism

Author:: Dustin Dehez, Muddassar Ahmed, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Spela Kranjc, and Ivo Sobral
Publication Date:: 07-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: Europe urgently needs to move forward on a number of crucial reforms simultaneously. To face the challenges of the recession, we need better economic integration. The crisis of the Euro zone is not only a debt crisis. What Europe is facing is a multitude of different crises, of which the debt crises in Greece, Cyprus, Spain, and Italy are only a small part. All European countries have accumulated huge debts, their social security models are facing an inevitable demographic challenge of enormous proportions. The conventional crisis management response—austerity—has failed to create a foundation for future economic stability. To survive, Europe needs to rethink the very foundations of its economic policies for a population that is older and a Europe more fractured. Europe needs to open itself up to immigration, foster regulation and integration of financial markets, overhaul social security structures set up decades ago, galvanize productive investment in new post-carbon industries that will create jobs and spur technological innovation, and invest in a security sector that is capable of projecting stability.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, Politics, and Reform
Political Geography:: Europe, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Cyprus

34. Güney Avrupa'da Ekonomik Kriz ve Toplumsal Hareketler

Author:: Burak Cop
Publication Date:: 02-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Global Political Trends Center (GPoT)
Abstract:: The southern European countries are those who have been affected the most by the EU sovereign debt crisis. However, compared with Greece and Spain, Italy and Portugal are in relatively better positions in terms of their debt/GDP rate and unemployment figures. There has been a strong popular reaction against the austerity measures in Greece, a country where leftist parties and trade unions have been traditionally strong. Due to the miserable conditions of the economy, the Greek government has been prevented from taking the publics demands into account. It is important to note that the political situation in Greece is very unstable leading to the potential relaxing of the austerity measures. There is no such instability in Spain and Portugal, making the probability of the relaxation of austerity measures unlikely, especially in Spain. Italy has the same potential for political instability as does Greece, and given that it is a country with relatively better conditions, in comparison with the others, some relaxation of the austerity measures may be expected if the centre-left coalition comes to power.
Topic:: Debt, Economics, Global Recession, Financial Crisis, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:: Europe, Greece, and Spain

35. Sovereign Debt Sustainability in Italy and Spain: A Probabilistic Approach

Author:: William R. Cline
Publication Date:: 08-2012
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: This paper introduces a new probabilistic approach to sovereign debt projections and presents new estimates of debt ratios through 2020 for Italy and Spain. The new approach takes account of likely correlations across 243 alternative scenarios with three states (good, baseline, bad) for five key variables (growth, interest rate, primary surplus, bank recapitalization, and privatization). The 25th and 75th percentile scenarios are reported, as are the baseline and probability-weighted outcomes. The results suggest sovereign debt is sustainable in both Italy (where debt ratios are likely to decline because of a high primary surplus) and Spain (where the ratios rise but at a decelerating pace and from relatively low levels).
Topic:: Debt, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: Spain and Italy

36. Mispricing of Sovereign Risk and Multiple Equilibria in the Eurozone

Author:: Paul De Grauwe and Yuemei Ji
Publication Date:: 01-2012
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This paper finds evidence that a significant part of the surge in the spreads of the PIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) in the eurozone during 2010-11 was disconnected from underlying increases in the debt-to-GDP ratios, and was the result of negative market sentiments that became very strong since the end of 2010.
Topic:: Economics, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland

37. Civil Society After Dictatorship: a Comparison of Portugal and Spain, 1970s–1990s

Author:: Tiago Fernandes
Publication Date:: 03-2012
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This paper explains variations in patterns of civil society among third-wave democracies by comparing the cases of Portugal and Spain. In the former a civil society developed that had a tendency to be more oriented toward national issues and politics, whereas in the latter civil society tended to be more local, social, and disconnected from politics. Portugal, although having both a less developed economy and historically a weaker democratic tradition than Spain's, was a democracy that between the early 1970s and the mid-1990s offered more opportunities for the organized civic expression of popular interests.
Topic:: Civil Society, Democratization, Government, Human Rights, and Markets
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Portugal

38. Walking on Water: Religion, Historical Memory and Human Rights in Spain and Australia

Author:: Michael Phillips
Publication Date:: 12-2012
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
Abstract:: The parable of Jesus walking on water occurs in three of the gospels. This parable was used by Imanol Zubero, former Socialist Senator and Basque peace activist, now Professor at the Basque Country University, to describe to me the position of the Catholic Church in Spain today: where once the Church had known how to walk on water and call to the Spanish people to follow it, today the Church has lost its prophetic voice and is in danger of becoming a closed sect. Zubero was referring to the 1970s when the Church played a positive, and widely admired, role in the Spanish Transition to democracy. In this paper I try to account for this change by considering cases from two very different Catholic traditions, Spain and Australia, which have at least one thing in common: in both cases the Church has been accused of responsibility for historical wrong-doing and complicity in human rights abuses.
Topic:: Civil War, Human Rights, Religion, History, and Reform
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Australia/Pacific

39. Korea's Growth Performance: Past and Future

Author:: Marcus Noland
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: South Korea is arguably the premier development success story of the last half century. For 47 years starting in 1963, the economy averaged 7 percent real growth annually, and experienced only two years of economic contraction: 1980 after the second oil shock and the assassination of President Park Chung-hee, and 1998 at the nadir of the Asian financial crisis. At the start of that period South Korea had a per capita income lower than that of Mozambique or Bolivia; today it is richer than Spain or New Zealand, and was the first Asian and first non-G7 country to host a summit of the G20, the unofficial steering committee of the world economy.
Topic:: Demographics, Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Israel, Asia, South Korea, Spain, Mozambique, New Zealand, and Bolivia

40. Adjustment Difficulties and Debt Overhangs in the Eurozone Periphery

Author:: Daniel Gros and Cinzia Alcidi
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This paper describes four key drivers behind the adjustment difficulties in the periphery of the eurozone: The adjustment will be particularly difficult for Greece and Portugal, as two relatively closed economies with low savings rates. Both of these countries combine high external debt levels with low growth rates, which suggest they are facing a solvency problem. In both countries fiscal adjustment is a necessary condition for overall sustainability, but it not sufficient by itself. A sharp cut in domestic consumption (or an unrealistically large jump in exports) is required to quickly establish external sustainability. An internal devaluation (a cut in nominal wages in the private sector) is unavoidable in the longer run. Without such this adjustment in the private sector, even continuing large-scale provision of official funding will not stave off default. Ireland's problems are different. They stem from the exceptionally large losses in the Irish banks, which were taken on by the national government, leading to an explosion of government debt. However, the Irish sovereign should be solvent because the country has little net foreign debt. Spain faces a similar problem as Ireland, although its foreign debt is somewhat higher but its construction bubble has been less extreme. The government should thus also be solvent, although further losses in the banking system seem unavoidable. Italy seems to have a better starting position on almost on all accounts. But its domestic savings rate has deteriorated substantially over the last decade.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: Spain and Ireland

41. Financial Integration and Foreign Banks in Latin America: Do They Amplify External Financial Shocks?

Author:: Liliana Rojas-Suarez, Arturo J. Galindo, and Alejandro Izquierdo
Publication Date:: 02-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: This paper explores the impact of international financial integration on credit markets in Latin America. Using a cross-country dataset covering 17 Latin American countries between 1996 and 2008, the authors find that financial integration amplifies the impact of international financial shocks on aggregate credit and interestrate fluctuations. Despite this pernicious effect, the net impact of integration on deepening credit markets is positive and dominates for the large majority of states of nature. The paper also uses a detailed bank-level dataset covering more than 500 banks in Latin America for a similar time period to explore the role of financial integration—captured through the participation of foreign banks—in propagating external shocks. The authors find that interest rates charged and loans supplied by foreign-owned banks respond more to external financial shocks than those supplied by domestically owned banks. However, this result does not hold for all foreign banks: Spanish banks in the sample behave more like domestic banks and do not amplify the impact of foreign shocks on credit and interest rates. Important policy recommendations to avoid foreign banks' amplification of external financial shocks include the establishment of ring-fencing mechanisms, the development of early-warning systems, and the incorporation for agreements between domestic and foreign supervisors.
Topic:: Economics and Markets
Political Geography:: Latin America and Spain

42. Adjustment Difficulties in the GIPSY Club

Author:: Daniel Gros
Publication Date:: 03-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This paper describes the key economic variables and mechanisms that will determine the adjustment process in those euro area countries now under financial market pressure. (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy = GIPSY) The key finding is that the adjustment will be particularly difficult for Greece (and Portugal) because these are two relatively closed economies with low savings rates. Both of these countries are facing a solvency problem because they combine high debt levels with low growth and high interest rates. Fiscal and external adjustment is thus required for sustainability, not just to satisfy the Stability Pact. By contrast, Ireland and Spain face more of a liquidity than a solvency problem. Italy seems to have a much better starting position on all accounts. Fiscal adjustment alone will not be sufficient to ensure sustainability. Without significant reductions in labour costs, these economies will face years of stagnation at best. Especially in the case of Greece, it is imperative that the cuts in public sector wages are transmitted to the entire economy in order to restore competitiveness, and thus ensure that export growth can become a vital safety valve. Without an adjustment of wages in the private sector, the adjustment will become so difficult that failure cannot be excluded.
Topic:: Debt, Economics, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: Europe, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland

43. EU-India strategic partnership: Taking the stock

Author:: Alok Rashmi Mukhopadhyay
Publication Date:: 08-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of Foreign Policy Studies, University of Calcutta
Abstract:: The prevalent perception of the European Union (EU) in India is predominantly constructed by the British and American media. At the time of a global economic downturn, its ripple effects on the continent especially on the 'PIIGS' (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) and an imminent crack in the Eurozone have been the debate of the day. In a recent article in The National Interest, James Joyner, has however examined this genre of 'Europe's obituary'. Making a comparison with EU's transatlantic sibling, he identifies three errors in this type of analyses, 'treating the EU as if it were a nation-state, regarding anything less than utopia as a failure, and projecting short-term trends long into the future'. However Joyner is also right when he describes the EU as 'a confusing array of overlapping treaty commitments'.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, America, Europe, India, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland

44. US Hamas policy blocks Middle East peace

Author:: Henry Siegman
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:: Failed bilateral talks over these past 16 years have shown that a Middle East peace accord can never be reached by the parties themselves. Israeli governments believe they can defy international condemnation of their illegal colonial project in the West Bank because they can count on the US to oppose international sanctions.
Topic:: Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, Israel, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Ireland

45. Justice in Times of Transition: Lessons from the Iberian Experience

Author:: Omar G. Encarnación
Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: A key contention of the transitional justice movement is that the more comprehensive and vigorous the effort to bring justice to a departed authoritarian regime the better the democratizing outcome will be. This essay challenges this view with empirical evidence from the Iberian Peninsula. In Portugal, a sweeping policy of purges intended to cleanse the state and society of the authoritarian past nearly derailed the transition to democracy by descending into a veritable witch-hunt. In Spain, by contrast, letting bygones be bygones, became a foundation for democratic consolidation. These counter-intuitive examples suggest that there is no pre-ordained outcome to transitional justice, and that confronting an evil past is neither a requirement nor a pre-condition for democratization. This is primarily because the principal factors driving the impulse toward justice against the old regime are political rather than ethical or moral. In Portugal, the rise of transitional justice mirrored the anarchic politics of the revolution that lunched the transition to democracy. In Spain, the absence of transitional justice reflected the pragmatism of a democratic transition anchored on compromise and consensus.
Topic:: Human Rights, Politics, International Affairs, and Law
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, Portugal, and Iberia Peninsula

46. Criss-Crossing Globalization: Uphill Flows of Skill-Intensive Goods and Foreign Direct Investment

Author:: Arvind Subramanian and Aaditya Mattoo
Publication Date:: 08-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: This paper documents an unusual and possibly significant phenomenon: the export of skills, embodied in goods, services or capital from poorer to richer countries. We first present a set of stylized facts. Using a measure which combines the sophistication of a country's exports with the average income level of destination countries, we show that the performance of a number of developing countries, notably China, Mexico and South Africa, matches that of much more advanced countries, such as Japan, Spain and USA. Creating a new combined dataset on FDI (covering greenfield investment as well as mergers and acquisitions) we show that flows of FDI to OECD countries from developing countries like Brazil, India, Malaysia and South Africa as a share of their GDP, are as large as flows from countries like Japan, Korea and the US. Then, taking the work of Hausmann et al (2007) as a point of departure, we suggest that it is not just the composition of exports but their destination that matters. In both cross-sectional and panel regressions, with a range of controls, we find that a measure of uphill flows of sophisticated goods is significantly associated with better growth performance. These results suggest the need for a deeper analysis of whether development benefits might derive not from deifying comparative advantage but from defying it.
Topic:: Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Brazil, Spain, and Korea

47. Consumer Bankruptcy Regimes and Credit Default in the US and Europe

Author:: Maria Gerhardt
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This CEPS Working Document explains the consumer bankruptcy procedures in the US and the five largest European countries: the UK, Germany, France and Spain, plus Italy (which has no special legal provisions for consumer insolvency). All these countries have quite different approaches; the paper therefore presents a short overview of the insolvency procedures and trends in bankruptcy numbers for each country.
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, Europe, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy

48. España frente el referéndum europeo: o de la democracia y sus debilidades

Author:: Yanina Welp
Publication Date:: 09-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: Spain facing the European referendum: or democracy and its weaknesses: One common criticism to the European integration process has been the deficit of democratic legitimacy. Direct consultation through referendum has been proposed as a mechanism to bridge this gap, however, there is a debate about the potentialities and risks of direct democracy. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate by analysing the Spanish experience of ratifying the European constitution (February 2005).
Topic:: Democratization and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

49. No Other Life: Gangs, Guns, and Governance in Trinidad and Tobago

Author:: Dorn Townsend
Publication Date:: 12-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Small Arms Survey
Abstract:: In the last decade, gun-related homicides in Trinidad and Tobago (T T) have risen about1,000 per cent. While higher rates of crime have permeated much of the island of Trinidad in particular, overwhelmingly violence is concentrated in relatively small, hilly, and dense urban areas on the east side of Port of Spain's central business district. On a per capita basis, the eastern districts of Port of Spain are among the most dangerous places on the planet and, as a whole, the murder rate for Port of Spain is comparable to that of Baghdad (Kukis, 2009).
Topic:: Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, and Poverty
Political Geography:: Africa, Spain, and Island

50. The Politics of Adjustment and Coordination at the Regional Level: The Basque Country

Author:: Sebastian Royo
Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: Is globalization forcing non-“Coordinated Market Economies” such as Spain to converge on an Anglo-American model? This paper seeks to build on the hypotheses generated by the literature on “Varieties of Capitalism” to analyze the challenges of developing and sustaining coordination while adjusting for economic change. In particular it seeks to explore ways in which subnational factors promote the ability of socioeconomic actors to develop public-private institutions. By focusing on a particular autonomous region of Spain, the Basque Country, this paper will explore the role of institutional arrangements at the regional level in determining national adjustment. In the Basque Country the relative power and the particular interests of the regional state have been central factors in promoting distinctive patterns of coordination. At the same time, actors' preferences and policy outcomes have been constrained by the differences in the quality and configuration of institutional frameworks, political deals, and the existing economic structure.
Topic:: Economics and Markets
Political Geography:: America, Europe, and Spain

51. Análisis de la ideología empresarial regiomontana. Un acercamiento a partir del periódico El Norte

Author:: Cintia Smith Pussetto, Nancy Janett García Vázquez, and Jesús David Pérez Esparza
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: Monterrey, capital city of Nuevo León, has distinguished itself for an outstanding peripherical industrialization process that started at the end of the nineteenth century and achieved its consolidation during the twentieth. Monterrey is an unique object of study in the extent that it links the industrial structures with the development of a conservative local bourgeoisie, which has showed resistance toward the centralizing trends of the Mexican State. This paper presents the results of a content analysis of the city's most important newspaper, El Norte, in order to determine its role as a broadcaster and reinforcer of the local bussiness ideology.
Topic:: Civil Society, Development, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Spain

52. Justicia y decisión en el discurso presidencial argentino sobre la memoria (2003-2007)

Author:: Ana Soledad Montero
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: The claim for “memory” and “justice” regarding the crimes of the last military dictatorship took a central place in the agenda of Argentina's former president N. Kirchner (2003 - 2007). The purpose of this work is to analyze the tensions and complexities entailed in any process of construction of a collective memory within democracy: What is the role of the authority and the political decision? How can we find common tolerance principles to establish the limits of the political community? Finally, we wonder about the theoretical and practical possibility of justice, tolerance and pluralism in democracy and, particularly, about the main challenges faced by the Argentinean democracy in order to become a consolidated political community.
Topic:: Civil Society, Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Argentina, South America, Latin America, Central America, and Spain

53. Las autodefensas y el paramilitarismo en Colombia (1964-2006)

Author:: Pedro Rivas Nieto and Pablo Rey García
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: This paper studies the phenomenon of the Colombian paramilitarism from its formal emergence, in the sixties, up to its formal disappearance, in 2006. This analysis comprises the evolution and the relations with diverse social groups that constituted the paramilitary movements, specially ranchers, drugs traffickers and the Armed Forces. Special emphasis is given to the change produced among the “self-defence groups” -legitimate defence supported by the State- and the paramilitary groups, whose purpose in the beginning was to finish with the insurgency, but at the end both of them were dedicated to criminal activities.
Topic:: Civil Society, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Colombia, Central America, and Spain

54. El papel de la prensa en la construcción de la democracia española: de la muerte de Franco a la Constitución de 1978

Author:: Ricardo Zugasti
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: Through content analyses focused on the political news on front pages and on the introduction of the democratic values in newspaper editorials, this article outlines the political role of the Spanish press during the principal stage of the transition to democracy, an exceptional journalistic period. This piece of research could be likewise considered as a contribution, through a particular case, to the role of the press in political transitions.
Topic:: Civil Society and Democratization
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

55. Corresponsabilidad Estado-sociedad civil internacional. Greenpeace España y el caso Prestige

Author:: Nancy Janett García Vázquez, Paulina Coronel Arias, Elisa G. Gaxiola Baqueiro, Ana Lucia Mendoza Ibarra, and Aída Patiño Macía
Publication Date:: 04-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: Nowadays it is possible to talk about state-civil society co-responsibility. Although the state is still the dominant actor of the international system, globalization has led it to a re-structuration process. International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have begun to play a key role in the design of solutions to issues not entirely attended by the state. In this paper we argue that INGOs have addressed topics that affect the international commu-nity—for instance, the environment—and have occasionally complemented the state's functions. To demonstrate our thesis, we will analyze the Span-ish authorities' and Greenpeace's reactions towards the environmental disaster caused by the oil tanker Prestige's sinking off the coast of Galicia.
Topic:: Civil Society, Development, Government, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics
Political Geography:: Spain

56. Finance and the Macro-economy: The Politics of Regulatory Reform in Europe

Author:: Sofía Perez and Jonathan Westrup
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: This paper analyzes major changes in the regulation of the financial sector in Europe over the last three decades. Focusing on the pattern of change across five countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain), the paper identifies two major periods of regulatory change: first, the shift away from postwar patterns of credit regulation in the 1970s and 1980s, and second, the intensification of state supervisory powers and the introduction of new regulatory structures from the 1990s to the present. In both cases, the authors point to the way in which different models of financial sector regulation affect the political consequences of macro-economic policy for political elites as an explanation for choices that governments have made in the regulatory arena. More specifically, while regulatory change in the first period may be largely explained by the way in which different postwar models of credit regulation impinged upon a government's political ability to impose disinflation, choices in favor of different regulatory structures in the second period (single regulator in Britain and Germany versus multiple regulators in the other countries) can be related to differences in the area of pension reform. By focusing on the political implications that different modes of financial regualtion can have for elected officials in the context of different macroeconomic scenarios, the authors offer an explanation of regualtory change that differs from accounts which emphasize the primacy of financial market forces in driving such change.
Topic:: Economics and Government
Political Geography:: Britain, Europe, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy

57. Who Are the Catalans? Language, Identity and Assimilation in Contemporary Catalonia

Author:: Thomas Jeffrey Miley
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: This paper analyzes patterns of linguistic adaptation, cultural assimilation, and hidden contestation in contemporary Catalonia. It makes use of public opinion data available for the general population there, compared and contrasted with the results of primary research from 355 interviews conducted by this author with a random sample of Catalan politicians and schoolteachers. In the process, it assesses the relative merits of the “competitive assimilation” thesis, the dominant framework for understanding the dynamics of language politics in Catalonia. It contends that this thesis is critically flawed, both as description and as explanation.
Topic:: Civil Society and Demographics
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Catalonia

58. The Nordic Path of Spain's Mediterranean Welfare

Author:: Luis Moreno
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: Despite the fact that the Nordic welfare model has become less exceptional in recent times, it continues to offer numerous examples for “best practices” in social policy provision, together with a high degree of welfare political legitimacy. This paper explores Nordic “benchmarking” as reference to the case of welfare development in Spain. In the general process of convergence of the European welfare states towards the middle, the Spanish case stands out as the one Mediterranean EU country which has gone further in incorporating inputs and traits of the social-democratic Nordic world of welfare capitalism. While Spain's welfare state has become more liberal in macroeconomic policies, and social policymaking has followed a pattern of universalization of welfare entitlements and provision, there has been a detachment from the Bismarckian principle of income maintenance. This paper deals with Spain's evolution in two main areas, which have distinctively characterized Nordic welfare in contemporary times: fiscal resources, and female employment. The analytical purpose of the first section is to ponder the claim as to whether or not Spanish welfare has intensified a socioeconomic path in the direction of the Nordic model. Subsequently, Spain's societal changes and welfare reforms are reviewed with relation to the two areas identified as having the greatest impact in the future evolution of Spain's welfare: conciliation of work and family life, and the territorial politics of welfare provision. Concluding remarks speculate on the hypothesis that countries with fragmented political institutions and a decentralized state organization, such as Spain, may move faster and be more responsive in the development of new welfare Polices. Likewise, the emergence of gender and family issues into the political arena is also regarded as generating pressure for major changes in Spain's Mediterranean welfare, and possibly intensifying its Nordic path or component.
Topic:: Security, Economics, Markets, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

59. Foreign Trade Specialization and International Competitiveness Of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the EU 12

Author:: Bahri Yilmaz
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: The main purpose of this paper is to examine the foreign trade patterns and/or specialization in foreign trade of three EU member countries – namely, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and candidate country Turkey – and to compare the foreign trade patterns with the EU/12 in the period 1995- 2005. The paper is divided into seven main sections. The first section summarizes the export and import developments of the countries in question between the years 1995 and 2005. The second section describes the methodology and data sets. Empirical analysis is found in the third section, where in five subsections we investigate international competitiveness and trade specialization using different indices. In the fourth part of the research we compare the dynamic products in world exports with dynamic products in the exports of the four countries. The final section gives brief conclusions drawn from the results and considers the future position of Turkey within the enlarged EU. In this research we do not intend to explain why the foreign trade patterns are different in the considered countries. We simply try to show whether and where there are any differences in foreign trade specialisation among the four countries and EU/12.
Topic:: International Relations, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Regional Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: Europe, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and South Sudan

60. The “Perfidious Invasion” of 1808: Ideological Disquiet and Certainty in Moratín

Author:: Jes´us P´erez Magall´on
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: This paper revisits the afrancesados' role in Spanish historiography as well as their political positioning prior to, during and after the French invasion of 1808. Taking the famous playwright Leandro Fern´andez de Morat´ın as a case study, the paper explores his political ideas beyond established labels such as “supporter of enlightened despotism” coined by S´anchez Agesta. To this end the article reviews a variety of Morat´ın's texts, including Carta de un vecino de Foncarral a un abogado de Madrid sobre el libre comercio de los huevos, Apuntaciones sueltas de Inglaterra, Viaje a Italia, a Prologue to Isla's Fray Gerundio de Campazas, as well as Morat´ın's correspondence. The essay argues that despite his confessed social, economic and even political liberalism, Morat´ın never supported any specific form of political organization, neither absolutist nor liberal. His open skepticism locates him beyond prevailing ideologies.
Topic:: History
Political Geography:: Europe, France, and Spain

61. Mexican Silver for the Cortes of Cadiz during the War against Napoleon, 1808-1811

Author:: Carlos Marichal Salinas
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: In this essay attention is focused on the persistence of colonial loyalties despite the profound crisis at the center of the Spanish monarchy as a result of the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian peninsula. One clear indicator of colonial support can be found in the review of the numerous loans and donations collected in colonial Mexico for the purpose of assisting the patriot forces in Spain in their struggle against Napoleon. The financial contributions were considerable. Between late 1808 and early 1811, over 25 million pesos in tax monies, loans and donations were sent from New Spain to C´adiz, principal seat of patriot resistance in southern Spain.
Topic:: History
Political Geography:: Europe, France, Spain, Mexico, and Iberia Peninsula

62. Slavery, Science, and the end of the Old Regime in the Luso-Brazilian Empire

Author:: Kirsten Schultz
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: This paper provides a preliminary examination of some of the late eighteenthcentury bases for the reception of liberalism and debates on slavery, specifically the Luso-Brazilian engagement with natural science and the work of the Lisbon Royal Academy of Sciences. The Academy's work most directly concerned with the question of slavery and the slave trade appealed to economic principles of utility, efficiency and productivity to identify ways to reform the practice of enslaving Africans in the interest of increasing the wealth generated within the colonial and imperial economies. Thus, even as slavery was being assailed internationally on both philosophical and religious grounds, Luso-Brazilian Academic writing insisted it was an economic rather than moral problem. At the same time, however, Academic inquiries into the question of human difference often undercut claims about Africans that were invoked elsewhere in the Atlantic world to justify the perpetuation of slavery and the slave trade. As Academic reformism thus grappled with the humanity of Africans, civilization and barbarism emerged as privileged categories of analysis for discerning the future of slavery, reasserting the moral dimensions of the institution.
Topic:: Human Rights and History
Political Geography:: Europe, Brazil, South America, and Spain

63. Staging the Revolution(s)

Author:: David T. Gies
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: Spanish playwrights in the period between the French Revolution and the Spanish War of Independence became increasingly sensitized to militarization and conflict. Manuel José Quintana's ground-breaking Pelayo (1805) drew on tropes from Spain's historical past to discuss current and coming events. A new reading of Quintana's play suggests that he, among others, marked this rapidly changing cultural and political milieu with works that projected a growing nationalism and defense of Spain against the threats from north of the Pyrenees.
Topic:: Civil Society, War, History, and Arts
Political Geography:: Europe, France, and Spain

64. Forging Catholic National Identities in the Transatlantic Spanish Monarchy, 1808-1814

Author:: Scott Eastman
Publication Date:: 02-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: By 1810, with the convening of the Cortes of Cádiz, the opening of the public sphere and war threatening to tear apart the monarchy, Spaniards began to forge a new national identity and an inclusive transatlantic nation. The common cultural idiom of religion and the language of national sovereignty provided a unifying symbolic repertoire for Spanish national identities during the transition from the Old Regime to liberal ascendancy. Yet American independence severed the ties of a transatlantic Spanish monarchy and an inclusive national identity as prescribed in the Constitution of 1812. The Virgin of Guadalupe, which had been appropriated by royalists as well as insurgents during the War of Independence in New Spain, soon emerged as the symbolic image of the Mexican nation. Religious imagery that had served to unite Spaniards on both sides of the Atlantic fragmented into regional identifications in the Americas, and Spain itself emerged as a sovereign nation that had broken with the Old Regime.
Topic:: Nationalism, Religion, and History
Political Geography:: America, Europe, Spain, and Mexico

65. Political Elites in Federalized Countries: The Case of Spain (1980-2005)

Author:: Xavier Coller, Helder Ferreira do Vale, and Chris Meissner
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: This paper explores the social profile of the regional elite that has emerged in Spain since the democratization and federalization of the country. For the first time, researchers present data about crucial variables like gender, place of birth, age, education, and profession. They make inter-regional comparisons, put their data on an international perspective, and try to explain some unexpected findings, such as the behavior of political elites in Catalonia and Castile-La Mancha. The authors compare also the social profile of MPs of the two largest parties and show that the gap between society and political elite has been reduced over the years. The paper offers a research agenda.
Topic:: Education
Political Geography:: Spain

66. Changing Views of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Democratic Spain (1978-2006)

Author:: Carmen López Alonso
Publication Date:: 01-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: This article examines the changing views of Israel in democratic Spain and its historical background. History plays an important part in the Spanish relationship to Israel: not only have Jewish people been for centuries an "absent presence" but, during the long period of the Franco dictatorship, Israel, as a model, has played an important role in the Spanish path to democracy. That democracy has been and still is the key point in Spain's relationship to Israel explains why democratic Spain is not essentially different from the rest of Europe in what relates to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even if manifestations of antisemitism are present in Spanish public opinion, many of the criticisms of Israel are not about antisemitism but of specific Israeli policies.
Political Geography:: Europe, Israel, Palestine, and Spain

67. Peacemaking and Mediation: Dynamics of a Changing Field

Author:: Chester Crocker
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: The study of peacemaking and mediation blossomed in the immediate post-Cold War years and into the new millennium.The 2001 terrorist attacks on the US and subsequent attacks in Indonesia, Spain, and the UK, marked a significant watershed in world politics, raising the question of whether war-fighting against this new adversary would eclipse peacemaking and conflict prevention.While the jury remains out on the extent of the paradigm shift signaled by September 11, 2001, there is no question that today's environment features elements of both continuity and change for peacemakers. The threat to international security posed by certain forms of terrorism cannot be ignored. But the totality of challenges facing the international system today cannot be reduced to the terrorist threat, nor can the international community's response be reduced to a “war on terrorism.”1 In this section of the paper, we will identify important areas of consensus about peacemaking that have carried over from the late 1980s and early 1990s to the present, take note of continuing debates in the broader field of conflict management and resolution that affect the way practitioners and scholars think about their activities, and discuss certain “new emphases” in this field that can affect the way peacemakers operate, whether as state-based or unofficial actors.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Development, International Cooperation, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: United States and Spain

68. Bolivia on the Brink

Author:: Eduardo A. Gamarra
Publication Date:: 02-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: Since gaining independence from Spain in 1825, Bolivia has endured nearly two hundred coups and countercoups. Despite the establishment of comparatively democratic, civilian rule in Bolivia in 1982 through a system of “pacted democracy,” Bolivian leaders still face many of the same difficult problems as they did twenty years ago: deep-seated poverty, social exclusion of the indigenous and mestizo (of mixed racial ancestry) majority, and illegal drug production.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:: United States, South America, Spain, and Bolivia

69. The EU Border Management Strategy: FRONTEX and the Challenges of Irregular Immigration in the Canary Islands

Author:: Sergio Carrera
Publication Date:: 03-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: The EU is developing a border management strategy aiming at an "integrated and global response" to the challenges posed by the phenomenon of irregular immigration through the common external borders. "The Southern maritime borders" constitute one of the main targets addressed by this strategy. On November 2006, the European Commission published a communication calling for the reinforced management of the EU's Southern maritime borders and for the maximisation of the capacities of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union – FRONTEX. This paper provides some reflections about these current policy approaches by looking at the nature, scope and practical implications of the implementation of the Integrated Border Management strategy and its relationship with a common EU immigration policy. After assessing the latest policy developments in these areas, we raise a number of questions about some of the functions and capacities carried out by FRONTEX, and present a series of vulnerabilities characterising the joint operations coordinated by this Community body taking the example of the operations HERA I, II and III in the Canary Islands (Spain).
Topic:: International Relations, Development, and Migration
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

70. E-Activism: New Media and Political Participation in Europe

Author:: Óscar García Luengo
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:: The demonstrations in Spain on March 13th, 2004 following the terrorist attacks in Madrid present an interesting challenge for political communication research. For the first time in the history of Spain, people employed communication technologies in order to create the dynamics of peaceful civil disobedience. Research on political communication has traditionally paid attention to the classic outlets in order to analyze the impact of media exposure on political affectation. Taking the cited framework as the main reference, this article compares the connection between political activism and the consumption of new and old media in European countries. Analyzing the use of these technologies is important because research on political communication has traditionally only focused on the classic media techniques to analyze the impact of media exposure on political disaffection. Therefore, using the March 13th demonstrations, this article compares the connection between political activism and the consumption of new and old media in European countries.
Topic:: Civil Society, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

71. Theater and Radical Politics in Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria: 1860-1914

Author:: Ilham Makdisi
Publication Date:: 10-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
Abstract:: In the last days of October 1909, a play celebrating the life and work of Francisco Ferrer was performed in Beirut. Ferrer, a Spanish social and political activist whose ideas combined elements of anarchism and socialism, had been executed three days before. Ferrer was a pedagogue who had created a modern curriculum and established modern schools in Barcelona based on the principle of “class harmony,” a project very similar to the ideas behind the Université Populaire that appeared in France at the same time. Ferrer's ideas enjoyed tremendous popularity throughout the world 3 both because of his pedagogy as well as his ideology, which combined Freemasonry, free thinking, a strong class consciousness, anarchism, and anticlericalism. He became an icon of the world's leftist movements in 1909, when he was falsely accused by the Spanish Church and condemned to death because of his alleged involvement in an anarchist “terrorist” attack. His trial and condemnation triggered demonstrations and protests throughout the world, from Italy to Mexico.
Topic:: Political Violence, Armed Struggle, Insurgency, and Culture
Political Geography:: Middle East, France, Arabia, Spain, Mexico, Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria

72. Inequality and Mortality: Long-Run Evidence from a Panel of Countries

Author:: Ricardo Hausmann and Edwin Lim
Publication Date:: 07-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:: We investigate whether changes in economic inequality affect mortality in rich countries. To answer this question we use a new source of data on income inequality: tax data on the share of pretax income going to the richest 10 percent of the population in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US between 1903 and 2003. Although this measure is not a good proxy for inequality within the bottom half of the income distribution, it is a good proxy for changes in the top half of the distribution and for the Gini coefficient. In the absence of country and year fixed effects, the income share of the top decile is negatively related to life expectancy and positively related to infant mortality. However, in our preferred fixed-effects specification these relationships are weak, statistically insignificant, and likely to change their sign. Nor do our data suggest that changes in the income share of the richest 10 percent affect homicide or suicide rates.
Topic:: International Relations, Globalization, Health, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Ireland, and New Zealand

73. The Costs and Benefits of Front-loading and Predictability of Immunization

Author:: Owen Barder and Ethan Yeh
Publication Date:: 02-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: How can the international community save more children's lives faster and more effectively in the 21st century? This Working Paper analyzes the extent to which “frontloading” and predictable vaccine funding, as proposed by the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), is more effective in impacting vaccine coverage than spending vaccine funds equally throughout the lives of projects. The IFFIm is an initiative of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and supported by the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Norway. An initial IFFIm investment of $4 billion is expected to prevent 5 million child deaths by 2015, and more than 5 million future adult deaths. Using a stylized model, the authors quantify the positive and negative effects of predictable vaccine funds and frontloading, and finds IFFIm's approach can increase the impact of vaccine coverage by 22%. This is because stable and long-term financing allows vaccine manufacturers and countries to plan for long periods of time, knowing that resources will be available. Front-loading helps to reduce the spread of disease and to immunize large groups of people faster.
Topic:: Economics, Health, Human Welfare, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Norway, France, Spain, Italy, and Sweden

74. Morocco: Betting on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Author:: Pierre Hazan
Publication Date:: 07-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: Facing the Atlantic and Mediterranean, just nine miles from the Spanish coast, Morocco is essential for stability in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and American interests in these regions. The United States and the European Union fully recognize its strategic importance. Its proximity, large diaspora, and extensive trade with Europe place it at the top of the EU's Mediterranean strategy agenda. The United States has designated Morocco a major non-NATO ally; it also was one of the first Arab countries to sign a free-trade agreement with the United States. The Kingdom of Morocco is facing four challenges: weak economic growth; a social crisis resulting from social inequalities, with 20 percent of the population in absolute poverty and 57 percent illiterate; lack of trust in the governing institutions because of the high level of corruption; and an unstable regional and international environment. These factors strengthen the appeal of various Islamist movements, from moderate to more radical groups such as the authors of the deadly bombings in Casablanca in 2003 and Madrid in 2004. Moreover, the conflict over the Western Sahara places Morocco's and Algeria's armies, the two most powerful in North Africa, toe to toe. Unlike Tunisia and Algeria, since the end of the Cold War Morocco has taken steps toward political liberalization, and its pace has accelerated since Mohammed VI came to the throne in 1999. As part of the process of liberalization, the king established a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) in January 2004. This is one of very few cases in which a TRC was created without a regime change. Thousands of victims tortured during the reign of King Mohammed's father, King Hassan II, have been given the opportunity to voice their sufferings publicly and have been promised financial compensation. Such outcomes are unprecedented in a region known for its culture of impunity. Morocco is the first Arab Islamic society to establish a TRC. Its experience shows that political factors play a primary role in the functioning of such a body, while religious and cultural factors are of secondary importance. Although the Moroccan TRC is not an exportable model, it could inspire other majority Muslim societies, such as Afghanistan and Lebanon, which are envisaging or might set up TRCs to confront crimes of past regimes. Some security experts hoped the TRC would be effective in the “soft war” against terrorism by winning the hearts and minds of the population. The actual experience in Morocco shows the limits of this approach. The tension is too strong between the perceived requirements of the antiterrorist struggle and a process to establish accountability for past crimes and advance democratization. In the final analysis, the “war against terrorism” has limited the TRC's impact in Morocco. The report of the Moroccan TRC, published in early 2006, recommended diminution of executive powers, strengthening of parliament, and real independence for the judicial branch. The king and the political parties must decide in the coming years if they will permit the transformation of the “executive monarchy” of Morocco into a parliamentary monarchy. This decision will affect the stability of the kingdom, North Africa, and, to a lesser extent, Europe and the Middle East.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Development
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Africa, United States, America, Europe, Middle East, Arabia, Algeria, Spain, North Africa, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia

75. The Consolidation of Democracy vs. the Price of Olive Oil: The Story of Why the CAP Delayed Spain's Entry to the EC

Author:: Lorena Ruano
Publication Date:: 04-2005
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:: Why did agriculture, a supposedly 'low politics' issue area, become so salient in the accession negotiations between Spain and the EC? Why did it manage to obscure the 'high politics' motives of regional stability and democratic consolidation?
Topic:: International Relations, Agriculture, Democratization, and Politics
Political Geography:: Spain

76. The Process from Authoritarianism to Democracy in Spain: the Impact of the 1981 Failed Cup

Author:: José A. Olmeda
Publication Date:: 02-2005
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new (Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 6).
Topic:: Security, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

77. The Limits of Europeanization: Regulatory Reforms in the Spanish and Portuguese Telecommunications and Electricity Sectors

Author:: Jacint Jordana, David Levi-Faur, and Imma Puig
Publication Date:: 07-2005
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:: The creation of an EU-level regulatory regimes for telecommunications and electricity was a highly successful political initiative of the European Commission. In promoting market liberalization for telecommunications (a key sector in the creation of the 'information economy') and electricity (one of the sectors most resistant to change) the European Commission asserted the political importance of European project. Indeed, the two new regimes are commonly cited as successful cases of 'Europeanization'. However, this paper argues that the causal link between European initiatives and national policy change is weak. Building on an emerging tradition of cross-sector research of these two sectors, and considering two most-similar European countries, the paper examines commonalities and variations in the regulatory reforms of telecommunications and electricity in Spain and Portugal in the last two decades. It applies a series of comparisons, including a stepwise comparative analysis of two countries (one a reluctant liberalizer, the other an enthusiastic one), of two sectors (a pace-setter and a foot-dragger) and of two time periods (before and after the regulatory reforms). We suggest that processes of Europeanization can impinge on the strategic capacities of European member states only to a limited degree. Spain and Portugal were able to shape their sectors according to the preferences of their national policy communities and in a context of a global shift in the way countries both within Europe and outside it defined their interests.
Topic:: International Cooperation, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Portugal

78. On the Continuing Relevance of the Weberian Methodological Perspective (with Applications to the Spanish Case of Elections in the Aftermath of Terrorism)

Author:: Robert M. Fishman
Publication Date:: 02-2005
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This paper argues for the continuing relevance of Max Weber's distinctive methodological perspective by first elaborating its constitutive elements and then applying it to the analysis of an important recent political episode: the Spanish case of elections in the aftermath of terrorism in March 2004. The paper takes as the central feature of Weberian methodology the embrace of both poles in a series of intellectual tensions such as the seeming opposition between pursuing generalizing theorization and case-specific nuance and specificity. The paper examines the basis for this approach in Weber's classic Objectivity Essay and then builds a case for its continuing relevance by arguing that the impact of the March 11, 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid on Spain's March 14 elections cannot be understood without a thorough analysis of much that is specific to the case's political history, its pattern of conflict over regional and national identities, and its distinctive nexus between institutional and social movement forms of political engagement. Emphasis is placed on the large shift of votes in the country's plurinational periphery and the electoral impact of micro-demonstrations. The paper argues that this case shows the importance of using generalizing concepts and theories without losing sight of case-specific dynamics that fail to fit within the a priori assumptions of such generalizing approaches.
Topic:: Government, Politics, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

79. "Not Merely Perfidious but Ungrateful";: The U.S. Takeover of West Florida

Author:: Robert Higgs
Publication Date:: 03-2005
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Independent Institute
Abstract:: Probably not one American in a hundred knows anything about the short-lived Republic of West Florida (1810). At first glance it might seem to have sprung from a worthy fight for self-government and independence from Spain. West Floriday, that lovely nation, Free from king and tyranny, Thru' the world shall be respected, For her true love of Liberty. On closer inspection, however, this venture, born of low-level filibuster and high-level intrigue, illustrates the same ingrained American propensity for land-grabbing so evident in other U.S. acquisitions of territory.
Topic:: Development and Politics
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and Spain

80. Financial Consequences of Widowhood in Europe: Cross-Country and Gender Differences

Author:: Namkee Ahn
Publication Date:: 03-2005
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: We document in this paper the financial consequences of widowhood using both cross-section and panel data from the European Community Household Panel. The research reveals that there are large differences across countries. For example, widowed persons in Greece and Portugal have the lowest income – less than a half that of those widowed in Austria. Cross-country differences decrease somewhat if we consider household income net of housing costs, owing to the higher share of home ownership in low-income countries. Further, the income reduction upon widowhood is generally larger for widows than it is for widowers. The difference in income between the genders is largest in Denmark, Spain, Austria and Finland, where widower s enjoy an income that is more than 30% higher that of widows. The main culprit of the differences in income between widows and widowers lies in pension regulations. As today's elderly women an d those approaching old age spent their working years in an era where women worked at home, raised children and did not participate in the labour market, many depend mostly on survivorship pensions as their main source of income. Yet in most countries this kind of pension tends to be much lower than the applicable old-age pension, owing to the prevailing pension laws. Consequently, the financial situation of widows is unlikely to improve in the medium term unless pension regulations change.
Topic:: International Relations, Demographics, and Economics
Political Geography:: Europe, Finland, Greece, Denmark, and Spain

81. La Interminable Posguerra: La Escritura De Enriqueta Antolin En Los Años Noventa

Author:: Alicia Goicoechea Redondo
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: This paper seeks to explain why the Civil War and the post-war period are dominant themes in the Spanish novels published in the 90s. Those of Enriqueta Antolin are not unique, for the theme of the post-war appears regularly in the works of both men and women authors. The paper draws on historians and analyzes a short story and four novels of Antolin to reveal her literary art and find an historical explanation for the persistent obsession with this theme.
Topic:: Demographics and Gender Issues
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

82. Mothers and Daughters in Transition and Beyond

Author:: Emilie L. Bergmann
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: With Spain's political changes, including the enfranchisement of women, in the late 1970s, and feminist theories that challenged stereotypical views of motherhood, Spanish women writers began to create more varied depictions. This essay briefly discusses the work of Montserrat Roig, Esther Tusquets, Ana Maria Moix, Nuria Amat, and Maria Mercè Roca, but its focus is on two writers' inscription of motherhood in terms of autonomy and mutual dependency: Carmen Martín Gaite's creation of maternal 'interlocutors,' and Soledad Puértolas's memoir, Con mi madre (2001) in which she writes with extraordinary honesty of the closeness and the silences she shared with her mother.
Topic:: Demographics, Gender Issues, and Politics
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

83. La batalla de la educación: Historical Memory in Josefina Aldecoa's Trilogy

Author:: Sara Brenneis
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: Josefina Aldecoa intertwines history, collective memory and individual testimony in her historical memory trilogy: Historia de una maestra, Mujeres de negro and La fuerza del destino. In the series, Gabriela and her daughter Juana navigate through the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish postwar and exile, and Spain after the death of Franco. Through the central theme of education, Aldecoa is able to express her own personal experiences of contemporary Spain alongside a generation's collective experiences. In this way, individual testimony and collective memory are fused through representations of education in Aldecoa's trilogy.
Topic:: Education, Peace Studies, and War
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

84. Women Writing on Physical Culture in Pre-Civil War Catalonia

Author:: P. Louise Johnson
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:: Anna Maria Martínez-Sagi is a largely forgotten but immensely evocative voice in the liberal-progressive press of nineteen-thirties' Spain. In particular, she is remarkable for being one of very few female writers of the time who were also active sportswomen, as well as being fiercely Catalanist and pro-women, in an inclusive sense. This article looks at her contribution to the debate on physical culture in Catalonia at the time, with reference to other writers concerned with the subject, and aims to capture in some small way the energy and humour which characterized her columns and reports.
Topic:: Education, Gender Issues, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Catalonia

85. Lessons for Post-Communist Europe from the Iberian Integration into the EU after Sixteen Years

Author:: Sebastian Royo
Publication Date:: 05-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: The purpose of this paper is to outline the main consequences for Portugal and Spain of EU integration. It uses the integration of Portugal and Spain into the European Union as an opportunity to draw some lessons that may be applicable to East European countries as they pursue their own processes of integration into the European Union. It examines challenges and opportunities that new member states from central and Eastern Europe will face when trying to integrate in the EU. Finally, the paper analyzes the impact the 2004 enlargement will have on the Iberian countries.
Topic:: Economics and Government
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

86. “Une Messe est Possible”: The Imbroglio of the Catholic Church in Contemporary Latin Europe

Author:: Paul Christopher Manuel and Margaret Mott
Publication Date:: 04-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: Throughout the contemporary period, the Church-State relationship in the nation-states of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal – which we will refer to as Latin Europe in this paper – has been a lively source of political conflict and societal cleavage, both on epistemological, and ontological grounds. Epistemological, in that the person living in Latin Europe has to decide whether his world view will be religious or secular; ontological, in that his mortality has kept some sense of the Catholic religion close to his heart and soul at the critical moments of his human reality. Secular views tend to define the European during ordinary periods of life, (“métro boulot dodo,”) while religious beliefs surge during the extraordinary times of life (birth, marriage, death,) as well as during the traditional ceremonial times (Christmas, Easter). This paper will approach the question on the role of the Catholic church in contemporary Latin Europe by first proposing three models of church-state relations in the region and their historical development, then looking at the role of the Vatican, followed by an examination of some recent Eurobarometer data on the views of contemporary Catholics in each country, and finishing with an analysis of selected public policy issues in each country. Throughout, it is interested in the dual questions of whether religion still plays an important role in Latin Europe, and whether or not the Catholic church is still able to influence the direction of public policies in the now democratic nation-states of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Topic:: Politics and Religion
Political Geography:: Europe, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal

87. Development Cycles, Political Regimes and International Migration

Author:: Andrés Solimano
Publication Date:: 04-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: At the turn of the twentieth century, a large number of Europeans, mostly from Italy and Spain, left their homelands and headed to the distant shores of Argentina in response to the good economic opportunities, fertile land and hopes for a better future that were to be found there. At the time, Argentina was one of the most vibrant world economies. Between 1870 and 1930, around seven million people migrated from Europe to Argentina, although nearly three million returned at some different point during those years. Also foreign capital responded to the opportunities offered by Argentina, and British financial institutions funded an important part of the construction of national infrastructure needed to support growth. In contrast, European migration to Argentina virtually stopped in the 1950s, and in the next 30 years or so the country become a net exporter of professionals who were fleeing economic decline, poor opportunities and authoritarian regimes. Moreover, during this period, financial capital steadily left Argentina looking for safer places. Nowadays, and in contrary to the flow of people a century ago, Argentineans are leaving in large numbers to Spain, Italy and other destinations. Emigration this time is associated with the collapse of the country's currency experiment of the 1990s which left a legacy of massive output decline, high unemployment, financial crisis and lost hopes.
Topic:: Development, Emerging Markets, International Political Economy, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:: Europe, Argentina, Spain, and Italy

88. Disenchanted Conscription: A Military Recruitment System in Need of Justification

Author:: Anna Leander
Publication Date:: 06-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:: The Economist's point of view is a widely shared one. It also seems warranted by current trends in policy-making in developed democracies. The US, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have abolished or are phasing out conscription. Even France, mother of citizens armies through the revolutionary levée en masse, just saw (literally as the event was broadcasted as a main feature of the evening television news) its last conscript leave the armed forces. The Nordic countries and Germany have not abolished conscription, but conscripts make up a shrinking share of the armed forces, which governments plan to shrink even further. For many observers this confirms that they simply lag behind. They will soon be brought to reason and abolish conscription. But this is a simplistic understanding of what determines the fate of conscription.
Topic:: Defense Policy, Government, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and Portugal

89. Perejil/Leila and the Euro-Med Partnership

Author:: Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:: 06-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: During the Spanish-Moroccan crisis over the Perejil/Leila islet both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have squarely supported Spanish sovereignty. They have completely ignored the special co-operation promoted with the Mediterranean countries from the mid-1990s onwards. This is particularly true with respect to the EU-initiated Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, whose ambitious agenda contemplates an articulated political and security agenda of collective cooperation with the Southern Mediterranean countries, including Morocco. For a number of reasons, the partners have failed to turn their aims into a practical reality. Nonetheless, co-operation is still on the agenda and the parties to the scheme are still apparently committed to it. It is true that one witnessed the same kind of response from the Arab side. The Arab League supported Moroccan claims just as unambiguously as the Western or European side did Spain. How can one explain that precisely at the time when the spirit of Euro-Med co-operation was most necessary it vanished?
Topic:: Security and International Law
Political Geography:: Europe, North Atlantic, Spain, North Africa, and Morocco

90. Non-Financial Corporate Risk Management and Exchange Rate Volatility in Latin America

Author:: Graciela Moguillansky
Publication Date:: 03-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: This article studies the currency risk management of multinational companies with investments in Latin American countries. The analysis is centred on episodes of currency or financial shocks, searching into the behaviour of the financial management of a firm expecting a significant devaluation. This allowed us to explore the interaction and transmission mechanisms between the microeconomic behaviour and the macroeconomic impact on the foreign exchange market. The analysis was carried out interviewing financial managers of multinational companies from different sectors with headquarters in the United Kingdom and Spain, by reviewing literature on business and currency risk management, and by analysing some surveys on financial risk management in developed countries.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, South America, Latin America, and Spain

91. Reconsidering Economic Relations and Political Citizenship in the New Iberia of the New Europe: Some Lessons from the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Accession of Portugal and Spain to the European Union

Author:: Paul Christoper Manual and Sebastián Royo
Publication Date:: 11-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:: The purpose of this paper is to use the fifteenth anniversary of the accession of Portugal and Spain to the European Union as an opportunity to reflect on what has happened to both countries since 1986. It examines the integration process and how it has affected political, economic and social developments in Portugal and in Spain over the last fifteen years. In our view, and on balance, Spain and Portugal have benefited from accession. Since the last century, the obsession of Spanish and Portuguese reformists has been to make up the lost ground with modernized Europe. EU membership has been a critical step in this direction. The record of the past fifteen years is that this dream is becoming an economic reality. Despite impressive achievements, however, namely, since 1986, Portugal's average per capita income has grown from 56 percent of the EU average to about 74 percent, whereas Spain's has grown to 83 percent—both Iberian countries still have a long way to go to reach the EU average wealth. In addition, the question of Iberian and/or European citizenship, and its impact on the Portuguese and Spanish, remains open.
Topic:: Government, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Europe and Spain

92. Improving Upon Nature: Creating Competitive Advantage in Ceramic Tile Clusters in Italy, Spain, and Brazil

Author:: Jorg Meyer-Stamer, Silene Seibel, and Claudio Maggi
Publication Date:: 10-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:: This paper shows how using a combination of a cluster and a global value chain approach helps to assess local competitive strategies and upgrading possibilities. The global ceramic tile industry is dominated by two industrial clusters, Sassuolo in Italy and Castellón in Spain, which are not only dominating tile production in their respective countries and in Europe but are also the global technology leaders and the leading exporters. The Italian tile manufacturers are closely linked with capital goods manufacturers, the Spanish with producers of glazing materials. The equipment and materials producers drive technical change and innovation in tile design, whereas the tile manufacturers try to establish a competitive advantage in particular by innovating in downstream activities: training tilers, establishing diversified brands for different sales channels, and going into direct sales. Analyzing the value chain, from inputs and capital goods to final sales, offers new insights into scope and alternatives of local upgrading. It also helps to reassess the competitiveness of tile clusters in the developing world. This is done for Brazil's leading cluster which is located in Santa Catarina. Tile firms there can benefit from the fierce rivalry among Italian capital goods producers and among Spanish producers of glazing materials, as well as the rivalry between Italy and Spain. They are technology followers. However, having to deal with a volatile and very competitive market, they are innovative in downstream activities, experimenting with concepts which are not yet used by Italian or Spanish manufacturers.
Topic:: Development, Economics, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:: Europe, Brazil, Spain, and Italy

93. Economic Integration Between the EU and the CEECS: A Sectoral Study

Author:: Francesca di Mauro
Publication Date:: 04-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: Economic integration between the EU and the CEECs has proceeded at high speed over the 90's, with the main channels of such integration being trade and FDI. Some authors believe that the 'commercial transition' is now complete and that a new, deeper phase of integration has started, with growing flows of FDI in the region. Following a gravity-type approach, in this paper I tackle two difficult issues surrounding the EU-CEECs integration: has FDI in the CEECs region substituted EU exports, therefore harming employment at home? Has FDI in the CEECs region been redirected away from similarly attractive countries, such as Spain and Portugal? By using a unique database on FDI broken down by country and by sector, which allows more detailed qualifications than possible in previous work, the answers to these two questions appear to be negative.
Topic:: Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Portugal

94. Reshaping State-Society Relations Democratization in Southern and Eastern Europe

Author:: Rafael Durán
Publication Date:: 07-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:: This comparative study attempts to analyze differences in populations' behavior during processes of transition from nondemocratic regimes to regimes democratic in intention. The central hypothesis is that the State—as reflected not only in its elites' preferences and strategies but also in its capacities—has to be considered if we are to understand mass behavior, whether transgressive or moderate, and even mass demobilization. The comparison includes two Southern European countries, Portugal and Spain during the mid-seventies, as points of reference and, as the main empirical cases, two Eastern European countries, Hungary and Romania, in which democratization began in 1989.
Topic:: Civil Society and Democratization
Political Geography:: Europe, Romania, Hungary, Spain, and Portugal

95. Euro Spectator 2000 - Italy

Author:: Silvia Nenci and Marina Mancini
Publication Date:: 01-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: According to the “Eurobarometer” survey (Eurobarometer No 54), conducted in November and December 2000 among more than 16,000 citizens of the European Union, 55% (-3% in comparison with spring 2000) of Europeans support the single currency, whilst 37% do not. The Member States in which support is strongest are Italy (79%), Luxembourg (75%), Belgium (72%), Greece (70%), Ireland (69%), Spain (68%) and the Netherlands (64%). The majority of public opinion is against the Euro in Sweden (26%), the United Kingdom (21%), Denmark (41%) and Finland (45%). Looking at Italy, results show that 79% of citizens are in favour of the Euro (-2% in comparison with previous six months), 17% are against it (+ 3%) and the remaining 4% are indifferent.
Topic:: Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, Finland, Greece, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Ireland, and Luxembourg

96. Consumer Credit in the European Union

Author:: Nuria Diez Guardia
Publication Date:: 02-2000
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This report analyses the European consumer credit markets and their regulation at European level. Its findings are as follows: European consumer credit markets are characterised by deep national differences and strong market segmentation. The report finds no generalised model of consumer credit from the analysis of statistical data. An Anglo-Saxon consumer credit model cannot be identified. The weight of consumer credit is far higher in the US economy than in the EU countries, including the UK. In the US, the share of consumer loans made by banks is much lower, securitisation of consumer credit assets is very developed and the share of revolving credit is much greater than in the EU countries. Nor is it possible, on account of the large differences in the use of consumer credit observed across EU countries, to identify a European model of consumer credit. Consumer credit is very widely used in Sweden, whereas it is underdeveloped in Greece and Italy. The use of consumer credit reaches comparatively high levels in Germany and the UK and an intermediate level in France and Spain. Lending to consumers is carried out through bank intermediation, crossborder provision is non-existent.
Topic:: Economics and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Greece, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS