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982. The growth of Brazil's direct investment abroad and the challenges it faces
- Author:
- Luís Afonso Lima and Octavio de Barros
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- The internationalization of Brazilian companies is a relatively recent phenomenon. From 2000 to 2003, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) averaged USD 0.7 billion a year. Over the four-year period 2004−2008, this average jumped to nearly USD 14 billion. In 2008, when global FDI inflows were estimated to have fallen by 15%, OFDI from Brazil almost tripled, increasing from just over USD 7 billion in 2007 to nearly USD 21 billion in 2008 (annex figure 1 below). Central Bank data put the current stock of Brazilian OFDI at USD 104 billion, an increase of 89% over 2003. Caution is in order about these figures, however, as in Brazilian outflows it is difficult to separate authentic FDI from purely financial investment under the guise of FDI. According to the most recent data, 887 Brazilian companies have invested abroad.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America
983. Outward investment by Trans-Latin enterprises: reasons for optimism
- Author:
- Michael Mortimore and Carlos Razo
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Despite the global crisis, outward FDI by Latin American firms grew by more than 40% in 2008. The picture for 2009 is less clear, due to the expected regional GDP contraction, falling commodity prices, and tightening credit markets. Nonetheless, the authors argue that many countervailing factors make Latin American investment more resilient in the crisis than other regions may be.
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
984. Outward investment by Trans-Latin enterprises: reasons for optimism
- Author:
- Michael Mortimore and Carlos Razo
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Despite the global crisis, outward FDI by Latin American firms grew by more than 40% in 2008. The picture for 2009 is less clear, due to the expected regional GDP contraction, falling commodity prices, and tightening credit markets. Nonetheless, the authors argue that many countervailing factors make Latin American investment more resilient in the crisis than other regions may be.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
985. Land grab or development opportunity? International farmland deals in Africa
- Author:
- Lorenzo Cotula
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Over the past 12 months, large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have made headlines in a flurry of media reports across the world. Lands that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest are now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Latin America
986. Jean d'Aspremont. L'Etat Non Démocratique en Droit International. Étude Critique du Droit International Positif et de la Pratique Contemporaine.
- Author:
- Christian Pippan
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- In 1992, shortly after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union marked the formal end point of the Cold War, Thomas Franck, who sadly passed away this year, famously proclaimed the emergence of a global 'right to democratic governance'. Against the backdrop of the dramatic political changes in Central and Eastern Europe, the progressive consolidation of democratic government in Latin America, burgeoning democratic reforms in various parts of Africa, and a rapidly increasing pro-democratic activism by the United Nations and other international organizations, he asserted that 'both textually and in practice, the international system is moving toward a clearly designated democratic entitlement, with national governance validated by international standards and systematic monitoring of compliance'.1 As is well known, Franck's thesis – which is largely grounded in the peoples' right to (internal) self-determination and a new reading of participatory norms contained in international human rights treaties – had a significant resonance in international legal scholarship and ushered in what came to be known as the 'democratic entitlement school'. Though the debate over the sweeping claim that, in the post-Cold War era, democracy is becoming – or has already become – a universal norm probably saw its heyday in the 1990s, it has, to this day, lost neither attraction nor relevance. Indeed, the claim's provocative nature (in light of international law's traditional indifference towards domestic constitutional orders), its assumptions about the kind of democracy advanced by the international system, as well as its potentially far-reaching consequences for states deemed to be in violation of the emerging norm continue to inspire scholars of international law and fuel an ongoing controversial discussion.
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Latin America
987. The City in the Global Crisis: Understanding Impacts and Strengthening the Performance of Stimulus Packages
- Author:
- hael Cohen
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Though countries generate more than half their GDP in urban-based economic activities, the G-20 discussions in London and Pittsburgh devoted no recorded attention to urban infrastructure. Policy makers and designers of stimulus packages ignored two fundamental aspects of this crisis: Where the greatest impact of economic contraction are and where demand can be stimulated to generate the largest possible multipliers. This paper argues that while industrialized countries take urban and spatial dimensions of their economies for granted, this perspective is counterproductive for Latin American countries that are the most urbanized among developing countries.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, Industrial Policy, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
988. Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia: In the Dock and Under the Gun
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights First
- Abstract:
- IN A CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM plagued by impunity, the tenacity with which Colombian prosecutors pursue human rights defenders for supposed crimes is striking. While corruption and arbitrary actions are a systemic problem throughout the judicial system, those who peacefully promote human rights are singled out for particular intimidation through baseless investigations and prosecutions. Unfounded charges are often widely publicized, undermining the credibility of defenders and marking them as targets for physical attack, often by paramilitary groups.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Law
- Political Geography:
- Colombia and Latin America
989. Elections and the Origins of an Argentine Democratic Tradition, 1810–1880
- Author:
- Eduardo Zimmermann
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The present paper addresses several issues raised by the evolution of the electoral institutions and practices developed in nineteenth-century Argentina, and the role they played in the country's further political development. On the basis of the pioneering works of a new political history, two features of that historical process are considered in particular: first, an early consolidation of democratic principles born out of a widely shared perception of egalitarian social conditions prevalent in the River Plate provinces; second, the development of political and electoral practices that over time were to militate against the establishment of “classical” institutions of political representation. Many of the features of nineteenth-century Argentine electoral life, which would shape a particular democratic culture in the twentieth century, are thus seen as the result of a particular historical combination of early egalitarian politics with weak institutions rather than as a reflection of a strategy of exclusion and control by ruling elites or some vague “antidemocratic” cultural legacy.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, Politics, and Social Stratification
- Political Geography:
- Argentina and Latin America
990. Institutionalizing Inequality: The Political Origins of Labor Codes in Latin America
- Author:
- Matthew E. Carnes, SJ.
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- When do labor laws protect workers from workplace risks, and when do they serve to institute or insulate the privilege of particular political and economic actors? This paper argues that Latin American labor laws are highly politicized, and have been since their early origins. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the first labor codes were formulated to favor skilled, unionized labor in key economic sectors controlled by business and governmental elites. Non-skilled labor outside of these sectors was largely locked out of the benefits of legislation. Recent efforts at market-oriented reforms, rather than creating a common (albeit weakened) norm for all workers, have only strengthened the privileges given to formal-sector, unionized workers, and widened the gap between these sectors and the unskilled workers in the informal sector. In this paper, I develop a theory of the political dynamics of labor code origins, emphasizing the explanatory role of skilled labor profiles, geographic isolation, and union organization, as well as the concentration of capital and nascent state power in the hands of a limited group of elites. I then illustrate the principal claims of the theory through a historical examination of three cases of labor law formulation: Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
- Topic:
- Human Rights and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Argentina, Latin America, Chile, and Peru
991. Social and Political Effects of Religiosity and Religious Identities in Latin America
- Author:
- Timothy R. Scully, Samuel Valenzuela, and Nicolás Somma
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper provides an empirical examination of the effects of religiosity and of religious identities on a broad range of attitudes in seven Latin American countries. It is based on ECosociAl, a new national survey of large urban areas. The topics covered in the paper include the extent to which these religious variables affect levels of civic participation, the propensity to vote in elections, self-placement on the left-to-right ideological scale, levels of happiness, confidence in institutions and in other people, and the degrees of tolerance or acceptance of people of different beliefs, personal attributes, or social condition.
- Topic:
- Religion
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
992. Argentina's Double Political Spectrum: Party System, Political Identities, and Strategies, 1944–2007
- Author:
- Pierre Ostiguy
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The paper demonstrates that the Argentine political arena or “party system” is, has been, and continues to be structured as a two-dimensional space, and more precisely, at least from 1945 to 2002, as a double political spectrum. This structure for party or leaders' competition has resisted and outlasted many regime changes, economic calamities, and institutionally short-lived political actors. In fact, positions in the two-dimensional Argentine political space are far more stable than the partisan institutions themselves; a position abandoned within it leads to the creation of a new partisan actor to fill it. The dimension orthogonal to the left-right axis, itself very present in Argentina, is clearly rooted in the social, political, political-cultural, and sociocultural cleavage between Peronism and the forces opposed to it, or “anti-Peronism.” Both Peronism and anti-Peronism, moreover, fully range from left to right, thus creating a double political spectrum in Argentina. This main cleavage, in addition, has been notoriously difficult to characterize ideologically and politically, also complicating the comparative analysis of party systems. A key goal of this paper is to show that it is best understood—in a more general way—as being a conflict and contrast between the “high” and the “low” (Ostiguy 2009) in politics.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Argentina and Latin America
993. Growing Pains in Latin America: An Economic Growth Framework as Applied to Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru
- Author:
- Liliana Rojas-Suarez
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development (CGD)
- Abstract:
- Before the global economic crisis began in 2008, all countries in Latin America, long known as the world's most economically and financially volatile region, had experienced five consecutive years of economic growth, a feat that had not been achieved since the 1970s. Yet despite this growth, Latin America's incomeper-capita gap relative to high-income countries and other emerging-market economies widened, and poverty remained stubbornly high. Latin America, in short, suffered from growing pains even when things were going reasonably well.
- Topic:
- Economics and Emerging Markets
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru
994. The Summitry of Small States: Towards the "Caribbean Summit"
- Author:
- Andrew F. Cooper and Timothy M. Shaw
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
- Abstract:
- Each Summit of the Americas forum has been accorded a single imprint. The 1994 Miami summit is remembered as the “Trade Summit,” the 1998 Santiago summit as the “Education Summit,” the 2001 Quebec City Summit as the “Democratic Summit,” and the 2005 Mar del Plata in Argentina—although officially focused on the themes of “Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance”—is best remembered as the “Summit of Disorder.” The Fifth Summit of the Americas, April 17 – 19, 2009, presents an opportunity to identify the event with a regional sub-set of the Americas: the Caribbean. The host country, Trinidad and Tobago, is the first Caribbean country to host the event and, with a population of only 1.3 million, is the smallest state ever to host “such a logistically complicated and politically sensitive gathering” (Erikson, 2009: 179). Relegated to a marginal position in the first four summits, the Caribbean now moves to centre stage in 2009.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Diplomacy
- Political Geography:
- Argentina, Latin America, Caribbean, Miami, Santiago, Quebec City, Mar del Plata, and Trinidad and Tobago
995. Outward investment by Trans-Latin enterprises: reasons for optimism
- Author:
- Michael Mortimore and Carlos Razo
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Despite the current economic crisis, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by Latin American and Caribbean enterprises continued its upward trend in 2008 (annex figure 1). OFDI by firms in the region reached nearly USD 35 billion in 2008, an increase of 42% with respect to 2007 (ECLAC, 2009a). However, several of the factors that fostered such growth have recently changed, possibly affecting OF DI prospects for 2009. This Perspective briefly explores these changes and their potential effects on firms' investing behavior, as well as some important countervailing factors that may cushion the effects of the economic crisis on Latin American firms' investment plan.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Mexico
996. The growth of Brazil's direct investment abroad and the challenges it faces
- Author:
- Luís Afonso Lima and Octavio de Barros
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- The internationalization of Brazilian companies is a relatively recent phenomenon. From 2000 to 2003, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) averaged USD 0.7 billion a year. Over the four-year period 2004−2008, this average jumped to nearly USD 14 billion. In 2008, when global FDI inflows were estimated to have fallen by 15%, OFDI from Brazil almost tripled, increasing from just over USD 7 billion in 2007 to nearly USD 21 billion in 2008 (annex figure 1 below). Central Bank data put the current stock of Brazilian OFDI at USD 104 billion, an increase of 89% over 2003. Caution is in order about these figures, however, as in Brazilian outflows it is difficult to separate authentic FDI from purely financial investment under the guise of FDI. According to the most recent data, 887 Brazilian companies have invested abroad
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America
997. Gangs, Drugs, Terrorism— and Information-sharing
- Author:
- Greg Gardner and Robert Killebrew
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- The conflict in Mexico between the government and criminal drug cartels has been in the news lately, particularly because of the horrific levels of violence and its proximity to our border. The U.S. Government is increasingly concerned, and President Barack Obama has turned to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for options to provide timely support to Mexico. But the “cartel war” in Mexico, which is increasingly spilling into the United States, is just the latest, most visible indicator of steadily deteriorating civil order south of the border.
- Topic:
- Crime, Terrorism, War on Drugs, Counterinsurgency, and Narcotics Trafficking
- Political Geography:
- United States, Latin America, and Mexico
998. Recovery: The Global Financial Crisis and Middle-Income Countries
- Author:
- Alejandro Foxley
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- No country has proved immune to the devastating effects of the current global financial crisis. But the middle-income countries of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and East Asia, which previously had achieved significant progress—economically and socially— have shown themselves to be particularly vulnerable. The crisis has high- lighted important lessons for these countries, which inhabit a twilight zone between the developed and developing worlds –and those that aspire to join their ranks – as they rebuild
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Europe, East Asia, and Latin America
999. Can Latin America Prosper by Reducing the Size of Government?
- Author:
- Radhames Lizardo and André V. Mollick
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This article examines the effect of government consumption on economic growth in 23 Latin American countries over the years 1974–2003. Employing the Armey Curve, we show that the typical Latin American government is spending beyond the optimal point. Using panel data and a fixed effects (FE) model, we find that increases in government consumption lead to unambiguous decreases in economic growth.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- China and Latin America
1000. Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality
- Author:
- Jeffery G. Williamson
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Most analysts of the modern Latin American economy hold to a pessimistic belief in historical persistence-they believe that Latin America has always had very high levels of inequality, suggesting it will be hard for modern social policy to create a more egalitarian society. This paper argues that this conclusion is not supported by what little evidence we have. The persistence view is based on an historical literature which has made little or no effort to be comparative. Modern analysts see a more unequal Latin America compared with Asia and the rich post-industrial nations and then assume that this must always have been true. Indeed, some have argued that high inequality appeared very early in the post-conquest Americas, and that this fact supported rent-seeking and anti-growth institutions which help explain the disappointing growth performance we observe there even today. This paper argues to the contrary. Compared with the rest of the world, inequality was not high in pre-conquest 1491, nor was it high in the postconquest decades following 1492. Indeed, it was not even high in the mid-19th century just prior Latin America's belle époque. It only became high thereafter. Historical persistence in Latin American inequality is a myth.
- Political Geography:
- Latin America