American Government Research Articles

Book Review: Mariya P. Ivancheva, The Alternative University: Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela, Stanford University Press, 2023, 216pp.

Among the pantheon of left-wing Latin American governments that swept the continent in the early 21st century, arguably the most radical, most beguiling, most contradictory, and most tragic, is the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Given its unique (though not necessarily ‘special’) place within this political conjuncture, no shortage of ink has been spilled on the deep-seated transformations carried out in the name of the Venezuelan people, as well as the domestic and international conflicts that followed in their wake (see, most recently, Marino 2018; Samet 2019; Cooper 2019; Wilde 2023; Lubbock 2024). Among the many themes examined by scholars, activists and other observers is the role of higher education reform within the Bolivarian Republic, and the ways in which Hugo Chávez Frias, the charismatic leader of the ‘Bolivarian turn’, sought to build a new society by cultivating new knowledge among the people.

Historicizing Latin American urban politics and governments

ABSTRACT Existing studies about the politics of southern cities, particularly Latin American cities, need to pay more attention to the political institutions behind urban governance. These institutions, additionally, were not created by design but are a product of intertwined historical processes. This article analyzes the main features and transformations of Latin American local governments, their politics, and governance, looked at from the angle of their historical formation. Mobilizing arguments from urban studies and political science usually developed apart, I start with the legacies of two intertwined historical processes—urbanization(s) and state formation(s)—to later observe their recent transformations since the recent return(s) to democracy. The reconstruction of these intertwined historical trajectories and of the effects of the present democratic period help to jointly explain the most important features of the politics of local governments in Latin America that influence their governance and actions—capacities, political grammars, actors, and coalitions—as well as their recent transformations.

An Interview with National Leaders in the Arts and Humanities

Abstract The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) has played a significant role in American government since its establishment by President Reagan in 1982. Although not part of the President’s Cabinet, the PCAH serves as an advisory body directly appointed by the president to support and promote arts and humanities across the nation. Despite its non-partisan mission, the PCAH has not been immune to political turmoil. In 2017, following President Trump’s controversial comments on the Charlottesville violence, the PCAH members resigned en masse, leading to the committee’s temporary disbandment. President Biden reinstated the PCAH in 2022, emphasizing its importance in fostering civic engagement, social cohesion, and equity through the arts and humanities. This article features an interview with current PCAH members, including National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelly C. Lowe, Oscar- and Tony-award winner and PCAH Co-Chair Bruce Cohen, and PCAH member and interdisciplinary artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya. The discussion highlights their personal and professional journeys within the arts and humanities, underscoring the profound impact of cultural experiences on their lives. They advocate for continued government support, citing the arts and humanities as essential for a functioning democracy.

Classrooms or Crackdowns? How Violence Affects Security Policy Preferences in Mexico

AbstractPenal policies have been the primary strategy of Latin American governments to combat crime, but preventative social policies such as youth education programmes may be more effective solutions. Penal and social policies are often treated as a trade-off by governments, who expect citizens—especially victims of violence—to be more supportive of punitive solutions. Using an original online survey experiment conducted in 2021 in Mexico, we challenge the idea of a trade-off between penal and social policies by studying how different policy solutions along the penal-welfare policy continuum affect victims’ support for increased state security presence. We unpack differences between victims of criminal perpetrators and state violence and those who are fearful of crime. Our vignette experiment reveals—in contrast to previous results—that crime victims are more supportive of state security presence when coupled with pre-emptive measures. Surprisingly, the same holds for victims of state violence and for those fearful of crime, including those residing in neighbourhoods with watch groups. Victimisation, by either crime or the state, raises demand for policies to increase employment and improve education.

SOFTWARE MATURITY LEVEL AND TRAINING OF QUALIFIED PERSONNEL IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES AT IFBA

The Brazilian Digital Games Industry has grown significantly over the past few years, resulting in the approval, by the Federal Senate, of Bill PL 2.796/2021, which creates the legal framework for the electronic games industry. Educational programs focused on game development in Brazil are a necessity for training talent and promoting innovation in this segment. Being a high-risk business, digital game development requires metrics that can assess technology development. In this context, the objective of this work was to present a correlation between the level of software technology readiness and the digital game development process, as well as to analyze IFBA courses that increase the supply of qualified personnel in digital game development. For this, bibliographic and documentary research procedures were used. Four technology readiness level (TRL) scales applied to software developed by American and Brazilian government agencies were identified, all adapted from the TRL scales and requiring adjustments for application in the various software technologies. The DG-STRL scale, by Ferreira and Ribeiro, correlates the stages of digital game development with the TRL for software technology, and is an instrument focused on the sector. It was observed that the IFBA offers game development courses at continuing education, undergraduate and specialization levels, contributing to the training of talented developers capable of competing on a global scale.

Los instrumentos integradores en los sistemas de cuidados en América Latina: una visión de política pública

Some Latin American governments have developed systems that seek to comprehensively guarantee the right to provide and receive care. These initiatives aim to recognize, redistribute, or reduce caregiving work within households by coordinating a set of policies, implemented by different agencies, around the same individual. Achieving this requires overcoming the challenge of intersectoral coordination, based on management instruments that allow interventions to be articulated around the diverse care needs of the population. Based on the policy integration literature, we conduct a comparative analysis of four emblematic care systems in the region using official data and semi structured interviews. In contrast to recent research that analyzes programs, services, and target populations, we focus on how systems manage to operate in a coordinated manner. We argue that building care systems requires the construction of instruments that ensure the integrated operation of the system around a person or territory. We examine how the deployment of specific decisions to guide the operation of care systems address a key contemporary challenge in public policy and administration: the coordinated operation of policy sectors around complex problems and the construction of comprehensive responses to multidimensional challenges.

Conceptualizing Mano Dura in Latin America

Abstract Latin American governments are increasingly adopting mano dura initiatives to combat gangs, organized crime, and insecurity. While mano dura has been a concept of increasing empirical interest, there seems to be limited conceptual clarity about the wide spectrum of strategies developed to combat crime and associated fear. This article proposes a definition of mano dura that has three different dimensions, each of them containing specific elements. The form of mano dura depends on formal, informal, and rhetorical practices. Drawing on 46 scholarly works in the social sciences, we develop our definition anchored in the knowledge of Latin American policing strategies, contributions on responses to crime in the region, and the conceptual development literature. With the purpose of supplementing our effort to standardize the usage of the term with the need to retain a degree of conceptual differentiation, we also offer a stylized model to better classify policing strategies in Latin America. In our stylized model, the numerous ways policies and narratives as well as their implementation (or not) interact can be grouped into four broad categories: full mano dura, institutional mano dura, performative mano dura, and covert mano dura.

Project Camelot

Project Camelot was an ambitious social science project that came into existence in late 1964. The goal of the project was to assess the causes of war and to identify the actions that the American government could take to prevent such wars. The period between the introduction of Project Camelot and its ultimate demise raises interesting questions about the relationship between the American government, the military, and social sciences.

Public Health Policy and its Incidence on The Quality of Public Management in Chincha – Peru, 2021

The objective of this research is to determine how public health policy affects the quality of public management in Chincha 2021. The link between new management and quality is demonstrated by the experience of administrative reform carried out by Latin American governments during the two decades. The countries due to Covid-19 2020 - 2021, had to review current policies, adapt or create new public policies. The research had a quantitative approach, basic type, with a non-experimental cross-sectional design, the hypothetical-deductive method and descriptive causal correlation, using non-probabilistic sampling techniques such as questionnaires. The result is that according to the Nagelkerke indicator, he estimates it at 48.1% (moderate correlation). the estimation of parameters by the Wald=786,021 and following=0.000 method is less than 0.05, concluding that: public health policy significantly affects the quality of public management in Peru 2021.

The Flint Water Crisis and the Perpetuation of Environmental Racism in Flint, Michigan (2014–2018)

The nexus between environmental racism and racial capitalism has been well documented. However, the government is often blamed for the perpetuation of some forms of environmental racism. Nonetheless, blaming the government for environmental racism without documenting some actions and policy implementation by the government to mitigate or prevent the re-occurrence of environmental racism tends to be a one-sided view. Consequently, this study examines how the American government plays some roles in the occurrence of environmental racism, that is, the Flint Water Crisis (FWC) in Michigan. Racial capitalism theory is used as a theoretical lens in this study. Racial capitalism, historical residential housing policies, anti-blackness or devaluation of Black bodies, the appointment of Emergency Financial Managers, environmental racism, neoliberalism, laissez-faire, and color-blind racism were the mechanisms driving the occurrence of the FWC. The different actions and policies that were taken by the American government to mitigate or prevent the re-emergence of FWC were also documented. Although, these actions were taken after the occurrence of the FWC. The materials-based method (secondary data) was not only adopted to provide answers to the research question that this study answered but was also used to explain the global dynamic and operation of racial capitalism.

Power and crisis: Bush’s war on terror, democratic rollback and the four dimensions of power

ABSTRACT Ironically, the mastermind behind 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, vowed to destroy the United States, and the executive branch of American government proved to be his accomplice in bringing this about with respect to American democracy. After the attack George W. Bush went well beyond constitutional constraints in statute and spirit in perpetrating his war on terror. American democracy recoils from the authoritarian machinations. This article tries to explain the power dynamics behind his political coup. It will evaluate how Bush subverted democracy in the US after the 9/11 crisis. It does so by casting light on how Bush employed levers of influence across the four principal dimensions or faces of power to implement his war on terror.

Serra and Us

Abstract Yve-Alain Bois discusses and describes the many essays that October editors and contributors have written about Richard Serra, particularly Rosalind Krauss, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Yve-Alain himself, Leah Dickerman (most recently), and Hal Foster (most abundantly). The article begins: “I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that no artist can be more immediately identified with October than Richard Serra, particularly during the journal's first decades. Several of its editors or editors-to-be wrote repeatedly about his work, in the journal and elsewhere, and he himself participated directly in the life of the publication via a lengthy interview, not to mention his unwavering financial support since issue 39 (Winter 1986). “In 1991, The Destruction of Tilted Arc: Documents appeared in the October book series; edited by Clara Weyergraf-Serra and Martha Buskirk, it offered nearly three hundred pages of documentation concerning the legal battle waged (and lost) by the artist to prevent the destruction by the American government of the site-specific work it had commissioned for Federal Plaza in New York City (installed in 1981, it was dismantled in 1989). Needless to say, the October gang came en bloc to defend the work at the public hearing (the testimonies of Rosalind Krauss, Annette Michelson, Douglas Crimp, Benjamin Buchloh, and regular contributor Abigail Solomon-Godeau figure in the book). “In 2000, the first volume of the October Files appeared; edited by Hal Foster, it took Serra as its subject. Memorial tributes are an awkward genre in that they are almost inevitably nostalgic and take a narcissistic turn (“me and the great man”). But what if one were simply to commemorate the prolonged interaction of the journal's editors with Serra's work by chronologically recapitulating the various instances of their engagement? This will be done with pride, for sure, but also as a duty to forestall amnesia.”

Who Trusts Russia? Members of Parliament (MPs') Support for Putin's Government and Multilateralism

This article examines the ambivalent stance of Latin American governments towards Russia's actions in Ukraine. Using Proyecto Élites Parlamentarias de la Universidad de Salamanca (PELA‐USAL) data, it explores ideological self‐placement, Putin's approval and alliance preferences among Latin American Members of Parliament, highlighting the influence of anti‐imperialism and multilateralism on their international alignments and support for Russia.

Chinese state media persuades a global audience that the “China model” is superior: Evidence from a 19‐country experiment

AbstractMany are skeptical of the appeal of authoritarian political systems. We argue that global audiences will embrace authoritarian models when they believe that autocracies can meet governance challenges better than democracies. We collect comprehensive data on the external messaging of the Chinese and American governments. We then conduct a randomized experiment in 19 countries across six continents exposing global citizens to real messages from the Chinese and American governments’ external media arms. We find that exposure to a representative set of Chinese messages strengthens perceptions that the Chinese Communist Party delivers growth, stability, and competent leadership. It also moves the average respondent from slightly preferring the American model to slightly preferring the Chinese model. In head‐to‐head matchups, messages from the US government are less persuasive. Our findings show how autocracies build global support by selling growth and competence, with important implications for democratic resilience.

A modernização da educação médica no Brasil: o financiamento da Fundação Rockefeller e a Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto em um contexto de desenvolvimento (1951-1964)

Objective/Context: This article discusses the modernization of medical education in Brazil between 1951 and 1964, following the creation of the Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP, for its initials in Portuguese) at the University of São Paulo (USP). The analysis emphasizes the tensions in the rapprochement between Zeferino Faz, the founding director of fmrp, considered a communist, and the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), an international philanthropic agency, for the development of basic sciences such as biochemistry, physiology, and pharmacology. Methodology: The documents used in the study were collected at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York and the Historical Museum at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School and analyzed using the evidential paradigm proposed by Carlo Ginzburg. The evidential paradigm pays close attention to small details in the document, considered “signs” of processes that are not very explicit. Originality: The original contribution of this text consists of a better understanding of the strategies used by the rf to finance the fmrp, which differed in many moments from its institutional norms and the anti-communist orientation of the North American government. This finding contrasts with an entire contemporary bibliography that reiterates the persecution of these individuals. Conclusions: The study reveals the contradictions in the trajectory of Zeferino Vaz and the actions of the rf in search of the desired modernization of medical education in Latin America.

Excavating Myth and Memory in Congressional Papers

ABSTRACT Congressional papers constitute some of the most unique archival collections to find their way into American repositories. Often voluminous, complex, and appended by donor stipulations and financial considerations, they have been the subject of decades’ worth of archival conferences, scholarship, legislation, and practical manuals. These discussions have long upheld the belief that congressional papers retain inherent research and historic value, largely due to their documentation of legislative processes and topical subject areas. This article interrogates the origins of that presumptive value, positing that archivists have customarily drawn on traditional narratives of American identity and democratic governance to justify and inform the acquisition, appraisal, processing, and deployment of congressional collections. The article first reviews the robust history of the congressional papers community, surveying the evolution of rhetoric around archivists’ assignation of inherent value to congressional papers and critically examining the ways in which that value is shaped by American practices of myth-making. Drawing from memory studies and concepts of the mythic imagination, the article then problematizes the passivity of American democracy in congressional archival praxis, taking into account burgeoning national reckonings and re-reckonings with the nature of American government itself. Implicating archival praxis in the perpetuation of narratives that do not reflect or represent the current state of the nation, the article then suggests modes of alternative intervention for archivists working with congressional papers, calling for a critically contextual reimagining of the field.

Political, Economic, Educational, and Social Reforms in the Arab Gulf States: Various Aspects of American Governmental Democracy Promotion

Political, Economic, Educational, and Social Reforms in the Arab Gulf States: Various Aspects of American Governmental Democracy Promotion

От информационной безопасности к национальной: противоборство IT-компаний США и КНР

The article examines certain aspects of the activities of large IT-companies that are closely related to the problem of information security, ensuring digital sovereignty as the basis of national security. Special attention is paid to the struggle of transnational IT-corporations of the USA and China for alternative markets, as well as a number of restrictions imposed on them by the laws of foreign countries. Based on a study of official documents of American and Chinese government agencies and IT-corporations, as well as media materials, the authors conclude that the geopolitical interests of the United States and China are in contact with the goals of big business and force governments to resort to various kinds of prohibitions and protectionist measures. IT-corporations in the USA and China, developers of messengers and social networks do not pay enough attention to the information security of their users.

Succeeding in American Government: The Benefits of Supplemental Instruction in Political Science at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Supplemental instruction (SI) has become ubiquitous on college campuses. Originally developed at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, SI has become a popular pedagogical tool. While ample evidence exists that SI is particularly helpful regarding courses in the natural sciences, less is known about the helpfulness of SI in political science. In this paper, we seek to understand the effect of supplemental instruction in a core political science course, Introduction to American Government. We examine this effect at a community college that is designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Using data from 332 students, across two semesters, we found that participation in SI sessions improved student success outcomes across several indicators, most notably course retention and success. More importantly, we find this improvement among Latinx students as well when further analyzed by race and ethnicity. This is highly relevant given the demographics of the college.

The American Board and the Lausanne Conference Processes

This study aims to deal with and analyse how the American Board missionaries viewed both the process leading to the Lausanne Conference and the Treaty of Lausanne through the Missionary Herald, the journal of the American Board and to cast a light upon the views of America and the missionaries towards the new Ankara government within the framework of the Treaty of Lausanne. Thus, it is intended to show on which basis America built its relations with the newly established Turkish state after the collapse of the Ottoman State, and on which principles of this relationship are founded. In line with this purpose, the process leading to the Treaty of Lausanne and the Lausanne Treaty has been chosen as an example. In other words, case study analysis, one of the qualitative research patterns, was used to understand and evaluate the relations between the United States and the newly established Turkish state, and the study was mainly based on the information given by the American Board missionaries regarding the Lausanne Treaty. The data obtained were analysed through the descriptive analysis method, which allows the data to be summarised and interpreted within the framework of predetermined themes and to examine the cause-effect relationship in the quotations. As a result of the Treaty of Lausanne, missionary organisations were now completely subjected to Turkish law and lost their foreignness and privileges. For the American Board missionaries in Turkey, the behaviour of the American government officials that led to all these developments were considered "tragic mistakes that could not be corrected". Despite this view, the treaty made it possible to make more precise plans for the continuation of missionary initiatives in Turkey. The rights and privileges expected in the work to be carried out were finalised with this treaty.