Political-institutional Context Research Articles

Seeking to fulfil the human rights promise: practitioner perspectives and an assessment tool for realizing human rights based social work education and practice

ABSTRACT International social work organizations emphasize human rights (HR) as a main social work principle. However, a focus on HR is often lacking in social work education. This often results in an inspirational, rather than deep and meaningful application of HR commitments in social work practice, with kindness and respect being conflated with a realization of HR. Nevertheless, without a critical HR awareness, social workers may inadvertently neglect or hinder service users’ rights. This article presents the findings of an exploratory study which examined, through in-depth interviews with six practitioners working in HR sensitive contexts in Spain, how the experience (or lack thereof) of HR education influences practitioners’ engagement with HR. Findings indicate that, for social workers to overcome inspirational approaches and achieve an HR based social work practice, training and support mechanisms need to be developed at different contexts: 1. In social work education, importantly including social work placements and a practice orientation of teaching 2. At social work services’ organizations and 3. At the broader social work professional organizations and political-institutional contexts. Drawing on the findings, the researchers developed a Human Rights Practice Assessment Tool to support lecturers, students and practitioners in applying HR principles meaningfully in social work.

“We are the forerunners in Southern Europe”: Experimenting with Business Improvement Districts in Greater Barcelona

ABSTRACT This paper uses the experimentation with Business Improvement Districts in Greater Barcelona to examine its relational re-making in a rather over-looked Southern-Mediterranean urban, socio-spatial and political-institutional context. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and institutional archives, it offers three intellectual contributions to urban policy mobilities studies. First, the paper argues that the territorial adaptation, mediation and translation of urban entrepreneurial policies hinges upon the differential and inherited nature of welfare regimes, state-market constellations and existing political infrastructures. Second, the paper outlines that policymakers have followed open-ended and multilateral learning approaches through space and time, in which some policy features were (re-)learned, circulated and modified to fit more centralized regimes. Third, and finally, it sketches out the role of government-funded pilot programs as instances through which policies are showcased, experimented and ultimately constituted before and after their institutionalization in specific socio-legal and socio-spatial contexts.

Leaders’ desires to lead: progressive ambition and norms around gender balance in the Swedish parliament

ABSTRACT While women citizens have less political ambition than similarly situated men across a wide range of contexts, we know less about gender differences in progressive ambition – elected politicians’ desire to achieve political leadership positions. This study analyzes leadership ambition among Swedish legislators. To understand the relationship between progressive ambition and the proportion of men and women in leadership positions, the political-institutional context is paramount. The gender-equal context of the Swedish Parliament allows us to investigate the relationship between progressive political ambition and informal rules, norms, and practices that promote the presence of women in political leadership. Drawing on interviews with nearly all top parliamentary leaders and party gatekeepers as well as a survey with MPs, we find that women leaders and MPs are less interested in political leadership in comparison to men. We describe the rules, norms, and practices that stipulate gender balance in decision-making in this context and show how gender-equitable informal institutions have contributed to creating gender balance in leadership. While such institutions have not closed the gender ambition gap at the individual level, they mitigate its consequences by incentivizing less ambitious women to accept leadership positions and prompting gatekeepers to search for and persuade competent women.

A emergência do Zika vírus no Brasil e a resposta federal dos Sistemas Nacionais de Vigilância em Saúde e de Vigilância Sanitária

Abstract The article analyzes the federal response of the National Public Health Surveillance and Brazilian Health Regulatory Systems to the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil, from 2015 to 2018, focusing on the political-institutional contexts and the content of government measures developed during the period. The study was anchored in the historical institutionalist approach, comprising documentary analysis and interviews with key actors. The response was characterized by the initial prioritization of the health emergency on the federal government's political agenda, which was reduced over the period, influenced by the financial and political crises. There was a multiplicity of actors and instances focused on contingency, with a certain articulation between the two systems, based on their own pre-emergency experiences. Vector control had centrality, valuing intersectoral and community actions, induced mainly by the Health Surveillance Secretariat of the Ministry of Health and additionally by the National Health Surveillance Agency. Significant allocation limitations of new financial resources and changes in the organizational response apparatus were observed, with effects on the continuity of post-emergency policies, including the development of medicines, vaccines and tests. The Zika Virus Public Health Emergency in Brazil was marked by limited institutionalization of learning and structuring strategies, reducing opportunities for the (re)organization of surveillance in the Unified Health System.

O fim da cooperação governo-academia no Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e da Qualidade da Atenção Básica do Sistema Único de Saúde

Abstract This study analyzes the dissolution of the institutional cooperation, lasting approximately a decade, between the Ministry of Health and a set of academic institutions for the implementation of the National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ-AB) in the scope of the Brazilian Nacional Health System (SUS). This exploratory, qualitative research consists of a case study that uses assumptions of Historical Neoinstitutionalism to guide the analysis. Data were collected by documentary and bibliographic research and semi-structured interviews with key actors. From the content analysis, three analytical categories were evidenced: end of the PMAQ-AB - historical process, political-institutional context and actors; end of the institutional cooperation - government-academy interaction process; and actors’ perceptions about the end of institutional cooperation. The end of institutional cooperation happened in a context of change of government at the federal level, within a new political-institutional order of SUS and was influenced by historical factors and the practices of public managers and in the conduct of political processes. An inter-institutional government-academy exchange with a view to strengthening health management and supporting the institutional development of the SUS is a future expectation, considering the adversities imposed on the field of health and public education in Brazil today.

Transformational climate action at the city scale: comparative South–North perspectives

Conceptually grounded, integrated, city-scale and comparative studies remain rare and are based mostly on meta-reviews of the literature or broad surveys. Conversely, debates about the limitations of incremental or transitional change and exhortations towards more ambitious processes of system or transformative changes are rarely grounded in adequate empirical analysis. Accordingly, this paper examines city-scale plans and actions in order to throw light on these issues in a carefully contextualised Global South–North comparison between Cape Town, South Africa, and Greater Manchester, UK. Cape Town has a considerable pedigree of citywide climate policy and action but achieving cross-departmental integration remains a key challenge, along with operationalisation and monitoring. Greater Manchester has abundant climate ambitions to become a leading European green city, but recent innovative policy processes revealed a lack of capacity and in-house expertise. The comparative analysis therefore focuses on capacity constraints hampering fulfilment of progressive city aspirations that engage with global agendas, and on how they use innovative planning and implementation processes and different forms of knowledge to address integrative or cross-cutting issues, as well as on their relative success to date in doing so in the face of different extents of inequality and power asymmetry. <em><strong>Policy relevance</strong></em> A comparative analysis of city-wide climate policy initiatives provides four insights that are highly relevant for policymakers. First, the political–institutional context in which local climate policy is designed invariably shapes the policy process, making it imperative to consider redesigning the ‘multilevel governance’ structures between the local governments that ‘hold the problem’ of climate change with the tools required to address the root causes. Second, policymakers need to grapple with and negotiate across the conflicting rationalities held by different professionals and stakeholders to bring together and integrate different types of knowledge into a comprehensive perspective. Third, local governments must find ways to address the underlying challenge of institutional inertia to embrace more ambitious, transformative policy agendas, moving away from incrementalist approaches. Finally, local governments should integrate debates on socio-spatial fairness and justice with climate policy, recognising the interdependencies between these agendas.

Ethno-racial (in)equality: a typology of employment policy frames in Belgium

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the framing of ethno-racial inequalities within policy discourses. In particular, it sets out a typology to characterise different policy frames concerning ethno-racial (in)equality within Belgian employment policies. The typology conceptualises ‘ethno-racial (in)equality policy frames’ along two dimensions, distinguishing between colour-blind and colour-conscious policy frames, on the one hand, and redistributive and non-redistributive policy frames, on the other hand. By bringing these two axes together, the typology allows highlighting how policy frames combine distinct ideas about the recognition of race or ethnicity and economic redistribution. The article builds on empirical data from a study on Belgian employment policies. Through a critical frame analysis of policy documents, it shows how the prevailing representations of ethno-racial (in)equality in the policy discourses of the federal, Flemish, and Walloon governments in Belgium can be captured by diverging types of policy frames. In this way, the article demonstrates how the typology can serve as an analytical tool for understanding and comparing the framing of ethno-racial inequalities across political-institutional contexts and provide new insights into how policy frames are positioned with regard to two important dimensions of social justice: recognition and redistribution.

Deliberating with the Autocrats? A Case Study on the Limitations and Potential of Political CSR in a Non-Democratic Context

Extant literature on Political CSR and the role of governments in the governance of business conduct tends to neglect key implications of the political-institutional macro-context for public deliberation. Contextual assumptions often remain rather implicit, leading to the need for a more nuanced, explicit and context-sensitive exploration of the theoretical and practical boundary conditions of Political CSR. In non-democratic political-institutional contexts, political pluralism and participation are limited, and governmental agencies continue to play the most central role in regulation and its enforcement. Drawing on a qualitative case study on a nuclear energy project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, we show how both governments and MNCs co-create a context hostile to socially responsible business conduct in the sense of Political CSR. Utilizing rich qualitative data derived from interviews, public documents, and participant observation between 2008 and 2018, we specifically illuminate how—through which interactions and strategies—the multiple governmental and corporate actors involved counter civil society demands for public deliberation, indicating the limitations of Political CSR in non-democratic political-institutional contexts. We particularly contribute to the development of Political CSR by analysing the role of coercive and discursive forms of power. We thus offer a more nuanced perspective on the role of governments in constraining the room for public deliberation in the sense of Political CSR.

WHY U.S. CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENTS ARE WINNING: IT’S NOT TRUMP—IT’S THE INSTITUTIONS

Why have conservative movements gained in U.S. policy over the last few decades, while progressive ones have lost ground? I outline policy advances by conservative movements, which are puzzling, because they are unpopular, opposed by progressive movements, and draw inferior mainstream news coverage. I argue that these policy advances and setbacks are due mainly to transformations in political institutional contexts surrounding movements. Party relationships have been more effective for conservative movements because the Republican Party has rejected democratic political norms and has moved further right, promoted stronger identity formation, and allied with less conflictual policy demanders than Democrats. These effects are amplified because U.S. electoral institutions allow Republicans to rule without winning majorities of voters. In combination with these conditions, longstanding institutional political features hinder the passage of national legislation, which progressive movements require, while granting Republican officials control over legislative processes even when they are out of power. Conservative movements and Republicans also benefit enormously from a partisan media machine, with nothing equivalent for progressive movements and Democrats.

Cooperação governo-academia no Sistema Único de Saúde: uma análise do Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e da Qualidade da Atenção Básica

Abstract This study analyzes the construction of institutional cooperation between the Brazilian Ministry of Health and academic institutions to develop the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care in the Brazilian National Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS). This qualitative research is based on a case study on this kind of cooperation, which carried out documental analysis and interviews with key actors from the Ministry of Health and academia. The political-institutional context of the federal government and the Ministry of Health in 2011 favored a greater opening to the theme of primary care and health evaluation, and a closeness to academia. This institutional cooperation is the result of a historical process where previous initiatives in the field of public health have connected public and academic managers interested in the development of SUS. This study contributes to the debate about the cooperation between government agencies and academia in implementing public health policies in Brazil.

O impeachment no Estado democrático de direito brasileiro

Diante do processo que levou ao impeachment da Presidente Dilma Rousseff em 2016, foram suscitados debates acerca da natureza do juízo realizado pelo Senado Federal brasileiro nos crimes de responsabilidade, ficando nítida a necessidade de uma delimitação teórica acerca da espécie de julgamento levado a cabo, seja ele político, jurídico ou misto. Neste trabalho, pretende-se realizar, por meio da fenomenologia hermenêutica, uma análise crítica do processo histórico pelo qual o impeachment foi incorporado no país, bem como explorar as correntes que apontam a natureza do instituto no Brasil. Finalmente, tendo em vista o contexto político-institucional específico do Brasil, o presente artigo realiza um debate teórico a respeito do impeachment para que se encontre uma solução satisfatória aos parâmetros do Estado Democrático de Direito instituído pela Constituição Federal de 1988.

Interfederative consortium and hospital management in the Brazilian Unified National Health System in Bahia State, Brazil: the decision-making process in the light of neo-institutionalism

This article analyzes the decision for the Interfederative Health Consortium (CIS) model as an alternative for the management of a hospital of the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) in Bahia, Brazil. Agreements were reviewed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with key actors at the central level of the Bahia State Health Department (Sesab) and the CIS Northeast II. The findings were analyzed considering the theoretical framework of neo-institutionalism, emphasizing the characterization of the historical and political-institutional context within the SUS, the actors involved in decision making, and the rules and guidelines of both institutions, Sesab and the CIS. The results showed the decision was predominantly guided by political motivations of state and municipal executives, based on the purpose of decentralizing the management of health actions and services and regionalization, with predominant actions of actors linked with the government and incipient participation of the technical area of the Sesab. Also, in convergence with the theoretical framework adopted, there were rules and guidelines inherent to both institutions, Sesab and CIS, which contributed to the adoption of the model and other elements of the historical context that also affected the decision-making process. This study contributed to a better understanding of the operationalization logic of hospital care management in SUS Bahia, with its multiple factors, stimulating the development of new investigations about management models in SUS. reduction of the burden and costs of hospital admission due to neglected tropical diseases in the state.

Refugees starting a business: experiences of barriers and needs in the Netherlands

PurposeRecent refugees in the Netherlands face barriers on the road to starting their own business. Few studies have looked at barriers specific to recent refugees. In this article, these barriers are analysed through the eyes of support programmes that aim to help recent refugees to become an entrepreneur.Design/methodology/approachThe experiences of seven support programmes were explored using in-depth interviews to evaluate how the approaches were supporting recent refugees. The programmes were mostly private initiatives with public funding, focused on local support for recent refugees. They were first interviewed in 2017, followed by in-depth interviews in 2018. Their narratives were used to gain in-depth impressions of the route recent refugees have to follow to start a business.FindingsThe results strongly suggest that the most prominent obstacles recent refugees face are connected to the political-institutional context of Dutch society. National provisions and the local implementation of these provisions have created a complicated web that is hard to untangle for newcomers. Language skills and network formation are additional barriers.Research limitations/implicationsThese barriers are not overcome by using traditional education and training programmes focused around skills and motivation of the potential entrepreneur. Support programmes should focus on support to understand or overcome the bureaucratic complexity. The trainings should also increase language skills and offer support in network formation.Originality/valueThe empirical data in this study reveal that the focus of training programmes may have to shift to overcome barriers in the political-institutional context.

The City of São Paulo's Environmental Quota: A Policy to Embrace Urban Environmental Services and Green Infrastructure Inequalities in the Global South

In 2013 the urban authority for São Paulo city, Brazil, was interested in incorporating environmental aspects into the urban licensing process of diverse urban developments. To overcome concepts related simply to soil sealing, the initiative gave rise to a wide range of principles associated with environmental services and the consideration that green areas in this megacity are unequally distributed. Given the costs involved in analyzing each case and the legal uncertainty among entrepreneurs, it has become a tradition in Brazil for authorities in charge of urban licensing to follow general regulations rather than case-by-case studies, except in high-impact developments. In response, the São Paulo municipal government developed during the period from 2013 to 2016 a governing instrument to deal with these issues, known as the Environmental Quota (EQ). For that, the following guiding principles were established: (a) it should have a solid theoretical basis, with incentives for consistent public participation; (b) it should be flexible in such a way that it can provide a general framework within which a project designer can make decisions, rather than a set of rigidly determined solutions; and (c) it should consider inequalities in the availability of urban green infrastructure throughout the city. This paper will first detail the political-institutional context in which the EQ and its guidelines were established and implemented, then provide a general overview of the tool and the theoretical frameworks within which it was developed, and, finally, discuss the complex social decision-making process of its legal constraints. Moreover, it analyzes the implementation and application of the EQ to examine its effectiveness and how it relates to the city's gentrification. Furthermore, it is considered the replicability potential of the EQ to expand both the supply and distribution of green infrastructure and environmental services throughout the urban environment and, thus, contribute toward mitigating the intricate problems of urban environments in the Global South.

Le raffigurazioni di Federico III d’Aragona nel contesto figurativo del regno di Sicilia

This paper analyses the official images of King Frederick III of Aragon (1296-1337) in the figurative context of the Kingdom of Sicily. In particular, it focuses on the royal seal, the billon silver denaro coin, the lost mosaic from the Church of Santa Maria della Valle (known as Badiazza) near Messina, and the mosaic in the Cathedral of Messina. The aim is to understand which iconographic patterns, among those present in the panorama of the South of Italy, were used in order to stage the royal image and if the choices done had specific meanings in the contemporary political-institutional context.

The Constitutional Chamber and the Erosion of Democracy in Venezuela

This article analyses the role played by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice in the dismantling of democracy in Venezuela. The decisions of the Chamber are examined from the standpoint of their impact on the fundamental dimensions of constitutional democracy. For this purpose, the political-institutional context in which the Constitutional Chamber has acted is explained, and the successive packings to which it has been subjected since its installation are highlighted. Its performance is placed in a comparative perspective with respect to other constitutional courts or chambers that have participated in the erosion of democracy and the Rule of Law. All this reveals the key support that the Constitutional Chamber has provided to enhance the governmental power and diminish the political pluralism, at the expense of the counterbalances and institutional controls as well as the fundamental rights. Unlike the views that warn about the authoritarian advance of this Chamber in recent years, after a supposed initial phase of relative independence, this article intends to recognise lines of continuity in the jurisprudence that this Chamber has established since its creation regarding the undermining of constitutional democracy. After confirming the continuity of the authoritarian role of this Chamber, which has shown various facets as the circumstances have demanded, the article also focuses on the conceptual and procedural foundations on which the Constitutional Chamber based itself to fulfil that function. The work concludes reflecting on the task that a new Constitutional Chamber could carry out in a possible scenario of political transition in Venezuela.

Political corporate social responsibility in authoritarian contexts

Political CSR emphasizes the need for the democratic governance of business conduct through public deliberation, and expects multinational enterprises (MNEs) to contribute to self-regulation and public goods provision to fill the gaps left by unwilling or unable governments. In the under-researched context of autocracies, however, political pluralism and participation are severely limited, which confronts MNEs with limited governance spaces for such activities. In this article, I deconstruct the assumptions on political–institutional context prevalent in political CSR and IB research on political and CSR activities of MNEs. Drawing on political science literature on state power and authoritarianism, I reconstruct political CSR in the political–institutional context of authoritarianism, using different autocracies across the globe as illustrative examples. I elucidate the boundaries and room for responsible business policies in autocracies drawing on a framework I developed that distinguishes between high- and low-capacity autocracies. My framework implies that MNEs face constraints in autocracies with regard to public deliberation and self-regulation, while there is considerable room for public goods provision. Finally, I explain why the normative desirability for the former two is high, whereas the normative desirability of public goods provision through MNEs in authoritarian contexts is lower given its implications for stabilization of autocratic rule.

Agricultural Territory Entrepreneurship and Regional Integration in the CEMAC Zone

The main objective of this research is to demonstrate that it is possible to promote agricultural Territorial Entrepreneurship (TE) capitalising on the opportunities of the CEMAC. To this end, two specific objectives guided this research (1) To prove that the territories (T) where PIDMA Agricultural Cooperative Partners (Agricultural Investment and Market Development Project) are prepared for an agricultural TE; (2) To demonstrate that there is a significant link between PIDMA and TE capitalising CEMAC opportunities. Using the hypothetical-deductive method, base on case study (Bangangte and Ngoulemakong Municipality), the institutional diagnostic (of PIDMA), and the documentaries analysis that including economic policies and activities reports of economic development; the research established the unpreparedness of the territories and the communication between PIDMA and TE due to the inadequacy of the political institutional context. This context is marked by a policy of industrialisation, based on poles (10 regional poles) which in fact do not correspond to areas of proximity, territorial identity, community self-promotion and functional specialisation. The research has also shown that the PIDMA has the statutory, organic, cognitive and material to promote an agribusiness that conquers the community and the international markets. Unfortunately, its strategy is ineffective because of: its development objective, which is not the development of territories (T), but rather the completeness of value chain; the failure to observe the principles of community development, in particular: transversally, integration of development action, the development of local partnership and the animation of territories. Given its capacities, age-old traditional institutions and territorial identity favourable to the community development in the territory, and the modest adjustment required for its intervention strategy, it is possible for the PIDMA to promote territorial agricultural entrepreneurship, capitalising on the opportunities of the CEMAC.

Spatial Differentiation of Variegated Capitalisms: A Comparative Analysis of Russian and Australian Oil and Gas Corporate City Networks

The globalization of firms is shaped at multiple scales by interdependencies and connections between places. The degree to which firm strategic behavior is global depends on capitalist variegation that reflects national particularity and path dependence linked to underlying global industry restructuring. This article develops an analytical framework for studying spatial differentiation of sectoral modes of variegated capitalism by applying a world city networks (WCN) approach to a highly globalized economic sector. It applies social network analysis to 24,299 intrafirm ties of 2,121 oil and gas firms in Russia and Australia linking 1,339 cities. An analysis of national networks, as they were in 2019, showed an introverted and centralized city network structure in Russia. Ties to domestic production centers and strategic geopolitical partners were strongly focused on Moscow, reflecting Russia’s state capitalism and the Soviet legacy of the state-led planning. In contrast, the liberal market orientation of Australia showed an extroverted and decentralized network, with strong links between Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and international energy hubs, global cities, and tax havens. We conclude that studying sectoral city network structures provides a more nuanced appreciation of economic processes as artifacts of embedded politico-territorial relations as they reflect the underlying role of the state affecting the strategic behavior of firms, essentially profiling sectoral modes of variegated capitalisms. This article seeks to enhance engagement by economic geographers with WCN research, by providing a novel comparative framework for capturing and interpreting uneven (variegated) spatial outcomes of diverse political–institutional contexts vis-à-vis specialized economic activity. By establishing a dialogue with variegated capitalisms literature, we extend the ongoing debates over how politico-territorial and sectoral relations contribute to city networks formation.

Evaluating Climate Change Governance Using the “Polity–Policy–Politics” Framework: A Comparative Study of China and the United States

Climate change governance has attracted increasing academic interest. However, holistic reviews on the dynamic complexity and stability of climate change governance have received little attention. This study addresses this research gap by conducting a structurally comparative analysis between China and the United States based on the “polity–policy–politics” framework. Three analytical facets are identified for each dimension of the framework, including institutional settings, the nature of policy mechanisms used in climate change practices, and the degree of multi-actors’ involvement under two governance scenarios. Results show that climate change governance in the two countries differs substantially. The process of climate governance in China is driven by strong leadership at the national level alongside policy continuity, whereas well-functioning market mechanisms and robust regulatory systems are still lacking. A more meaningful involvement of social forces is also critically needed when addressing increasingly complex and uncertain climate change. By contrast, the US federal climate policies are considered inadequate compared with sub-national actions and persistent efforts of non-state actors, to which the success of climate practices is largely attributed. This study systematically uncovers the divergence of climate mitigation under different political–institutional contexts, and evaluates the effectiveness of governance arrangement in the two countries, which helps policymakers to understand the potential of improving the performance of climate change governance.