Browsing by Subject "Chile"
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Item Adventures on paper and in travesía : the School of Valparaíso visualizes America, 1965-1984(2015-05) Bravo, Doris Maria-Reina; Reynolds, Ann Morris; Giunta, Andrea; Flaherty, George; Henderson, Linda; Lara, Fernando; Cárcamo-Huechante, LuisSince 1984 faculty at the School of Architecture and Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV) have experimented with the concept of the traveling studio. In contrast to the typical, one-off trip abroad undertaken by most schools, the Valparaíso group has made their trips an annual journey into their backyard: the wildernesses of South America. Most importantly, these curriculum-based trips, known as travesías (crossings), are rooted in the School of Valparaíso’s manifesto: Amereida I (1967). This poem emerged from the first travesía of 1965. The revamped School of Architecture at the PUCV had only been up and running for a decade when a group of professors decided to embark on a two-month journey through the wilds of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. This trip was the first opportunity to test their radical philosophy: making poetry the source of their creative process. As they met with locals, installed small-scale works, and elaborated performances, the poetic word was always present. Moreover, this first travesía inspired the participants to collectively write Amereida I, an epic poem that blends the Aeneid, conquest-era chronicles, and abstract drawings of the South American continent. At the heart of Amereida I is a summons to perceive the continent’s abandoned “interior sea” through direct observation and experience. Though many of the School’s activities give poetry a central place, the travesías alone can fully carry out the ambitions outlined in Amereida I. This dissertation explores the arc of inspiration and realization between the first travesía, Amereida I, two exhibitions held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, and the 1984 travesías. What unites these activities is the South American continent. Over the course of 19 years (1965-1984) the School of Valparaíso visualized America in a number of ways: impromptu murals, drawings within a poem, chalkboard renderings, and finally movement through real space. Through this visual thread I will address several questions about the School of Valparaíso—are they closed off to the world; does their rhetoric resonate beyond their community; and, what are they proposing through their version of America?Item The baby will come, the ring can wait : differences between married and unmarried first-time mothers in Chile(2010-12) Salinas, Viviana; Potter, Joseph E.; Osborne, Cynthia; Hopkins, Kristine L.; Regnerus, Mark D.; Roberts, Bryan R.The proportion of children born outside of marriage in Chile increased from 15.9 percent in 1960 to 64.6 percent in 2008. Similar increases have been taken elsewhere as indicative of a Second Demographic Transition (SDT). In this dissertation, I study differences between married and unmarried mothers in Chile and the reasons why such a large proportion of children are born outside of marriage, with the goal of understanding whether the demographic changes we are observing in the country are part of a global movement towards the SDT. The data comes from a postpartum survey implemented in Santiago, the capital city. I analyze differences between women according to the family arrangement they live in, including married women in nuclear households, married women in extended households, cohabiters in nuclear households, cohabiters in extended households, visiting mothers, and single mothers. I consider women’s socioeconomic wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, social support, attitudes and values, and reproductive health. The results show large demographic and socioeconomic differences, marking the socioeconomic advantage of married women in nuclear households, who are the oldest, and the disadvantage of cohabiters in extended households, visiting and single mothers, who are the youngest women in the sample. Married women in extended households and cohabiters in nuclear households are between these two poles. Differences in emotional wellbeing exist, benefiting married women in nuclear households, but they are not so large. Differences in social support continue delineating married women in nuclear households as a privileged group, but visiting mothers appear as a highly supported group too. There are not large differences in attitudes and values, as most women continue holding conservative attitudes on family issues, and most unmarried mothers plan to marry. Differences in reproductive health are large, showing that unplanned births and contraceptive failure are high in the underprivileged and youngest groups. Unmarried women seem to accept their pregnancies with no pressure to marry, and to give priority to other goals, such as their careers and homeownership, before the wedding, which they do not discard for the future. Under these circumstances, it is hard to interpret recent demographic changes in Chile as a SDT.Item Beyond the balance sheet : performance, participation, and regime support in Latin America(2016-05) Rhodes-Purdy, Matthew Henry; Weyland, Kurt Gerhard; Hunter, Wendy; Madrid, Raul; Elkins, Zachary; Paxton, PamelaMost studies on regime support focus on performance, or policy outputs, as the principal causal variable. This study challenges this conventional wisdom by focusing on two countries where performance and support do not match. Chile is the economic envy of every country in the region, yet support has been surprisingly anemic since the return of democracy in the early 1990s. By contrast, Venezuela managed to maintain extremely high levels of support during the reign of Hugo Chávez despite severe failures of governance in areas such as economic management, employment, and public security. Resolution of these paradoxes requires turning away from policy decisions and focusing instead on how those decisions are made. Taking inspiration from democratic theory and social psychology, I argue that extensive opportunities for direct participation in the political process engenders in citizens strong feelings of efficacy, a sense of control over the course of politics. Such sentiments increase support both directly and by softening the impact of performance failures. I use a mixed-methods approach to test this theory. Quantitative analysis of survey data confirms the relationships between efficacy, performance, and support. I then show, through both quantitative and qualitative techniques, that participatory programs such as the communal councils in Venezuela have a key role in preserving the legitimacy of that regime, especially in light of the hegemonic and authoritarian practices of chavismo at the national level. Finally, I use experimental data, survey data, and a qualitative analysis of a nascent participatory program in one of Chile’s municipalities to demonstrate that a lack of participatory access lies at the heart of that country’s relatively weak regime support.Item The Chilean Catholic Church and the social question : changes and continuities in Catholic thought in Chile, 1891-1935(2010-12) Sanchez Manriquez, Karin Andrea; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, 1957-; Butler, MatthewThe goal of this report is to analyze what was going on about Catholic social teaching in Chile between 1891 and 1935, having as milestones the two main Encyclical about the Social Question, Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931). This study will explore and analyze the lives and thoughts of four Chilean priests who were deeply concerned with the Social Question: Mariano Casanova (1833-1908), Archbishop of Santiago between 1886 and 1908; Juan Ignacio González (1844-1918), Archbishop of Santiago between 1908 and 1918; Martín Rücker (1867-1935), Bishop of Chillán between 1923 and 1935; and the Jesuit Fernando Vives (1871-1935), who, although he was never appointed to a higher level of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, had a polemical role in public opinion about the Social question that cost him two long exiles. The argument of this report is that between 1891 and 1935 the Chilean Catholic thought about the Social Question had changes and continuities. Among the first, there are the change of the focus of catholic action from charity to justice, or about the role of the State. The permanencies had to do with the traditional concept that the Catholic Church held, despite its efforts for having a more active role in the modern world. The main examples are the paternalistic attitude towards the workers and the consequent rejection of social mobility. The condition of the poor could be improved, but they always, and their children, would belong to the working class. It was a hierarchical vision of a class society. This contradiction, finally, explains why one of the main purposes of the Catholic social teaching did not succeed: stopping the spread of socialism. Even more, although it had an active goal about the Social Question, the Catholic Church could not stop secularization either.Item The corporeality of trauma, memory, and resistance : writing the body in contemporary fiction from Chile and Argentina(2014-05) Tille-Victorica, Nancy Jacqueline; Lindstrom, Naomi, 1950-; Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, Héctor; Heinzelman, Susan Sage; Robbins, Jill; Wettlaufer, AlexandraThis dissertation looks at the representation and impact of gendered violence in the novel Pasos bajo el agua (1986) and in the short stories in Ofrenda de propia piel (2004) by Argentine author and former political prisoner Alicia Kozameh (b. 1953), as well as in Jamás el fuego nunca (2007) and Impuesto a la carne (2010), two novels by Chilean writer Diamela Eltit (b. 1949). By examining the particular expressions of physical and psychological pain in the aforementioned texts, I demonstrate that Kozameh and Eltit write the female body to simultaneously represent a corporeality that, until recently, has rarely been expressed in literature, and reconstruct a body that has been traumatized by state-sponsored violence and by what could be considered economic violence. Both of them denounce violence, torture, disappearances, exile, and indifference to justice as painful events that not only damage the spirits of the victims, but that are also inscribed upon the physical body. I also show how each author addresses the overlapping of individual and collective traumatic memories and how these are felt in the body as well. Finally, I argue that writing the materiality of the lived body, from its vulnerability to its resilience, provides for Kozameh and Eltit valuable insight into the ways in which female bodies are able to resist and reassess the meaning imposed on them by legally-endorsed and non-official systems of oppression. Their work thus has direct viii social relevance that goes beyond feminism's countering of male dominance and women's rights. Yet, I also show that they manifest their feminist commitment by using the voice and body of female subjects to incorporate marginalized Chilean and Argentine bodies into the linguistic realm in order to provide a fuller understanding of female corporeality in Latin America.Item Cuerpos resonantes : sonidos y voces en la poesía del Caribe y el Cono Sur 1930-1980(2016-05) Staig Limidoro, James Christian; Cárcamo-Huechante, Luis E.; Arroyo, Jossianna; Borge, Jason; Robbins, JillIn the present research I approach the sonic materiality in the works of poets of the 20th Century from Chile, Argentina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. I analize the works of Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957), Nicolás Guillén (1902–1989), Néstor Perlongher (1949–1992) and Pedro Pietri (1944–2004); all of them presenting particular approaches to the production, consumption, and representation of sound through poetry. This research works with notions of sound studies, performance, animal, sex-gender, and cultural studies, to explore the different forms in which these authors use sound as part of a poetic-politic of the spoken word. I explore also how in their uses of sound they problematize notions of cultural identity, political revolution, nation building, censorship and belonging. In the present study I propose that these four poets—Mistral, Guillén, Perlongher, and Pietri—use their sound production as a tool for a political and aesthetic exercise that materializes notions of identity, agency, and belonging. Also, I claim that each poet presents a sonic conscience, bot in the production of sound and hearing.; that is, from their behalf there is a performatic notion of their work as sound and voice. This allows them to explore topics of gender, race, politics, diasporas, and aesthetics that amplify their “resonance” no only in writing but also in the sono-sphere of language and body. Thus, I explore the recording of their voices and performances as archives in which is possible to practice a critical, material, and bodily listening. Together with that, on methodological terms, I propose mi own reading as part of a escucha profunda, in dialog with the elaborations of close listening by Charles Bernstein and an attention to the effects of “resound” (Jean-Luc Nancy) that leads the poetic phenomenon in a sense level, physical experience and perception (Don Idhe).Item Drawing the line : human rights, state terror, and political culture in Uruguay(2009-08) Woodruff, Christopher Alan; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, 1957-; Dulitzky, Ariel E.The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role that "political culture" played in differentiating Uruguay's human rights record under its military dictatorship (1973 to 1985), from the records of its Southern Cone neighbors, Argentina and Chile, during their periods of military rule in the 1970s and 1980s. Statistical data clearly shows that although the Uruguayan military regime tortured and imprisoned an extremely high percentage of its population, the country suffered a relatively tiny number of fatalities, per capita, compared to the toll of deaths associated with the actions of the armed forces in Argentina and Chile. To explain this distinction in repressive policies and tactics, I find that each of the three countries under comparison developed distinct cultural assumptions due to their differing historical and political trajectories, which heavily influenced their respective political behaviors. Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile share many structural factors in common, which are all important for explaining the successive plunge of Southern Cone nations into brutal dictatorships and bloody "dirty wars." However, in order to understand why one regime's tactics differed in lethality from the others, I assert that it is necessary to employ political culture as the definitive explanatory variable. Through the analysis of historical trends and statements made by government leaders, I find that Uruguay distinguished itself from Argentina and Chile in three principal areas during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: democratic stability, political inclusion, and human rights promotion. Taken together, I conclude that Uruguay developed a democratic political culture, which assumed that legitimate governance included, among other ingredients, respect for the electoral process and rejection of lethal violence as a political instrument. Ultimately, these two assumptions played a pivotal role in constraining the policy alternatives available for consideration by the Uruguayan dictators, such that the prevalent use of extra-judicial executions and forced disappearances, as seen in Argentina and Chile, was not an option in Uruguay.Item Economic inequality, policy and performance in the formal sectors of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile : evidence from regional and sectoral data, 1994 to 2007(2011-05) Spagnolo Mecle, Laura Tatiana, 1977-; Galbraith, James K.; King, Christopher T.; Roberts, Bryan R.; Sakamoto, Arthur; Ward, PeterThis dissertation focuses on trends in pay inequality in the formal sectors of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile from the early 1990s into the latter part of the first decade of the new millennium. In-depth, single-country studies of inequality of each country of study seek to understand and explain the sources of movement in inequality in each country, relating changes in inequality to shifts in the relative roles of key economic sectors and geographic jurisdictions. In addition to these single-country studies of inequality, this dissertation develops a regional perspective on the dynamics of inequality by synthesizing findings from the three countries of study, identifying both commonalities and differences. This dissertation also evaluates the relationship between trends in inequality and the macroeconomic policies and factors that influence them. By eschewing the inequality of household incomes and focusing instead on measures of inequality in the underlying distribution of pay, this dissertation presents empirical evidence that fluctuations in countries' inequality levels are intrinsically related to macroeconomic factors. This dissertation applies Theil's T statistic, which belongs to the family of generalized entropy inequality measures, to develop new measures of economic inequality. The calculations presented in this dissertation are performed on data obtained from semi-aggregated datasets in which employment and average wage data organized by economic sectors and geographical jurisdictions, as derived from administrative records. Sectoral analysis shows that the changing levels of overall inequality are explained to a great extent by variations in the performance of a reduced number of "key" high-pay sectors, especially finance, extractive industry and civil service. In terms of the dynamics of geographic distribution, the role of these key sectors is observed in the driving role played by key geographic units: those composed of, or containing, the countries' main metropolitan centers, and those with high concentrations of economic activity in extractive industries.Item Geoscience and decision making for geothermal energy : a case study(2013-05) Malin, Reed Ahti; Pierce, Suzanne Alise, 1969-In September 2009 exploratory testing of an old geothermal power well caused a blowout at the El Tatio geothermal field of northern Chile. El Tatio is the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere. The blowout was a paradigm-shifting event for the management of the El Tatio geothermal field and drew attention to the disparity and critical nature of scientific information sharing. This study uses the El Tatio incident as a case study for examining problems of common-pool resource management and geothermal energy development. It explores how differing valuations of geothermal resources resulted in a breakdown of coherent regulation and negative outcomes for all stakeholders. Contingent valuation methods were used to create an elicitive interview process in order to assess how differences in valuation drove these conflicts and negative outcomes. The sharing of scientific information through Decision Support Systems (DSS) is identified as an important element in resolving these conflicts and creating new policies for common-pool resource management. These methods are presented as tools that can be used by stakeholders to find common ground and seek mutually beneficial outcomes. In addition, these tools can help with the critical issue of social perception of scientific data and science driven solutions to these problems. This study posits that the path forward is to ensure not only that scientific data is communicated in modes appropriate to the community and problem at hand, but that the acquisition and interpretation of this data is informed by stakeholder needs.Item Making other economies possible : inequality, consciousness-raising and the solidarity economy in Chile(2010-12) Adams, Lindsay Rose; Sletto, Bjørn; Galbraith, JamesThis study describes how economic policies in Latin America are informed by, and have affected, social norms regarding equality and solidarity. Through the rise and fall of institutions such as cooperatives and unions, and via social policy in education, health, and pensions, one can trace the ebb and flow of social solidarity as a justifiable socioeconomic policy aim in Latin America. As a result of the decrease in the legitimacy of social solidarity and equality that follows the implementation of neoliberalism, a new social movement in the region- the Solidarity Economy- has emerged to reestablish these values. However, it is largely borrowing from a tradition of associativism and other private-sector civil-society initiatives rather than vying directly for State power to institute its goals from within the polity. I provide a case study of the Santiago Solidarity Economy Network, in which I analyze their strategies of consciousness-raising and participation. The case study also explores generational and institutional differences within the Network that stem from varied political experiences of neoliberal policy. Finally, the case study details the obstacles to growth that this Network encounters, with a particular focus on those challenges that have emerged as a result of neoliberal policy and its’ effects on social norms of solidarity.Item The Marquis de Cuevas : pushing the boundaries of self(2014-08) Folch-Couyoumdjian, Francisca Antonia Sofia; Richmond-Garza, Elizabeth M. (Elizabeth Merle), 1964-Chilean dance impresario Marquis George de Cuevas was born Jorge Cuevas Bartholin (1885-1961) and is best remembered as a fashionable socialite of the 1940s and 50s who married heiress Margaret Rockefeller Strong and founded several ballet companies in Europe and America in the wake of the great Ballet Russes era. This dissertation examines how Cuevas cultivated his fictionalized public persona, an identity that is essentially queer on several levels.vCuevas participated, reflected and resisted the several labels that were imposed on him. As Spanish aristocrat, American citizen, international ballet patron, Parisian socialite, and heir to the Russian dance avant-gardes, Cuevas distanced himself from his Chilean origins. Proud of having achieved “real” success by triumphing abroad, however, Cuevas was always acutely aware of his shortcomings as a foreigner. Classed as an eccentric other, Cuevas participates in the larger discourse of cosmopolitanism, engaging with the issue of what it means to be foreign in the cities of Paris, New York and Santiago de Chile. The four chapters that comprise this dissertation explore the ways that boundaries of class, sexuality, gender, race, and citizenship are broken, or momentarily disrupted by Cuevas. I situate Cuevas’s foreign aspirations in the context of the South American obsession with Europe, and Paris in particular. I also examine how Cuevas inhabits the roles of dandy and flâneur in an attempt to fit in the modern urban context of Paris. Anxiety regarding the figure of the foreigner and social upstart is perceived in the arguable failure of Cuevas’s best-remembered social event, a grand costume ball that was to gather the most fashionable men and women of the international Café Society. Perhaps Cuevas’s most successful project was the making of his own chameleonic identity, which emerges in the letters addressed to French-Romanian author Princess Marthe Bibesco, who wrote the libretto for the ballet initially entitled The Bird Wounded by an Arrow, which also crucially establishes Cuevas’s artistic manifesto. An account of Cuevas’s life and works treads into the swampy terrain of fiction, and this dissertation offers a literary approach that considers Cuevas as a figure of legend.Item Non governmental public action in adolescent fertility : the cases of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay(2010-05) Pereira Bruno, Javier; Angel, Ronald; Roberts, Bryan; Ward, Peter; Buckley, Cynthia; Hale, CharlesThis dissertation examines the role of nongovernmental public action (NGPA) in the controversial field of adolescent fertility in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile) and Montevideo (Uruguay). Embracing a comparative perspective the study investigates the modes in which national policy and institutional environments shape the role of civil society organizations and their margins of autonomy vis a vis other powerful actors such as the State and the Catholic church. Forty one organizations whose mission includes the prevention of teenage pregnancy or the support of teenage parents were studied using a multi-method approach to explore cross national similarities and differences. An exhaustive account of national and subnational policies and programs in this field demonstrates the existence of isomorphic trends in the treatment and framing of adolescent reproductive behavior as a critical issue of public policy in each country. Similarly in all three countries women’s rights organizations play a critical role in the legal recognition and enforcement of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive rights while pro-poor organizations are fundamental actors in addressing the specific needs of teenage mothers and their children. However, important cross national differences were found regarding the modes in which NGPA engages with governmental agencies. As distinctive national marks, the study reveals a strong presence of NGOs in the role of rights watchdogs and monitors in Argentina, a strong alliance between central government structures and technical NGOs to confront resistances to reforms in Chile, and the utilization of NGOs as service providers in detriment of their participation in phases of policy design in Uruguay. Although the language of rights has colonized most of the surveyed organizations, adult-centric practices and discourses are still defining the interaction with adolescents. Adolescent’s demands are rarely voiced and only a few organizations favor their engagement in contentious politics and community activism. Nongovernmental autonomy is severely curtailed as a result of the influence of religion, and the lack of state modernization or financial opportunities, in the three countries. On theoretical grounds, the study highlights the importance of public policy as the arena where the potential of civil society can be maximized.Item The paradox of renter's insurance : resource stabilization funds in Venezuela and Chile(2010-12) Johnson, Matthew Alan; Madrid, Raúl L.; Weyland, KurtThis report, rooted in the conflict over the control of natural resource wealth, departs from the widely-accepted findings of two disparate literatures. First, while recent analyses correctly conclude that natural resources rents play a contingent role in development, this study deviates from the conventional wisdom attributing the variation of the resource curse to formal institutions. Secondly, as opposed to the recent wave of “political insurance” arguments that ascribe the creation of reforms to weak incumbents attempting to tie the hands of their successors, I argue that actors pursue similar institutional reforms for economic and political reasons. I build on these literatures by examining the commitment to a specific government institution—stabilization funds, which manage the fluctuations of natural resource rents and stop natural resource wealth from being a curse—across three natural resource-rich Latin American countries: Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. Paradoxically, because successful stabilization funds provide greater political benefits when rents are saved, I argue that these institutions only tie the hands of political successors from using rents for political purposes when they are created for economic purposes.Item Peruvian immigration to Chile : policy, NGOs and the Chilean state(2006-08) Munoz, Isabel Solange; Skop, EmilyThis paper explores international immigration using the case study of Peruvian immigration to Chile. Taking into consideration the current context of neoliberal reforms and social policy, the study focuses on the role of NGOs, international institutions and the Chilean state in developing social policy initiatives and programs to address the Peruvian immigrant question. Through an analysis of the discourses and programs presented by the Chilean state and formal organizations, this study explores how Peruvian immigration is being positioned within a larger concept of Chilean national and ethnic identity.Item The political logic of renter’s insurance : the resource curse, institutions, and the foundations of institutional strength in Latin America(2012-08) Johnson, Matthew Alan; Weyland, Kurt Gerhard; Madrid, Raúl L.; Hunter, Wendy; McDonald, Patrick; Greene, KennethWhat effects do natural resources, and more specifically the revenues from the extraction and sales of commodities, have on the economies of well-endowed countries in Latin America? How does the political administration of natural resource wealth affect the economic trajectories of these developing countries? Under what conditions do countries successfully use political institutions to administer natural resource windfalls prudently? My dissertation addresses these questions and ultimately explains why natural resource wealth is a blessing for the development of some countries and a curse for others. Specifically, I examine the effectiveness of specific government institutions—called Nonrenewable Resource Stabilization Funds (NRSFs or stabilization funds), which help countries to manage the economic challenges associated with relying upon volatile natural resource revenues—in Chile and Venezuela, two natural resource-rich Latin American countries. Although both of these countries created a NRSF, Chile’s has been very successful while Venezuela’s was extremely weak from the outset. My research suggests that the degree of stabilization fund success—which impacts the severity of the resource curse—depends on these institutions constraining political actors from using rents for venal purposes. In turn, I find that the capacity of NRSFs to restrain the passions of self-interested executives is largely a product of the circumstances accompanying the creation of these institutions; that is, the conditions into which these institutions are born impact stabilization fund performance, but not in the way that the traditional literature predicts. In contrast to extant explanations suggesting that NRSF success is dependent upon clear institutional rules or general state capacity, I find that stabilization funds tend to be unsuccessful when political needs drove their creation while these institutions are likely to function well when economic concerns were the impetus for their adoption. I substantiate the case study evidence of Chile and Venezuela with a broad statistical analysis of 20 other countries that have created NRSFs.Item The surrender of secrecy : explaining the emergence of strong access to information laws in Latin America(2010-05) Michener, Robert Gregory; Madrid, Raúl L.; Alves, Rosental C.; Brinks, Daniel; Greene, Kenneth F.; Weyland, Kurt G.; Edwards, David V.Worldwide, the remarkable diffusion of transparency and access to information laws poses a monumental challenge to the state’s most enduringly undemocratic feature— excessive secrecy. Will recent laws lead to an effective surrender of secrecy? The incipient literature on transparency reform says little about the strength of current legislation or how strong laws emerge. This dissertation addresses these theoretical and empirical gaps. First, it articulates a theory on the political determinants of strong access to information laws. Second, employing an original evaluation, it scores the strength of twelve access to information laws advanced throughout Latin America between 2002 and 2010. Two extreme outcomes are examined in detail: a failed comprehensive reform in Argentina (1999-2005), which resulted in a limited presidential decree (2003), and the adoption of a seminal law in Mexico (2002). These cases are then compared with others across Latin America with special attention placed on Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. I find considerable variance in the strength of the region’s laws: the average score is “moderately strong,” while the median and mode scores are “moderately weak.” Evidence shows that while civic coalitions and external pressure often help drive reform, they cannot explain observed variation in legal strength. Rather, I find that laws emerge more robust and earlier-on within the electoral cycle (within the first half of a president’s term of office), in countries where 1) presidents lack control over the legislature and 2) news media coverage of access to information laws is strong. By contrast, where news media coverage is weak and presidents possess strong negative agenda setting powers (partisan majorities or constitutional means of denying a vote), I find that laws tend to emerge later-on during the electoral cycle (within the last third), and are considerably weaker. I also find that press advocacy for access to information laws tended to be greater in countries where presidents were weaker and news media ownership concentration was low. The dissertation addresses key institutional preconditions for good governance and transparency reform. More specifically, it speaks to the determinants and power of the news media as an agent of democratic advancement (and stagnation), and the importance of weak leaders and partisan competition in promoting good governance reform.Item That thing you do(2011-05) Albala Cardemil, David; Schiesari, Nancy; Lewis, Richard; Ramírez-Berg, CharlesThis report outlines the process of creating and producing the documentary film “That Thing You Do” based on the TV series “1+1=Infinito” (1+1=Infinite). The series and the film provide a better understanding of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and shows how people can incorporate CSR into their daily lives. The film production was financed by “PROhumana Foundation” (Chile) and shows how three Chilean people: Rodrigo Alonso, entrepreneur, Catalina Valdés, chef, and Javier del Río, architect, are trying to make a difference in their specific fields in terms of environmental impact, saving and using energy properly, and the importance of conscientious eating. The documentary film has taken the concept of CSR and attempted to present it to a massive audience in order to suggest the idea that all of our actions eventually come back to us. Any imbalance in the system that surrounds us and which we are a part of will affect us. In contrast, any improvement to the system will benefit us. The film thus attempts to showcase testimonials by the main characters suggesting small changes we can make in our daily lives in order to work toward this goal.Item The Post-Dictatorial Thriller Form(2012-07-16) Powell, Audrey BryantThis dissertation proposes a theoretical examination of the Latin American thriller through the framework of post-dictatorial Chile, with a concluding look at the post civil war Central American context. I define the thriller as a loose narrative structure reminiscent of the basic detective story, but that fuses the conventional investigation formula with more sensational elements such as political violence, institutional corruption and State terrorism. Unlike the classic form, in which crime traditionally occurs in the past, the thriller form engages violence as an event ongoing in the present or always lurking on the narrative horizon. The Chilean post-dictatorial and Central American postwar histories contain these precise thriller elements. Throughout the Chilean military dictatorship (1973-1990), the Central American civil wars (1960s-1990s) and the triumph of global capitalism, political violence emerges in diversified and oftentimes subtle ways, demanding new interpretational paradigms for explaining its manifestation in contemporary society. In Chile, however, despite a history ripe with the narrative elements of the thriller, a consistent thriller novelistic tradition remains underdeveloped. My research reveals that contemporary Chilean ? and by extension, Latin American ? fiction continues to be analyzed under the aegis of melancholy and the tragic legacy of dictatorship or revolutionary insurgency. Therefore, a theoretical examination of the post-dictatorial/postwar thriller answers the need to not only move beyond previously established literary and political paradigms toward a more nuanced engagement with the present, but to envision a form of thinking beyond national tragedy and trauma. This dissertation analyzes samples of the post-dictatorial detective narrative and testimonial account, which constitute the mirroring narrative components of the thriller. The detective texts and testimonial writings analyzed in this project demonstrate how the particular use of the detective story and testimonial account mirror one another at every fundamental level, articulating what I am theorizing as the thriller structure. Using the theoretical approximations of John Beverley, Brett Levinson, Alberto Moreiras, Jon Beasley-Murray, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt and Carlo Galli, this project makes an original inquiry into why the thriller emerges as the most apt narrative framework for exploring the forms of violence in present-day Latin America.Item Today’s allies, tomorrow’s enemies? The political dynamics of corruption scandals in Latin America(2011-08) Balán, Manuel Elías; Weyland, Kurt Gerhard; Elkins, Zachary; Greene, Kenneth; Hunter, Wendy; Madrid, Raúl; Przeworski, Adam; Brinks, DanielIn the last two decades, corruption has become a key concern throughout the world. Most of what we know about corruption comes from instances in which misdeeds become public, usually generating a scandal. Why do some acts of corruption become corruption scandals and others do not? This dissertation argues that scandals are not triggered by corruption per se, but are initially caused by the dynamics of political competition within the government. Government insiders leak information on misdeeds in order to increase their influence within the coalition/party in power. A powerful opposition, contrary to common beliefs, acts as a constraint for insiders, making corruption scandals less likely. In order to advance this central argument, this dissertation divides the temporal development of corruption scandals into four stages and proposes a formal model that analyzes the interactions of government insiders and the political opposition. The arguments and hypotheses generated are then evaluated using empirical evidence from two paradigmatic Latin American cases, Argentina and Chile, from 1989 to 2010. The findings support the notion that corruption scandals emerge as a consequence of political competition.Item Toward a theory on gender and emotional management in electoral politics : a comparative study of media discourses in Chile and the United States(2011-05) Bachmann Cáceres, Ingrid; Harp, Dustin, 1968-; Coleman, Renita; Jarvis, Sharon; Poindexter, Paula M.; Stroud, Natalie J.The role of a political leader often is associated with the emotional attributes of a man, and there is empirical evidence that media coverage reinforces culture-specific emotion display rules for politicians. Feminist communication scholarship also has shown the gendered assumptions manifest in mediated discourses. This dissertation explores the relationship between gender, culture and candidates’ emotionality by examining and comparing news media coverage of the emotional management of Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and the United States’ Hillary Clinton, two female candidates with a viable bid for the presidency in their respective countries. Using a discourse analysis of 1,676 items from national newspapers, news magazines and television newscasts, this study found that cultural differences influence the discursive constructions of these women candidates’ emotionality. In the case of Bachelet, she was deemed as a soft, empathic and ultimately “feminine” candidate who needed to toughen up to convey authority and convince voters that she had the skills, in addition to the charm, to lead a country. In the case of Clinton, she was described mainly as a cold and unsympathetic contender, an unwomanly woman with too much ambition to be likable, and who was portrayed either as fake or frail when being more emotionally open. These mediated discourses suggest the media favored determined understandings for a woman’s place and role, reinforcing socially-shared and culturally-bound meanings about gendered identities. Informed by a feminist theoretical framework, the discussion addresses how these mediated discourses on Bachelet and Clinton illustrate the power of culturally-sanctioned sexism in Chile and the United States to make of gender a restrictive force that keeps women out of the realms of politics and policy.