Cronyism in State Violence: Evidence from Labor Repression During Argentina's Last Dictatorship

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban F Klor ◽  
Sebastian Saiegh ◽  
Shanker Satyanath
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Information Transmission ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Military Junta ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Privately Owned

Abstract We study whether crony governance can extend beyond economic policy to the targeting of state violence against citizens. Specifically, we examine the logic driving the choice of firm-level union representatives who were subjected to state repression by the 1976–1983 Argentine military junta. Using an original dataset, we find a positive, nonspurious, and robust correlation between labor repression and cronyism, measured by political, business, and social connections to the regime. Our results indicate that the number of firm-level union representatives victimized by the regime is three times higher for connected firms relative to nonconnected ones. The effect is pronounced in privately owned (as opposed to state-owned) firms, suggesting that the correlation is driven by cronyism for financial gain rather than ideology or information transmission. We show that connected firms benefited from violence against union representatives by subsequently having less strikes and a higher market valuation. Our findings highlight the pervasiveness of governmental cronyism, even in cases where one of the regime's main stated goals was to curb such behavior.

Servitization of Industry: New Evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
V. Kondrat’ev ◽  
G. Kedrova ◽  
V. Popov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
New Business ◽  
Use Of Services

A significant increase in the use of services is observed for some industries in GVCs (Global Value Chains). The paper has shed light on important dimension of the servitization which is the sale and export of services by manufacturing firms, often bundled together with goods. Firm-level data confirm that many firms are involved both in the production of goods and services and that there are complementarities between these activities. Not only manufacturing firms are involved in the distribution, transport and logistics services needed for their international operations in GVCs but also, they provide installation, maintenance, repair services as well as a variety of other business support and complementary services that increase value for their customers. The servitization has important policy implications, particularly when taking into account the fact that trade in services is generally more restricted than trade in goods. As the lines between goods and services are blurred, economic policy today might be more challenging than in the past, particularly for companies moving to new business models that imply more interactions with customers and a more intensive use of digital technologies. Services themselves are split into different modes of supply for which there are different levels of economic policy. A closer look at the mechanisms of value creation in the case of services suggests that there are still the needs of new economic policy addressed at business models described as value networks or value shops. As technologies become more disruptive and more companies move to ‘servicified’ GVCs, the need for a more consistent international economic policy regime, particularly at the multilateral level, will become more urgent.

How to Scale Factional Divisions in Conflict Situations

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonius C.G.M. Robben
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Methodological Problem ◽  
State Violence ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Research Population ◽  
Formal Power ◽  
Gain Access

In conducting fieldwork among perpetrators of state violence, it is a major methodological problem to gain access to competing factions within the research population. Ethnographers often succeed in finding access to at least one faction but this successful rapport might then immediately close off other factions that mistrust the ethnographer’s politics, intentions, or alleged sympathies. The ethnographic challenge is to find intermediaries or switchboard operators, as they are called in this article, who have established informal channels of communication between hostile factions. Switchboard operators have the following characteristics: discretion, neutrality, lack of formal power, disinterestedness, trustworthiness, and they act as a conduit of communication. This article describes how switchboard operators were located in Argentina, and how they played a crucial role in my fieldwork among a broad spectrum of military perpetrators who had terrorized the Argentine people between 1976 and 1983 with enforced disappearances and state repression.

Social capital in anarchist movements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
Movement Analysis ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Dense Networks ◽  
Robert Putnam ◽  
The World ◽  
Trust Information

Implicit in the study of social movements is the fact that movements require many people collectively participating together in some fashion to succeed. Social capital—the valuable social connections individuals have with others—is one way of approximating people's relationships to each other. Movements both require social capital in order to form and succeed, but movements also create social capital while organizing. This chapter explores the ideas from major social capital theorists, including James Coleman, Pierre Bourdieu, and Robert Putnam, and considers the value of social capital (which is infrequently utilized in movement analysis) for anarchist movements. Important attributes of social capital, such as trust, information channels, norms, and others receive particular focus. A closer inspection suggests that the dense networks of anarchist association serve as a bulwark against state repression, but also alienates the movement from wider audiences, unless efforts are not made to popularize discursive frames and organizing methods. The World Values Survey is used to explore the extent to which anarchist-inclined people—who trust in others, but lack confidence in government—throughout the world are more apt to protest and advocate revolution.

Legitimation, State Repression, and the Sioux Massacre at Wounded Knee

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Roscigno ◽  
Julia Cantzler ◽  
Salvatore Restifo ◽  
Joshua Guetzkow
Keyword(s):  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Ghost Dance ◽  
Cultural Foundations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wounded Knee ◽  
Institutional Actors

The Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and the Ghost Dance movement that preceded it offer a compelling sociological case for understanding legitimation, elite framing, and repression. Building on the social movements literature and theoretical insights on power, institutions, and inequality, we engage in multimethod, in-depth analyses of a rich body of archived correspondence from key institutional actors at the time. Doing so contributes to the literature by drawing attention to (1) the cultural foundations of inequality and repression; (2) super-ordinate framing by political elites and the state; and (3) key institutional conflicts and their consequences. We find that, within an ambiguous colonial context, officials of the Office of Indian Affairs and federal politicians shelved benign military observations and, instead, amplified ethnocentric and threat frames. Force was consequently portrayed as justifiable, which increased the likelihood of the massacre. We conclude by discussing the utility of our results for conceptions of culture, power, inequality, the state, and state violence.

scholarly journals Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Trade Credit Provision: The Role of Social Trust

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Liu ◽  
Daxin Dong
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Trade Credit ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Economic Policy Uncertainty ◽  
The Impact

This paper explores the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on trade credit while taking into account the interactive role of social trust. The analysis is based on the panel data econometric model with fixed effects. Using firm-level data across 16 economies from 1995Q1 to 2015Q1, we find that (i) there exists a negative and highly significant relationship between economic policy uncertainty and the provision of trade credit; (ii) this relation is weaker for firms in countries with higher levels of social trust; and (iii) the effects of EPU and social trust are both more substantial for firms in more financially constrained industries. The impact of social trust is not a result of people’s high confidence in government, an effective legal system of enforcing contracts, a high-quality institutional system or an excellent system of protecting shareholders. Our result is robust if we exclude business cycle effects or use an alternative measure of financial constraints.

Afro-Paradise

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christen A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Protest ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Black Bodies ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Black Faces

Tourists exult in Bahia, Brazil, as a tropical paradise infused with the black population's one-of-a-kind vitality. But the alluring images of smiling black faces and dancing black bodies masks an ugly reality of anti-black authoritarian violence. This book argues that the dialectic of glorified representations of black bodies and subsequent state repression reinforces Brazil's racially hierarchal society. Interpreting the violence as both institutional and performative, the book follows a grassroots movement and social protest theater troupe in their campaigns against racial violence. As the book reveals, economies of black pain and suffering form the backdrop for the staged, scripted, and choreographed afro-paradise that dazzles visitors. The work of grassroots organizers exposes this relationship, exploding illusions and asking unwelcome questions about the impact of state violence performed against the still-marginalized mass of Afro-Brazilians.

Anti-Media Discourse and Violence Against Journalists: Evidence From Chávez’s Venezuela

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110471
Author(s):  
Kyong Mazzaro
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
The Press

Can political leaders’ anti-media rhetoric increase journalists’ vulnerability to non-state violence? Despite the abundance of anecdotal evidence, research on whether and how politicians’ verbal attacks against the “lying press” and “fake news” lead to non-state violence against journalists is limited. This study makes the case that features of the political landscape where anti-media proponents emerge explain why discourse increases journalists’ vulnerability to attacks. Because anti-media discourse is common in contexts where mechanisms of accountability for non-state violence against the press are already weak and electoral competition is fierce, what politicians say can be particularly consequential. Discourse legitimizes non-state attacks, signals to transgressors that violence will not be prosecuted, and paves the way for electorally motivated violence. I capitalize on case narratives collected by local human rights monitoring organizations and media transcripts to build an original dataset of anti-media messages and non-state attacks against journalists in Venezuela (2002–2013). Using survival and instrumental variable models, I show that politicians’ messages are positively correlated with non-state physical attacks against journalists, that the estimated effect of discourse on violence is largest in highly competitive electoral districts, and that electoral campaigns amplify the degree to which messages increase the incidence of attacks by party loyalists. I also show that the longer politicians sustain anti-media discourse, the more likely it is to increase journalists’ vulnerability to attacks.

The Nationalisation of the Banks in Mitterand's France: Rationalisations and Reasons

1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-358
Author(s):  
David Cobham
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Money Creation ◽  
Privately Owned

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the arguments for the nationalisation in 1982 of much of the privately owned banking sector in France, on the grounds that this would restore the power of money creation to the “collectivity’ and produce a better economic policy. The paper concludes that the French government's case was grounded more in elections than economics.

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