Latin America and COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
Brigitte Weiffen
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Presidential Leadership ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Economic Distress ◽  
Political Unrest

Latin America was hit by COVID-19 in a moment of (socio-)economic distress and political unrest. This essay reflects on the immediate repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis for democracy in the region. It expounds how responding to the pandemic put to the test the still consolidating democracies with their long-standing defects in the areas of political and civil rights and horizontal accountability. In the course of coping with the crisis, it is precisely in these problem areas that additional risks for democracy have arisen due to infringements of political rights and the performance of presidents. Regarding the latter, the ambiguities of presidential leadership become particularly evident when comparing pragmatic and populist responses to the crisis.

Reflections on Contemporary South American Democracies

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
GUILLERMO O'DONNELL
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
South America ◽  
National Level ◽  
South American ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Opinion Expression ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Indefinite Future

The occasion of honouring the memory of John Brooks, a great friend of Latin America, has helped me vanquish my initial reluctance to tackle a topic that is as broad, varied and still open-ended as the present situation of democracy in South America. As a first measure of my limitations, with the exception of some references to Costa Rica and Mexico, I will not discuss Central America and the Caribbean, not because I feel these regions are unimportant but because, simply, I do not know enough about them. However, when I feel that I am on sufficiently solid ground so as to refer to Latin America as a whole, I will do so.I begin by noting that in contemporary South America some countries satisfy the definition of political democracy. Those countries share two main characteristics. One is that they hold elections under universal adult franchise that, at least at the national level, are reasonably fair and competitive. These are standard criteria in the political science literature. However, having in mind the experience of Latin America and elsewhere in the third world, I believe that we should add that such elections must be institutionalised. By this I mean that all relevant actors expect that elections of this kind will continue being held in the indefinite future so, whether they like or not, it is rational for them to play democracy, not coup-making or insurrection. We should also stipulate that these elections are decisive, in the sense that those who are elected do occupy the respective offices and end their terms in the constitutionally prescribed way; they are not, as it has happened too often in Latin America, prevented from occupying office or thrown out of it because some supra-constitutional power feels that they are the ‘wrong people’.The second characteristic is the enjoyment of certain political rights, especially of opinion, expression, association, movement and access to a reasonably free and pluralist media. Of course, these and other rights are important per se; in addition, they are instrumental – necessary conditions – for the effectuation of the kind of elections I have just specified.

scholarly journals Theoretical reflection on the impact of globalization processes on civil rights

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (SE) ◽  
pp. 309-326
Author(s):  
Ehsan Madmalil ◽  
Fereydoun Akbarzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

The concept of citizenship is one of the old key concepts in political philosophy that has been reproduced in various forms since the formation of classical political philosophy up to modern times within the theory set forth in this type of theoretical philosophy. So, pre-modern theory, modern theory and postmodern theory can be noted. The concept of citizenship is an idea which governs the right of modern human and was emerged in the Western Europe and is a product of modern politics. Accepting Legal and political rights and duties is raised by citizenship status, its main foundation and the basic idea of the concept. In the contemporary world, citizenship has been interested more than other societies. The question that comes to mind here is that how is the situation of civil rights in the era of theoretical terms in globalization? In response to the question hypothesis is that with globalization, citizenship in its modern form that was enclosed in the geography of the national government has lost its sense and civil rights embodied in the discourses that are outside the reach of state law. This study aimed to investigate the impact of globalization on the civil right and conceptual evolution theoretically, as contemporary theorists have theorized it. Research findings indicate the "global citizenship" as a concept is emerging in the era of globalization as the result of rethinking of citizenship in the modern age. The methodology of study is analysis - descriptive, this means that the concept of civil right is described and then the theoretical changes in the era of globalization will be analyzed.

scholarly journals Combating the organized crime by means of an unorganized law

2003 ◽  
Vol 75 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 192-202
Author(s):  
Slobodan Beljanski
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Convention Against Torture ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Republic

The author points out the differences in definitions of organized crime and the problems that may occur in application of provisions having undetermined or open contents. In the second part of the work the author analyses disharmony that exists between certain provisions of the amended law on organization and competence of state authorities in combat against organized crime with the constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the Constitutional charter, the Charter on Human and minority rights and civil rights, the International Covenant on civil and political rights and the Convention against torture and other severe, inhuman or degrading sentences or procedures.

Russia and the Kingdom of Poland, II

2019 ◽  
pp. 202-209
Author(s):  
David Sorkin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The West ◽  
Blood Libel ◽  
The Government ◽  
Great Reforms

This chapter explains that as Alexander III and Nicholas II increasingly rejected the “west” and its reforms to search for an indigenous Russian alternative, they began to limit or abolish the privileges Alexander II's Great Reforms granted to the Jews and to impose ever harsher restrictions. Alexander III enacted a policy of “integral segregation” that differentiated the Jews from other minority and national groups. Meanwhile, Nicholas II's government propagated an ideology of “reactionary utopia” in which Jews were central, yet there were fundamental ambiguities. For example, his ministries were at odds and pursued contradictory policies. Moreover, the government promoted anti-Semitic literature, pogroms, and blood libel trials. In response to insurrections and the 1905 revolution, the autocratic tsars granted Jews political rights prior to civil rights, though Jewish leaders had to intercede to secure those rights. Ultimately, the tightening vise of tsarist repression resulted in endemic immiseration.

Social-reformist Experiments in Latin America during the Cold War

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-105
Author(s):  
Ruslan Kostiuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Socialist Movement ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Left Movement ◽  
Latin American Countries

The article is devoted to the consideration and analysis of the practical policy of Latin American national reformism and social reformism during the Cold War. The author shows that the political and ideological gamut of the non-communist left movement in Latin America in the bipolar period was very wide. Specifically in this scientific article, the author refers to examples of the exercise of power by different directions of the socialist movement in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Chile. The author shows the existing connections between Latin American national reformism and the Socialist International and at that time comes to the conclusion that the ideology and practice of Latin American social democracy during the Cold War had a special, specific character. The common features characteristics of both the ideological project and the practical policy of the social reformist forces in the period under review were a commitment to political transformations, the expansion of social and political rights of citizens, the strengthening of the state and public sector in the economy, the priority of social policy, an anti-oligarchic strategy, a focus on a fair agrarian reform, anti-imperialism and the desire to defend national independence in foreign policy. In some cases (Nicaragua, Panama, Chile), the nature of social-economic transformations went beyond the framework of classical social reformism and had a revolutionary democratic content. The results of the center-left experiments in Latin American countries during the Cold War have varied, but by the 1990s most of them had failed. This is largely due to the fact that in the specific historical conditions of Latin American countries, national reformism in power led to the development of authoritarian and personalist tendencies, an increase in corruption and bureaucracy, attempts to merge the party and state apparatus.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 338-356
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Reidy
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
New World ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Act ◽  
Freedmen's Bureau ◽  
Racial Democracy ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Freed People ◽  
Radical Reconstruction

The defeat of the Confederacy destroyed slavery and the slaveholders' quest for an independent nation. The Freedmen's Bureau, established by Congress weeks before the surrender, aimed to construct a system of compensated labor on the ruins of slavery and to identify and protect the rights that freed people needed to function in the new world of freedom. They encountered strong opposition from former slaveholders, which President Andrew Johnson's lenient reconstruction policy appeared to encourage. When Radical Republicans gained the upper hand, they enacted sweeping legislation designed to reconstruct the seceded states on the principle of racial democracy (the Reconstruction Acts) and to safeguard black Americans' civil and political rights (a Civil Rights Act and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments). But by failing to legislate a redistribution of Southern land, the Radicals squelched the freed people's most cherished hope for economic advancement. Although this and other setbacks-including the violent overthrow of Radical Reconstruction in 1876-dampened hopes, the quest for freedom and equality endured.

Canada—Nova Scotia

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ruck Keene ◽  
QC Alison Scott Butler
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Canadian Charter ◽  
Law System ◽  
The Common ◽  
Civil Law System

Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces, including Nova Scotia (‘NS’), and three territories. The common law applies in Canada, with the exception of the province of Quebec, which uses a civil law system. There is a federal government; as a province, NS also exercises constitutional powers in its own right. Federal legislation includes provisions relating to adults within the scope of this work. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also guarantees certain political rights to Canadians and civil rights to everyone in Canada, and contains rights that impact upon capacity law.

The Law of Personal Status: Wives, Paupers, and Slaves

2019 ◽  
pp. 173-212
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Common Law ◽  
White Men ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Poor Laws ◽  
Marriage And Divorce ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses the law on marriage and divorce, family property, adoption, poor laws and social welfare, and slavery and African Americans in the United States. In the colonial period, the United States had no courts to handle matters of marriage and divorce. Marriage was a contract—an agreement between a man and a woman. Under the rules of the common law, the country belonged to the whites; and more specifically, it belonged to white men. Women had civil rights but no political rights. There were no formal provisions for adoption. A Massachusetts law, passed in 1851, was one of the earliest, and most significant, general adoption law. The so-called poor laws were the basic welfare laws.

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