Memoria situada y endriaga en La oscura memoria de las armas

In La oscura memoria de las armas (2008) Ramón Díaz Eterovic explores the topics of memory, Chile’s dictatorship, transition, violence and truth from the perspective of Detective Heredia, who goes through the streets of Santiago elucidating a murder that, based on rumours and on a conscious of effort of not forgetting history, it deals with relevant topics that were not talked about on the time of the transition to democracy, where memories become an "endriaga" at the sight of the establishment of the collective memory, birthed on the streets of the city. A memory made of testimonies dripping with the horror, torment and silence that the dictatorship imposed over the inhabitants of Santiago and allows us to configure the urban imaginary of Santiago de Chile at the time of the transition to democracy, introducing a new character into the national literary imaginary: the victim of the dictatorship who seeks justice and revenge.

EL RELATO NEGATIVO DE LA TRANSICIÓN ESPAÑOLA Y SU PLASMACIÓN LITERARIA: UNA LECTURA SOCIOCRÍTICA DE EL JARDÍN COLGANTE, DE JAVIER CALVO

En el presente artículo, llevaremos a cabo una lectura sociocrítica de la novela El jardín colgante de Javier Calvo. Esta novela aborda en su argumento la Transición española y, en parte a través del recurso al subgénero de la novela de espionaje, presenta desde la ficción una imagen negativa, violenta y descarnada de dicha Transición, entendida como una conspiración de las elites fundada en la violencia y en un pacto de olvido. A través del citado análisis sociocrítico, mostraremos cómo se inscriben ciertos elementos simbólicos de carácter antagónico en el dispositivo semiótico-discursivo de la obra y cómo a la postre estos muestran una visión de la Transición más problemática, ambigua y contradictoria de lo que podría parecer en una lectura superficial del texto, y revelan de forma inconsciente los principales conflictos conceptuales e ideológicos que la Transición aún genera. In this article, we will carry out a socio-critical reading of the novel El jardín colgante, by Javier Calvo. This novel is about the Spanish Transition to democracy, and, partially based on the conventions of the spy novel as a subgenre, it builds a negative image of it. The novel presents the Spanish Transition as a conspiracy of elites based on violence and in a pact of oblivion. Through the aforementioned socio-critical analysis, we will show how certain symbolic antagonistic elements are inscribed in the semiotic-discursive device of the work, and also how they reveal a more problematic, ambiguous and contradictory view of the Spanish Transition than it might appear from a first reading, and also how they unconsciously expose the main conceptual and ideological conflicts that this period of the Spanish History still generates. Abstract: In this article, we will carry out a socio-critical reading of the Javier Calvo’s novel El jardín colgante. This novel is set during the Spanish Transition to democracy, and, partially based on the conventions of the spy novel as a subgenre, it builds a negative image of it. The novel presents the Spanish Transition as a conspiracy of elites based on violence and in a pact of oblivion. Through the aforementioned socio-critical analysis, we will show how certain symbolic antagonistic elements are inscribed in the semiotic-discursive device of the work, and also how they reveal a more problematic, ambiguous and contradictory view of the Spanish Transition than it might appear from a first reading, and also how they unconsciously expose the main conceptual and ideological conflicts that this period of Spanish History still generates.

The Imperfect Democratic Transition in Somalia

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors undermining the democratic transition in Somalia. During the first decade of independence, Somalia attempted to institutionalize a multiparty democracy. However, several factors, such as the lack of a clear political ideology, authoritarianism, and the formation of clan-based political parties, led to the decline of democratic practices, followed by a military coup and a protracted civil war. That had a devastating impact on the short and long-term democratic efforts in the country. Thirty years after the collapse of the central government, the country is embroiled in protracted political instability that continues to undermine efforts to establish formal democratic institutions and mechanisms. Apart from the political cleavage among political actors, this paper examines other factors undermining the successful transition to democracy in Somalia. It identifies factors such as the practice of clannism or a clan-based political system, rampant electoral corruption, and the inconsistent role of the international community in supporting the democratization process in Somalia. The paper argues that continuing the indirect elections has blocked the attaining successful democratic transition and stalled the adoption of procedural democracy. In addition, susceptible public institutions and instability have negatively impacted a prolonged transition in Somalia.

Constitutional transition to democracy in Spain

In this article the author analyses formation of the country's constitutional legislation system. In the 20th century Spain experienced three different periods: the years of the Second Republic in 1931-1939, the Franco's dictatorship of 1939-1975 and the period of transition to democracy or, as it is called ‘constitutional transit' of 1975-1980, when the basic laws and regulations of democratic Spain were adopted. Each of these periods corresponded with fundamentally different lawmaking processes, based on different legal judicial norms that were strongly influenced by the peculiarities of the political situation in the country. This article examines the background of the creation of Spanish constitutions in a particular historical period, the domestic and international situation and its influence on the peculiarities of lawmaking process. The author studies the history of the constitutional documents' adoption, considers and examines their structure and content in a highly detailed way. The author scrutinizes not only the logic, but also the sequence and reasons for the adoption of all Spanish constitutional and legal acts, as well as their meaning and influence on the legal system of the state. The Fundamental Laws of Frankish Spain, as well as the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the Political Reform Act, the rulings of the Spanish Constitutional Court and other acts, the peculiarities of the transition process to democracy and the legal break with the Frankish epoch and its system of lawmaking are studied in the article. It is worth noting that, at a time when the exist opinions that the Spanish Constitution is outdated and needs reforming, the conclusion about its fundamental role for the peaceful transition to a new Spain at the end of the 20th century and its legal relevance is the issue of utmost importance.

Politization in Labor Conflict: Analyzing the Demands of Post-Authoritarian Chilean Strikes

By examining the demands of labor strikes in the private sector, this article claims that Chilean trade unions have experienced a politization process from the transition to democracy to our days (1990–2019). Assuming a Marxist perspective on the labor process, we propose operationalizing politization into three levels based on the nature of demands: (1) remunerative, (2) related to work conditions, and (3) related to the organization of the labor process. The study regards these three levels as a latent variable ranging from less to more control over the productive process, but, also, as a continuum ranging from more legal demands to more illegal demands according to Chilean labor regulation. The results show an increase of politized demands (i.e. more control and less legality) through the years. This case study sheds light on the consequences of a rigid and ineffective regulation and on the necessity to rethink politics in the workplace.

Prologue to truth: Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappeared and the authority of international law

Argentina’s 1980s transition to democracy is globally admired for pioneering a state-led process addressing the 1976–1983 dictatorship’s state-violence. The role of international law in the transition is well documented, especially through human rights and crimes against humanity. Yet, the extent to which Argentina’s transition was intertwined with international law and subject to its jurisdictional force deserves greater attention. This article analyses how the Argentinian truth commission (TC) accounts for the dictatorship’s state-violence, and how international law is implicated in the making of this account. It argues that the TC’s account draws on the authority of international law to establish the unlawfulness of the dictatorship’s state-violence. In turn, the TC subjects the meaning and interpretation of the dictatorship’s state-violence to a Eurocentric/Anglo-American lawfulness embedded in, and mobilized by, international law in the late-Cold War. To examine this, the article re-reads the Prologue to the TC’s Report as a literary text that does international legal work, harnessing the authority of international law in a way that has enabled the TC to deploy an authoritative, internationally acceptable, account of the unlawfulness of the dictatorship’s state-violence. This reading is based on original archival research, on scholarship in the fields of ‘law and literature’ and the history and theory of international law.

Mining and Minerals in South Africa

Although the mining value chain only accounted for around 13% of the GDP and 6% of employment in 2020, it remained a central link between the South African economy and international markets. As a result, it had an outsized impact on the production structure, income distribution, infrastructure and legal frameworks. After the transition to democracy in 1994, the value chain underwent significant changes, notably a shift away from coal into platinum, iron ore, coal and ferroalloys, and significant divestment by international mining companies. Still, deep-seated developmental challenges persisted, including limited mining-based industrialisation, the exercise of monopoly power within value chains, and deeply inequitable and oppressive payscales and work organisation. These structural weaknesses emerged clearly in the 2010s, as the end of the global metals prices boom (2002 to 2011) brought plummeting revenues, revealing a range of economic, workplace, and policy conflicts across the value chain.

Molecular Sovereignty: Building a Blood Screening Test for the Brazilian Nation

This article interrogates the relationship between the development of national diagnostic technologies and the exercise of sovereignty, by analysing a Brazilian project to produce a nucleic acid test (NAT) for the country’s blood screening programme. The concept of ‘molecular sovereignty’ is proposed to demonstrate that exercising sovereignty demands not only technological resources but also a sufficiently powerful and national imaginary to support local knowledge production as a means of advancing national healthcare priorities. First, this research article contextualises the political importance of blood safety for Brazil during its transition to democracy in the 1980s and the creation of its universal healthcare system. Then, it investigates how adopting the NAT led the state to invest in the production of a national technology. Third, the article unpacks the diagnostic test to consider how certain aspects of the project might ultimately strengthen the ability of global capital to cross national boundaries and create new markets. Lastly, it discusses how the project ended up creating a centralised and ‘closed’ system to avoid leaving the country vulnerable to the entry of global diagnostic companies. This case demonstrates how the molecularisation of blood, through the construction of a unified healthcare system driven by the constitutional right to health, can be deployed to construct imagined communities on the scale of a nation.