One in a while, every twenty years perhaps, a book appears that makes one see a whole area of human experience in a new light. Once pointed out, the new insights are sp obvious that one cannot understand how one could have missed them before. In the broad area of the political economy of western society, J.A. Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1943) was one such book. So, with all its faults, was J.K. Galbraith's The Affluent Society (1957). Fred Hirsch's Social Limits to Growth (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1977) is another.

Social limits to growth

Although there is a lively academic debate about contemporary populism in Europe and Latin America, almost no cross-regional research exists on this topic. This article aims to fill this gap by showing that a minimal and ideological definition of populism permits us to analyse current expressions of populism in both regions. Moreover, based on a comparison of four prototypical cases (FN/Le Pen and FPO/Haider in Europe and PSUV/Chavez and MAS/Morales in Latin America), we show that it is possible to identify two regional subtypes of populism: exclusionary populism in Europe and inclusionary populism in Latin America.

/pdf/exclusionary-vs-inclusionary-populism-comparing-contemporary-b4jyxt16ha.pdf

Exclusionary vs. Inclusionary Populism: Comparing Contemporary Europe and Latin America

https://gpsaknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Social-Accountability-What-Does-Evidence-Really-Say-GPSA-Working-Paper-11.pdf

Social Accountability: What Does the Evidence Really Say?

Aristotle proposed that to achieve happiness and success, people should cultivate virtues at mean or intermediate levels between deficiencies and excesses. In stark contrast to this assertion that virtues have costs at high levels, a wealth of psychological research has focused on demonstrating the well-being and performance benefits of positive traits, states, and experiences. This focus has obscured the prevalence and importance of nonmonotonic inverted-U-shaped effects, whereby positive phenomena reach inflection points at which their effects turn negative. We trace the evidence for nonmonotonic effects in psychology and provide recommendations for conceptual and empirical progress. We conclude that for psychology in general and positive psychology in particular, Aristotle’s idea of the mean may serve as a useful guide for developing both a descriptive and a prescriptive account of happiness and success.

/pdf/too-much-of-a-good-thing-the-challenge-and-opportunity-of-42s2h8404b.pdf

Too Much of a Good Thing The Challenge and Opportunity of the Inverted U

Students of international negotiations often examine strategic interactions among a given set of parties dealing with a specified group of issues. The issues and parties themselves are often choice variables whose ultimate configuration can have decisive effects on a bargain's outcome. Using a variety of international cases, I investigate the properties of several classes of moves that are intended to alter the issues and parties of an original negotiation. A unified approach to the analysis of such situations suggests numerous distinct means by which the “addition” or “subtraction” of issues can yield one-sided gains to the use of power; can yield joint gains that create or enhance a zone of possible agreement; and can reduce or destroy a zone of possible agreement. The effects of adding or subtracting parties are similarly analyzed. However, unintended complexity, unforeseen interrelationships, organizational considerations, transactions costs, and informational requirements may alter the analysis of such moves.

Negotiation arithmetic: adding and subtracting issues and parties

The strengths and virtues identified by positive psychology are treated as logically independent, and it is recommended that people identify their “signature” strengths and cultivate them, because more of a strength is better [Peterson and Seligman: 2004, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (Oxford University Press, New York); Seligman: 2002, Authentic Happiness (Free Press, New York)]. The present paper contrasts that view with the Aristotelian view that virtues are interdependent, that happiness (eudaimonia) requires all the virtues, and that more of a virtue is not always better than less. We argue that practical wisdom is the master virtue essential to solving problems of specificity, relevance, and conflict that inevitably arise whenever character strengths must be translated into action in concrete situations. We also argue that practical wisdom is becoming increasingly difficult to nurture and display in modern society, so that attention must be paid to reshaping social institutions to encourage the use of practical wisdom rather than inhibiting it.

/pdf/practical-wisdom-aristotle-meets-positive-psychology-3on5qw67f0.pdf

Practical wisdom: aristotle meets positive psychology

Why have our drug wars failed and how might we turn things around? Ask the authors of this hard-hitting expose of U.S. efforts to fight drug trafficking and abuse. In a bold analysis of a century's worth of policy failure, "Drug War Politics" turns on its head many familiar bromides about drug politics. It demonstrates how, instead of learning from our failures, we duplicate and reinforce them in the same flawed policies. The authors examine the 'politics of denial' that has led to this catastrophic predicament and propose a basis for a realistic and desperately needed solution. Domestic and foreign drug wars have consistently fallen short because they are based on a flawed model of force and punishment, the authors show. The failure of these misguided solutions has led to harsher get-tough policies, debilitating cycles of more force and punishment, and a drug problem that continues to escalate. On the foreign policy front, billions of dollars have been wasted, corruption has mushroomed, and human rights undermined in Latin America and across the globe. Yet cheap drugs still flow abundantly across our borders. At home, more money than ever is spent on law enforcement, and an unprecedented number of people - disproportionately minorities - are incarcerated. But drug abuse and addiction persist. The authors outline the political struggles that help create and sustain the current punitive approach. They probe the workings of Washington politics, demonstrating how presidential and congressional 'out-toughing' tactics create a logic of escalation while the criticisms and alternatives of reformers are sidelined or silenced. Critical of both the punitive model and the legalization approach, "Drug War Politics" calls for a bold new public health approach, one that frames the drug problem as a public health - not a criminal - concern. The authors argue that only by situating drug issues in the context of our fundamental institutions - the family, neighborhoods, and schools - can we hope to provide viable treatment, prevention, and law enforcement. In its comprehensive investigation of our long, futile battle with drugs and its original argument for fundamental change, this book is essential for every concerned citizen.

Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial

Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing

The historical-structural method employed here rejects analyses that are excessively voluntaristic or deterministic. The authors show that while the state was able to mitigate certain adverse consequences of TNC strategies, new forms of dependency continued to limit Mexico's options.Originally published in 1985.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

https://works.swarthmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1353&context=fac-poli-sci

Transnational Corporations versus the State: The Political Economy of the Mexican Auto Industry

1. Voice and Consequence: Direct Participation and Democracy in Latin America Maxwell A. Cameron, Eric Hershberg and Kenneth E. Sharpe 2. We're Either Burned or Frozen Out:' Society and Party Systems in Latin American Municipal Development Councils (Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil) Gisela Zaremberg 3. Participation as Representation: Democratic Policymaking in Brazil Thamy Pogrebinschi 4. Constrained Participation: The Impact of Consultative Councils on National-Level Policy in Mexico Felipe J. Hevia de la Jara and Ernesto Isunza Vera 5. Learning to Be 'Better Democrats'? The Role of Informal Practices in Brazilian Participatory Budgeting Experiences Francoise Montambeault 6. The Possibilities and Limits of Politicized Participation: Community Councils, Coproduction, and Poder Popular in Chavez's Venezuela Michael M. McCarthy 7. Direct Democracy in Venezuela and Uruguay: New Voices, Old Practices Alicia Lissidini 8. Participation and Representation in Oaxaca, Mexico's Customary Law Elections: Normative Debates and Lessons for Latin American Multiculturalism Todd A. Eisenstadt and Jennifer Yelle 9. Democratic Diversity in Bolivia: Between Representation, Participation and Self-Government Jose Luis Exeni R. 10. Institutionalized Voice in Latin American Democracies Maxwell A. Cameron and Kenneth E. Sharpe

Kenneth Evan Sharpe

Papers

Practical wisdom: aristotle meets positive psychology

Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial

Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing

Transnational Corporations versus the State: The Political Economy of the Mexican Auto Industry

New Institutions for Participatory Democracy in Latin America: Voice and Consequence