During the 1820s, the works of English utilitarian philosopher and jurisconsult Jeremy Bentham attained a remarkable diffusion throughout Spanish America, enjoying a high reputation among the leaders of the revolt against Spanish rule. Colombian Francisco de Paula Santander professed himself to be Bentham's admirer, while Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda took his advice on freedom of the press. Simón Bolívar, el Gran Libertador, went so far as to assure Bentham that his name was never pronounced “even in these savage regions of America, without veneration nor without gratitude.”

La reforma del servicio civil de 1991/92 creó en Argentina una burocracia profesional (en el clásico sentido “weberiano”) a escala relativamente masiva para países de América Latina. En la presente nota se exponen resultados de una investigación empírica que conciernen a la situación del servicio público federal argentino, diez años después de la reforma. Basada en entrevistas con informantes claves, así como también en estadísticas y documentos oficiales, esta nota de investigación describe, en primer lugar, la muy baja influencia de los nuevos funcionarios de carrera sobre decisiones de política pública. En segundo lugar, se examinan las dificultades que tienen los designados políticos de alto nivel para trabajar con funcionarios profesionales permanentes, y se incluye una breve retrospectiva de la problemática relación entre los dos grupos desde la democratización de 1983. Se presenta, finalmente, un análisis estadístico de la burocracia federal argentina, con el propósito de medir el impacto numérico del nuevo servicio civil de carrera sobre la estructura burocrática general, esto es, el nivel de profesionalismo global alcanzado mediante la reforma de 1991/92.

Programs of economic liberalization have many common features all over the world, but they do not necessarily have the same consequences. Differences in their effects reflect differences in the countries themselves along with accidental factors of timing and external events, and they can also embody systematic consequences of alternatives within the programs. The starting point in this discussion is that different versions of liberalization—alternatives consistent with the basic strategy—can have significantly different effects on poverty and inequality.

En base a correspondencia original es analizada la importancia que tuvo la Sociedad de Protección a los Inmigrantes Israelitas (SOPRO) para socorrer a los fugitivos judíos que llegaron de Europa a Bolivia entre mediados de 1938 e inicios de la década del 40. Después de exponer las razones que determinaron el flujo migratorio a este país y las dificultades que tuvo para prestar ayuda a la integración de los inmigrantes, se exponen cuatros dimensiones: la creación, las finalidades, los medios financieros y la estructura organizativa de la SOPRO; las formas de respaldo que ella otorgó; los mecanismos que empleó para conceder y recuperar sus créditos; las limitaciones y los éxitos de su labor. Considerando la falta de estudios respecto a la tarea que desempeñaron sociedades de amparo para facilitar la integración de inmigrantes israelitas en países latinoamericanos durante los decenios del 30 y del 40, el aporte busca enmendar esta negligencia y abrir posibilidades para estudios comparativos sobre la materia.

Jauja, rinconcito de mi valle.

Andean folk song, Juan Bolvar

The military government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975) coined the phrase, Campesino, el patrn no comer ms de tu pobreza! (Peasant, the patrn will feed no more on your poverty). Clearly a favorite slogan of the self-described Peruvian Revolution, this saying appeared frequently on posters and in newspaper notices. Although linked to Velasco's agrarian reform program and peasant organizations like the Confederacin Nacional Agraria (CNA), which emerged from the plan, this aphorism was said to have originated with Jos Ga-Meja, La reforma agraria en el Per (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1980). I take the agrarian reform process into consideration because of its impact on my generation, which experienced all of its effects intensely.

The relative success of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) is a puzzle for most theories of regional integration. This is due to its having achieved remarkable progress in spite of lacking features such as significant levels of previous interdependence (demand factor) or major regional institutions (supply factor). To account for this puzzle, it has been claimed that the operation of MERCOSUR rests on presidential diplomacy. Such a mechanism is understood as the resort to direct negotiations between the national presidents whenever a crucial decision has to be made or a critical conflict solved. This article argues that presidential diplomacy—understood as political, summit diplomacy as opposed to institutionalized, professional diplomacy—is insufficient to account for the performance of MERCOSUR. Through the empirical analysis of three critical episodes, the article shows how institutional structures, shaped by the system of government of the member countries, have sustained presidential intervention and, hence, the process of regional integration.

In the 1960s, the Cuban Revolution sparked great interest in Latin America throughout the United States. Not coincidentally, the promotion and translation of literature from Latin America increased dramatically during this period. This essay explores the interplay of market and political forces in the promotion of Latin American literature in the United States through an examination of two programs funded by Rockefeller family philanthropies during the 1960s and 1970s: a translation subsidy program supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and administered by the Association of American University Presses; and the Translation Program of the Center for Inter-American Relations, which was funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. I trace both programs' efforts at working the U.S. market to promote works and authors. I also study the political motivations fostering these efforts, exploring the extent to which these programs both sought to promote cross-cultural understanding and tried to further U.S. foreign policy interests.