This article analyzes the power of select political actors in the social networks of New Spain (colonial Mexico), from 1700–1755. Examining the participation of these actors in successful political and economic coalitions allows for assessment of the additional (or marginal) contribution of each politician. His or her chance of altering decisions of a coalition is called the power index, delivering a quantification of the idea of power. A second step then examines how the number of communicative links with other actors changes a politician's influence and modifies the power index. A large amount of contacts significantly increases the power of an actor. Drawing on this model, I argue that the viceroy's sway increased somewhat in this period because of his improving social connections. In addition, historians who have pointed out that the Bourbon dynasty reduced the role of the Council of the Indies to that of an appellate court have underestimated the council's lasting informal influence. This interdisciplinary article introduces game theory to Latin American historical scholarship by analyzing a period that scholars have largely neglected.

Born free in 1766 along the American frontier separating the Spanish and Portuguese empires, the Afro-descendant Jacinto Ventura de Molina grew up to become a tireless writer of history, religious philosophy, and petitions for black nations and poor residents in Montevideo, Uruguay. After serving in black militias in the early 1800s and working as a shoemaker, he began a long career as a lawyer and was recognized with the title “defender of the poor.” Most impressive about this little-known prolific writer was that he operated in and moved between different social registers and contexts. He was a black letrado working in a white world of letters and knew well how to navigate multiple discourses and manipulate codes of the lettered city. His personality led in part to his popularity in 1820s and 1830s Montevideo. But he was best known for his writing, which spurred attacks from several contemporaries.

Does race influence political behavior in Brazil? Using data from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, we explore whether an individual's propensity to take part in a political association is affected by race, independent of socioeconomic position and of the availability of resources derived from this position. We found that white individuals participate more in political associations than do black individuals; however, after taking into account the differences in all types of resources, we found no difference in participation by racial groups. Nevertheless, by interacting race, skills, and income, it turns out that different racial groups use the same resources differently. A white individual's propensity to participate politically is significantly more affected by income than a similar black individual's propensity. Therefore, we argue that race mediates the effect of resources on political participation, which means that either different groups may use different resources or different groups can differ in how intensively they use resources.

Durante los últimos años, varios países de América Latina han bajado las tasas de impuesto a las utilidades de las empresas, entre otras razones, con el objetivo de atraer más inversión extranjera. Sin embargo, dicha política sólo puede tener resultados significativos si la inversión extranjera es relativamente sensible a la tasa de impuestos. De lo contrario, el efecto principal se limitaría a una fuerte reducción en la recaudación tributaria. Desafortunadamente, para América Latina no hay evidencia empírica en la literatura económica que indique la magnitud de dicha elasticidad. Una primera contribución de este trabajo consiste precisamente en estimar la magnitud de los efectos tributarios en la inversión extranjera en América Latina. Una segunda contribución consiste en considerar explícitamente en el análisis empírico el hecho de que los inversionistas extranjeros tienen una outside option en sus alternativas de inversión y pueden decidir no invertir en ningún país de América Latina. La evidencia empírica en este trabajo, utilizando un modelo de elección discreta y un panel de once países en Latinoamérica para el período 1990–2002, muestra una elasticidad impuesto de la inversión extranjera entre –0.8 y –1.

This article analyzes Salvadoran newspaper coverage of a social movement struggle that emerged in 2002 to prevent the privatization of the health-care system. Movement groups pursued their policy goals through both extrainstitutional protest and formal legislative channels. Through an analysis of news content, this article examines whether these different components of the movement's claims-making repertoire influenced the portrayal of the movement's goals, actors, and actions by one of the major Salvadoran news dailies. The analysis reveals that, compared to protest events, legislative processes that the movement set in motion generated coverage that was more sympathetic to the movement and that presented greater interrogation of government and elite plans for health-care reform.

El régimen militar (1973–1990) ha sido investigado en diversos ámbitos: político, jurídico, institucional, económico, derechos humanos, mediático, entre otros. Sin embargo, poco se ha indagado respecto a los cambios y alteraciones que experimentó el entorno estético cotidiano como consecuencia de la dictadura. Menos aún se ha investigado sobre aquellas actividades culturales y/o manifestaciones artísticas que fueron promovidas o apoyadas por el régimen militar. Éstas, analizadas desde una perspectiva de conjunto, podrían dar cuenta de aquellos rasgos que marcaron su producción simbólica, ya sea promoviendo ciertos modos de ver, ritos y sensibilidades o reprimiendo aquellas prácticas e imaginarios propios del sistema democrático. El presente artículo considera algunos antecedentes del golpe estético que vivió Chile entre los años 1973 y 1975, como consecuencia del golpe militar generado el 11 de septiembre de 1973. La expresión golpe estético simboliza el proceso de transformación y cambio experimentado en aspectos de la vida cotidiana, producto del quiebre que se produjo con el proyecto socio-cultural de la Unidad Popular (UP).

The striking development of Chilean public primary education during the nineteenth century has often been noted. Existing explanations emphasize industrialization and social change in shaping societal demand for schooling, and elite consensus, the role of individual leaders, and low levels of inequality and social heterogeneity in shaping the state's educational provision. This article complements existing state-centered arguments by showing that the institutions of local and regional administration were also crucial in transforming policy changes into real progress in primary education. As Chilean schooling spread and became systematized over the course of the nineteenth century, local state officials not only effectively carried out the state's educational policies but also refined it independently and even pushed for the deepening of educational development, and particularly the systematic control of schooling.