Who Decides the Budget? A Political Economy Analysis of the Budget Process in Latin America

by Carlos Scartascini, Ernesto H. Stein, Emmanuel Abuelafia, Sergio Berensztein, Luciano Di Gresia, Lee J. Alston, Marcus André Melo, Bernardo Mueller, Carlos Pereira, Mauricio Cárdenas, Carolina Mejía, Mauricio Olivera, Vicente Albornoz, María Caridad Araujo, José R. Molinas, Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, Luis Carranza, Jorge F. Chávez, José Valderrama, Juan Andrés Moraes, Daniel Chasquetti, Mario Bergara, José Manuel Puente, Abelardo Daza, Germán Ríos, Alesia Rodríguez, Mark Hallerberg

2009 · Inter-American Development Bank

This book presents a new framework for analyzing the political economy of budget processes in Latin America that is based on the following premises: i) the budget process must be considered as part of the overall policymaking process rather than in isolation; ii) budget outcomes cannot be fully explained on the basis of only one or two political or institutional dimensions; iii) actual practices must be considered as well as formal rules; iv) budget processes affect dimensions of fiscal outcomes besides fiscal sustainability, particularly efficiency, adaptability, and representativeness; v) political actors and their incentives must be considered at different stages of the policymaking process and in different institutional contexts. Case studies are presented for eight countries in the region, and a final chapter presents conclusions and suggestions for further research.

Assessing Judicial Reforms in Developing Countries

by Juan Carlos Oyanedel

2019 · Springer

This book examines how judicial reform can be effectively assessed through a procedural justice approach. It provides a practical framework for assessment of judicial reform, examining a successful reform in Chile through large scale surveys and longitudinal research. Judicial reform is a key element to democratization and modernization processes in the developing world. Practitioners have struggled with ways to analyze the effects of judicial reform, and to define success. Procedural justice theorists propose that people will obey the law if they consider it fair; this affects willingness to collaborate with the police and the courts, and the general approach that the public has towards social regulations. Judicial reforms such as criminal procedure reforms, which explicitly guarantee the development of a fairer judicial process, represent a scenario that puts these theoretical assumptions to the test. With policy recommendations and applications for international judicial reform, this book tests the real conditions of a procedural justice approach with empirical assessment and analysis. With implications for Latin America and countries undergoing judicial or political reforms worldwide, this book will be an important resource for researchers, policy makers and all those interested in the analysis of judicial reforms, democratization processes and the psychology of justice.