Public policy in Central America: An empirical analysis

Public Administration Research, 2(2), 105-123. , 2013

This is a cross-sectional study focusing on public policy in the seven nations of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Outcomes are evaluated in terms of public wellbeing. Public policy is operationalized: with regard to business using two measures, one for economic freedom and another for corporate taxation; with regard to ethics using two measures, one for gender equality and another for corruption; with regard to openness using four measures, two external, trade and tourism, and two internal, the number of roads in a country and the number whites in a country; and with regard to contraception using a single measure, fertility. Public wellbeing is operationalized using: three economic measures, GDP per capita, lost income, and poverty rate; four societal measures, literacy rate, homicide rate, life expectancy, and lost satisfaction; and, two holistic measures, the Human Development Index and the Environmental Performance Index. Pearson correlation is used to calculate the linear association for each pair of measures. The results suggest that there is no relationship between public wellbeing and two measures of public policy: gender equality and the number of roads in a country. But there is evidently a relationship between public wellbeing and the remaining seven measures of public policy: economic freedom, corporate taxation, corruption, trade, tourism, the number of whites in a country, and fertility. And the direction of those seven relationships supports the claims of capitalists as opposed to the claims of socialists. Craig, K. W. (2013). Public policy in Central America: An empirical analysis. Public Administration Research, 2(2), 105-123. ISSN: 1927-5188 (online) and 1927-517X (linked)

2010

The Journal of Sociology Social Welfare, 2015

The crisis of Central America, fundamentally due to social injustice, is exacerbated as the Reagan administration seeks a "military polution" to political problems of the region. A humane approach to alleviating the devastating poverty of Central America necessitates reconciling two strategies of national development: a techno-economic strategy and a sociopolitical strategy. Both strategies leave important issues unresolved. The prospect of improving conditions for the people of Central America-diminishes as the region is increasingly militarized.

Most policy analyses and academic papers deal with finding the combination of policies that may bring about the best development outcomes. However, in the long run, it is the features of public policies that seem to matter for explaining development outcomes. Unfortunately, Latin America and the Caribbean lags behind other regions in the quality of the features of public policies. Policy features depend on the quality of government institutions, but Latin America and the Caribbean countries have done particularly poorly in that area as well. Not every country, however, fares the same. While a few countries sit alongside the developed world, more than two-thirds of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean score below the median. This policy brief should encourage researchers to use the data, and it may help policymakers to identify which institutions may be reducing the possibility of moving upward and forward. Some of the policy recommendations may help to change current paths.

1996

p. cm.-(Food First Development Studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-55587-630-7 (alk. paper) 1. Produce trade-Government policy-Central America. 2. Exports-Government policy-Central America. 3. Agriculture-Economic aspects-Central America. 4. Economic assistance, American-Central America. 5. United States. Agency for International Development.

During the 1980s, two ® elds of analysis received m ost attention from political scientists. In W estern Europe the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state gave rise to a vast academic and political debate. The discussion developed in a period of political stability. In Latin America the collapse of the authoritarian regimes gave the debates on transitions to democracy a privileged place in the academic and political agenda. Such controversies were held in a context of delayed social and econom ic problems. During the 1990s, the evolution of the political scenario has m odi® ed academic priorities. In Europe the initial debate on state±m arket relations has been largely replaced by a discussion on new forms of governance in com plex societies. The emergent agenda now includes basic political points like institutions and party systems. M eanwhile, the end of the transition processes in Latin Am erica has reopened the door for a discussion on the contents of social and economic policies. 1 W ithout considering this debate, it m ay be extremely dif® cult to understand the current problems faced by m ost Latin Am erican countries during the democratic consolidation period. This line of reasoning also applies to Central America; nevertheless, this region has rem arkable particularities. Developm ental m odels and strategies are not easily exported and what may have been successful in other areas has faced additional dif® culties in the social and political context of Central America. The previous patrimonial state model, the level of underdevelopment, the greater class inequalities, the prominent role of armed con¯ict over the transition period and the diverse degrees of political change have markedly constrained the development of social and economic policies. In addition, this particular situation does not m ake viable attempts to understand the reality of the area with the analytical tools of m ainstream transition theory which were applied to the m ain

2010

The aim of the Central American Strategy for Rural Area-based Development 2010-2030 (ECADERT) is to create opportunities and develop capabilities that will enable the Region’s rural populations to significantly improve their lives and establish a solid social institutional framework leading to inclusive and sustainable development. This initiative is based on the potential of the Region’s rural areas, conceived as socio-geographical spaces whose inhabitants construct their own ways of life and shared identities. ECADERT serves as a guide for the participatory implementation of inclusive, equitable and long-term public policies in the Region’s rural areas, promoting their qualitative transformation, while at the same time reaffirming and placing value on their cultural identity. The ultimate goal of the Strategy is to foster area-based cohesion as well as social cohesion, strengthen democratic governance and achieve sustainable development. The Strategy offers an opportunity to turn Central America into a region that is internationally recognized for its visionary rural area-based development policies, on a par with other important experiences in Latin America, Europe and other parts of the world. Central America’s significant and complex rural problems, which are of a structural nature and are the result of long-standing historical processes, require decisive actions that must be implemented as soon as possible. These efforts must be continued over a protracted period, guided by a long-term vision, by a regional strategy and by ongoing area-based development policies in each country.

Perspectives on Politics, 2013

This valuable review of my book identifies core points and three potential areas of deepening: newly emerging elites, additional cases, and the challenge of fiscal sociology research in Central America. I address each in turn. As noted, contemporary elites share many characteristics with traditional elites, who are accurately described as incestuous, exclusive, and self-perpetuating. Some of the newly emerging elites are indeed drawn from the very families and networks that produced prior generations of elites. This evolution has been usefully described in ethnographic work by Central Americans such as Marta Casaús Arzú and North Americans such as Jeffrey Paige. They note that despite continuities, there are important differences in contemporary elites, perhaps because of the democratic regimes in which they operate, and especially because of their location atop transnationally integrated production processes. Still, while this structural position produces both conflicts and coincid...

Environment and Urbanization, 2002

This paper examines the concept of democratic local governance and its relevance for health development in Central America, a region which was torn apart by conflict in the 1980s. Peace-building has been taking place since the 1990s in a difficult macro-level context, as stabilization and structural adjustment policies in the postwar period have led to drastic state reforms with high social costs for the marginalized population. Innovative experiences and strategies in health have also developed in the region over the last decades, based upon local participatory governance, contributions to public health policy, development and peacebuilding at the local level. This article describes two of these municipal health development processes, the SILOS (Local Health Systems) in the northern zone of San Salvador, El Salvador and the municipal health process in León, Nicaragua. The paper examines the relevance and sustainability of these local initiatives and the importance of democratic local governance for (health) development. It also analyzes the extent to which macro-level reform policies have enabled the development of these processes and the perspective for sustainability of democratic local governance in countries confronted by serious lack of governability. Whilst the imperative for reform/change is beyond doubt, as well as the advances booked in terms of local democratic governance and health, the authors underline the need to address the incoherence in global reform policies and -in the current situation -the impossibility of achieving democratic governance and equity in health within the confines of the city. Finally, the authors question the relevance of a development paradigm that does not address democratic local governance and existing structural (political, social, economic) inequalities.

Teaching Public Administration, 2024

The main theories of the thriving field of study of public policies have been formulated at institutions of developed countries, mostly by the American academy, based on the particular conditions of policymaking processes of their own country. However, its heuristic premises are considered, initially, as universal and are used extensively in teaching and academic studies around the world. This paper examines the complexities derived from the application of such predominant theoretical approaches to the study and teaching of public policies that are implemented in Latin American countries. Based on an extensive use of especialized literature, 10 public policy variables are identified and organized into two dimensions, one institutional and the other procedural. It is argued that the values of these variables in the countries of this region differ significantly from those observed in the United States, which reveals the explanatory shortcomings of those approaches to account for the particular modalities of public policymaking in these countries.