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Political Careers, Corruption, and Impunity
In Political Careers, Corruption, and Impunity: Panama's
Assembly, 1984-2009, Carlos Guevara Mann systematically
examines the behavior of the members of Panama's Legislative
Assembly between 1984 and 2009, an arena previously unexplored in
studies of Panamanian politics. He challenges fundamental aspects
of scholarly literature on democratic legislatures, with important
consequences for understanding democratic politics in Latin America
and other parts of the world. The current literature on
legislatures assumes that legislators single-mindedly seek
reelection or the advancement of their political careers, and that
they pursue these goals through acceptable democratic means.
Guevara Mann shows, however, that in Panama many legislators also
pursue less laudable goals such as personal enrichment and freedom
from prosecution, often reaching their goals through
means-widespread clientelism, party switching, and electoral
manipulation-that undermine the quality of democracy.
On one level, Political Careers, Corruption, and
Impunity contrasts the political behavior of individual
legislators; on another, it compares the actions of legislators
under various regimes-military and constitutional. Lastly, it
engages in cross-national comparisons that contrast the behavior of
Panamanian legislators with actions of representatives elsewhere.
Guevara Mann's sophisticated analysis of the military period and
the transition to democracy, with an emphasis on the history and
functioning of legislative bodies, contains a wealth of new
information about a neglected but intrinsically fascinating
case.
eBook
Panama
\"Fodor's correspondents highlight the best of Panama, including Panama City's neighborhoods and nightlife, the Panama Canal, and the beautiful coasts. Our local experts vet every recommendation to ensure you make the most of your time, whether it's your first trip or your ninth,\"--page [4] of cover.
Book
Biological evidence supports an early and complex emergence of the Isthmus of Panama
The linking of North and South America by the Isthmus of Panama had major impacts on global climate, oceanic and atmospheric currents, and biodiversity, yet the timing of this critical event remains contentious. The Isthmus is traditionally understood to have fully closed by ca. 3.5 million years ago (Ma), and this date has been used as a benchmark for oceanographic, climatic, and evolutionary research, but recent evidence suggests a more complex geological formation. Here, we analyze both molecular and fossil data to evaluate the tempo of biotic exchange across the Americas in light of geological evidence. We demonstrate significant waves of dispersal of terrestrial organisms at approximately ca. 20 and 6 Ma and corresponding events separating marine organisms in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at ca. 23 and 7 Ma. The direction of dispersal and their rates were symmetrical until the last ca. 6 Ma, when northern migration of South American lineages increased significantly. Variability among taxa in their timing of dispersal or vicariance across the Isthmus is not explained by the ecological factors tested in these analyses, including biome type, dispersal ability, and elevation preference. Migration was therefore not generally regulated by intrinsic traits but more likely reflects the presence of emergent terrain several millions of years earlier than commonly assumed. These results indicate that the dramatic biotic turnover associated with the Great American Biotic Interchange was a long and complex process that began as early as the Oligocene–Miocene transition.
Significance The formation of the Isthmus of Panama, which linked North and South America, is key to understanding the biodiversity, oceanography, atmosphere, and climate in the region. Despite its importance across multiple disciplines, the timing of formation and emergence of the Isthmus and the biological patterns it created have been controversial. Here, we analyze molecular and fossil data, including terrestrial and marine organisms, to show that biotic migrations across the Isthmus of Panama began several million years earlier than commonly assumed. An earlier evolution of the Isthmus has broad implications for the mechanisms driving global climate (e.g., Pleistocene glaciations, thermohaline circulation) as well as the rich biodiversity of the Americas.
Journal Article
Panama fever : the epic story of the building of the Panama Canal
The building of the Panama Canal was one of the greatest engineering feats in human history. In a tale of exploration, conquest, money, politics, and medicine, Parker charts the challenges that marked the long, labyrinthine road to the building of the canal.
Book
Chiefs, scribes, and ethnographers : Kuna culture from inside and out
The Kuna of Panama, today one of the best known indigenous peoples of Latin America, moved over the course of the twentieth century from orality and isolation towards literacy and an active engagement with the nation and the world. Recognizing the fascination their culture has held for many outsiders, Kuna intellectuals and villagers have collaborated actively with foreign anthropologists to counter anti-Indian prejudice with positive accounts of their people, thus becoming the agents as well as subjects of ethnography. One team of chiefs and secretaries, in particular, independently produced a series of historical and cultural texts, later published in Sweden, that today still constitute the foundation of Kuna ethnography. As a study of the political uses of literacy, of western representation and indigenous counter-representation, and of the ambivalent inter-cultural dialogue at the heart of ethnography, Chiefs, Scribes, and Ethnographers addresses key issues in contemporary anthropology. It is the story of an extended ethnographic encounter, one involving hundreds of active participants on both sides and continuing today.
eBook
Global Media Perspectives on the Crisis in Panama
Operation Just Cause, the United States' incursion into Panama, was the culmination of a gradually escalating confrontation between the United States and the Noriega dominated government of Panama that extended from June, 1987 until early January, 1990. Applying diverse methodological approaches, this volume examines the various ways representative examples of the global media covered the developing crisis and the eventual US incursion into Panama. The volume: - sets the stage for this analysis by delineating the chronological development of the escalating confrontation, as well as by examining the confrontation from the perspective of the US government - analyzes the crisis from the perspective of the US, Soviet, Canadian, French, Portuguese, Arab, and the People's Republic of China media - exposes the challenges for public affairs officers operating within the context of the global media response to international crises, and provides an assessment of the implications of the crisis for inter-American and international relations. This analysis and evaluation of a variety of global media perspectives on the escalating US-Panamanian confrontation will serve to better illuminate and further enrich our understanding of a major international event - indeed, one of the final events of the Cold War era.
Howard M. Hensel, Air War College, USA and Nelson Michaud, École nationale d'administration publique, Canada
eBook
Modern Panama : from occupation to crossroads of the Americas
\"Few have a complete understanding of the recent history of Panama, markedly since the signing of the Carter- Torrijos Treaty in 1977. Although the treaty set the stage for the country to finally control all of its territory, little is known about how Panama has fared, both as a manager of a major waterway and as a sovereign nation in a unique region. Authors Michael Conniff and Gene Bigler seek to fill this major gap in Latin American history with Modern Panama, a thorough account of the recent political and economic developments in Panama. Despite the country's continued struggle with political corruption, Conniff and Bigler argue that changes since the turnover of the Canal have been largely positive, and Panama has emerged into the twenty-first century as a stable, functioning democracy with a growing economy, improved Canal management, and a higher standard of living.\" --Provided by publisher.
Book
Beyond the Big Ditch
In this innovative book, Ashley Carse traces the water that flows into and out from the Panama Canal to explain how global shipping is entangled with Panama's cultural and physical landscapes. By following container ships as they travel downstream along maritime routes and tracing rivers upstream across the populated watershed that feeds the canal, he explores the politics of environmental management around a waterway that links faraway ports and markets to nearby farms, forests, cities, and rural communities. Carse draws on a wide range of ethnographic and archival material to show the social and ecological implications of transportation across Panama. The Canal moves ships over an aquatic staircase of locks that demand an enormous amount of fresh water from the surrounding region. Each passing ship drains 52 million gallons out to sea -- a volume comparable to the daily water use of half a million Panamanians. Infrastructures like the Panama Canal, Carse argues, do not simply conquer nature; they rework ecologies in ways that serve specific political and economic priorities. Interweaving histories that range from the depopulation of the U.S. Canal Zone a century ago to road construction conflicts and water hyacinth invasions in canal waters, the book illuminates the human and nonhuman actors that have come together at the margins of the famous trade route. 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal.Beyond the Big Ditchcalls us to consider how infrastructures are materially embedded in place, producing environments with winners and losers.
eBook