Política y Sociedad

Historical Materialist Analysis of Politics: A Methodological Approach to a Critical Analysis of Public Policies and Political Processes

Luis Sanz Jardón — 2025-06-26

In this article we present, synthesize and critically discuss the methodological approach of the Historical-Materialist Political Analysis (HMPA), based on the considerations of the materialist theory of the State and the theory of hegemony. We claim that this approach allows the researcher to conduct empirical studies focused on temporally and spatially highly localized political processes without detaching them from the general dynamics of social reproduction in which they emerge. For the purpose of presenting the HMPA, we introduce its methodological corpus, breaking down its different steps, in order to facilitate its use, also in the Spanish-speaking academic field, as a tool for empirical analysis. To better illustrate the application of the methodology, we use the example of the so-called "Gag Law" (Ley Mordaza) as an hypothetical research object. An analysis using the HMPA would allow us to understand specific public policies, processes and conflicts (such as this law) by relating them to a society permeated by power relations.

Women in Moroccan local elected councils: When the law does not change society

Abderrahmane Haddad — 2025-06-26

Morocco has adopted several legislative measures to strengthen the representation of women within elected local councils. Consequently, the number of women elected increased considerably. The legislature seems forcing the social change. However, the main results of this paper is that these measures failed to establish a local gender equality. Women remain under-represented compared to men on local elected councils. In addition to underrepresentation, women are generally excluded from senior positions within local council offices. The presidency of the councils suffers from a male monopoly. To analyze these findings, this paper uses a theoretical approach which examines the Moroccan case in the light of pioneering studies in the matter, and an empirical approach which refers to the results of both observation and official statistics.

Learning areas for the development of entrepreneurial competence in a local-rural context

Manuel Morales Valero — 2025-06-26

The purpose of this research is to generate knowledge about the way in which the reference culture of a local-rural territory influences the construction of a certain conception of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. Cultural values are deeply interrelated with economic activity, and vice versa. Its objectives are both to know which entrepreneurship conception is maintained, and which characteristics are assigned to entrepreneurs, and to determine the priority educational areas for the development of entrepreneurial competence. To do this, we analyze the discourse of 36 citizens of a municipality placed in the interior of Spain affected by the phenomenon of depopulation. As main results, we highlight how entrepreneurial competence is presented as a vital key competence for empowerment and social transformation where courage, culture of effort and optimism play a fundamental role. In addition, their inclusion in formal and non-formal areas from an early age is considered necessary, influencing professionalizing and linked to the endogenous resources of the territory learning, although the role of informal learning is pointed out as more relevant. We conclude by pointing out the need to manage and enhance informal learning processes.

News Framing of the Wealth Tax in Spain: An Explanatory Model of its Media (De)Legitimization

María Goenaga Ruiz de Zuazu — 2025-06-26

The media plays both a direct and indirect role in the formulation of public policy. Focusing on fiscal policy, this article examines the role of the press in the mediatization of the new “Temporary Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes,” particularly in how it serves to clarify, frame, and (de)legitimize this tax measure before public opinion. Based on a sample of 46 news items from El País, El Mundo, El Economista, and Cinco Días, we conduct a discourse analysis to identify variables that help measure the degree of media legitimization of this fiscal policy. Using a four-tier model, we find significant differences between newspapers, explained by both their editorial orientation and their typology. Our results reveal a highly politicized and polarized media environment around this case study, where delegitimization of the new tax is based more on political than technical arguments.

From women’s leadership to gender complementarity. A feminist viewpoint at managerial discourses in Spain

Maria Medina-Vicent — 2025-06-26

The main objective of this paper is to identify the managerial discourses directed at women present in management literature written by women and published in Spain. The results obtained from previous analyses of Anglo-Saxon management literature will allow us to establish comparisons and discern whether the managerial discourses directed at women in this territorial context contain particularities. This analysis leads to the identification of two main axes of meaning. First, those that refer to the constitution of the neoliberal subject in its general sense. Second, those that speak directly to the development of leadership by women. An ambivalent discourse about women's leadership persists in Spanish management literature, aligned with the contradictory demands of neoliberalism. However, there is a slight discursive shift that advocates the convenience of complementing both dichotomous genders (male and female) in business organizations

Eating matters: a comparative analysis of policies aimed at older adults in Spain and Argentina.

Mabel Gracia-Arnaiz — 2025-06-26

Population ageing presents a global challenge, particularly regarding the assurance of adequate nutrition for the elderly, posing a significant concern for nations. Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, compounded by subsequent health and energy crises, many countries have grappled with escalating precariousness, necessitating the implementation of policies to alleviate social and food disparities. In this article, we examine how these successive crises have impacted older populations in Spain and Argentina, focusing specifically on food insecurity. We aggregate socio-demographic, nutritional, and health indicators, alongside policies targeting the elderly, and conduct a comparative analysis of trends associated with the ageing process, the demographic profile of this cohort, their needs, and governmental mechanisms for ensuring (or failing to ensure) this right. Our findings indicate that, while the emphasis placed on food security differs between these countries, a common thread is the lack of inadequacy of governmental data to understand the effects of food insecurity on older adults and identify the most vulnerable according to social determinants of health. We advocate for the necessity of conducting intersectional studies to identify instances of food insecurity among the elderly, thereby combating potential ageism stemming from a lack of awareness and tailored policies for this demographic.

Right to energy and environmental ethics of liberation for a just, popular and sustainable energy transition

Franco-David Hessling Herrera — 2025-06-26

Taking the human rights framework as a reference, the concept of the right to energy is leveraged in conjunction with a proposal of environmental ethics for liberation, based on the contributions of Dussel's philosophy. The article proposes an exercise of theoretical reflection, pursuing the objective that this legal and philosophical framework enables reflection on a just and popular energy transition, which puts in dialogue different proposals on this transitional process that have been taking place in sociology, political science and environmental movements. To this end, first the theoretical framework of the right to energy and its legal genealogy is presented, then the same is done with environmental ethics for liberation, and finally a conclusive relationship is drawn between this framework and the current debates around the energy transition in the context of climate change and contemporary international agendas.

Sustainable development and participation of social organizations in active employment policies. A critical analysis from the Senian and Foucauldian perspectives

María Rosario Carvajal Muñoz — 2025-06-26

This article begins with Goal 8 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to question, first, the internal coherence implicit in the discourse surrounding this goal, which conditions decent work to the market and economic growth. To this end, it refers to indicators contained in Goal 8 related to the market, supporting the analysis with the help of other research and interpreting the discourse based on Foucault's concept of political rationality. In particular, it highlights that recent regulations on active policies in Spain include Goal 8 among their aims, which represents a significant challenge for the organizations involved in these policies to help vulnerable unemployed groups access decent jobs. This leads to the second question, the analysis of the external coherence between the normative discourse and the reality of these organizations. Faced with this challenge, organizations face limitations in responding to the needs of these groups, as evidenced by some of the researchers mentioned in the article. Finally, the importance of collective capabilities among organizations, defined using the capabilities approach, is emphasized, highlighting why they should have more freedom to take initiatives that truly contribute to establishing better working and/or living conditions for these groups, for the sake of truly sustainable social development.

Land restitution in the municipality of Cáceres, Colombia. Perceptions of victims and public officials

Luz M. Herrera Lopera — 2025-06-26

The victims of land dispossession live a tragedy that extends over time as long as the legal and material restitution is not carried out. International legal instruments have been adopted that seek the recognition of the rights of these victims, but in practice they present real challenges depending on the circumstances of each case. The research aims to describe the land restitution process from the perceptions of victims and officials of entities such as the Land Restitution Unit (URT) in the municipality of Cáceres (Colombia). Using the logical framework of the interpretative-hermeneutic paradigm, a qualitative descriptive study was conducted employing the discourse analysis method. The study involved 25 participants, who were given semi-structured interviews associated with the topics of armed conflict and forced displacement, as well as experiences of restitution and return. Codifications and categorizations were made to design semantic networks with the support of the ATLAS.ti tool. The results allow for the recognition of differentiated perceptions among the groups of participants, fulfilled expectations in the administrative stage, and opportunities for improvement in the judicial stage and the return process

Fruit warehouses, COVID-19 pandemic and women workers in La Ribera del Xúquer (Valencia, Spain)

Francisco Torres Pérez — 2025-06-26

This article discusses work in the fruit warehouses of Ribera del Xúquer, an area representative of other agro-export areas of the Valencian Community, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences for the workers, the great majority of whom were women. Our results, based on fieldwork and qualitative methodology, show that although the norms and work space were common, the women workers most affected in terms of risk, precariousness and life insecurity, are temporary agency workers, with a clear overrepresentation of immigrant women. Our research shows the relationship between risk and neoliberal work organization and how inequalities in the division of labour and social inequalities, in terms of class, gender and ethnicity, have reinforced each other.

Populismo, política exterior y alianzas transnacionales

Gilberto Aranda Bustamante — 2025-06-26

Populismo, política exterior y alianzas transnacionales

Echoes Without Integration: Strategic Resonance and the Limits of Radical Right Transnationalism

Lisa Zanotti — 2025-06-26

This article investigates the formation of transnational networks within the radical right, examining ideological convergence across Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Analyzing speeches from key events such as the Madrid Forum, VIVA, and CPAC, we identify shared themes, framing strategies, and social boundary-making within radical right discourse. Employing a hybrid methodology that integrates automated coding with Large Language Models (LLMs) and manual categorization, our findings reveal a rhetoric that is cohesive yet adaptable to regional contexts, emphasizing national sovereignty, security, and cultural values framed against external threats from leftist ideologies and globalist elites. However, unlike historical left-wing transnational alliances that structured coordinated agendas and centralized strategies, these radical right networks lack formalized cohesion and centralized control. Instead, the radical right displays a form of selective transnationalism, with leaders strategically adapting foreign discourses when domestically beneficial while prioritizing national autonomy, resulting in a flexible and tentative rather than consolidated cooperation.

Foreign policy and transnational partisanship in Brazil

Guilherme Casarões — 2025-06-26

There is a visible increase in the intensity with which parties and politicians have aligned with ideological allies across borders. In Brazil’s case, the transnational organization of political movements challenges well-established truths about the nexus between foreign policy and domestic politics. Brazilian foreign policy has traditionally been considered a matter of statespersons, being formulated in the halls of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential palace. What we witness today in Brazil is something different: political movements and parties, left and right, are crossing national boundaries in order to form global networks that help them shape their own narratives at home. In this article, we analyze the Brazilian case to understand how transnational politico-ideological strategies function. Our argument is that, while out of power, both the Workers’ Party (PT) and Bolsonarismo began to establish transnational connections with the dual purpose of (1) continuing the agendas pursued by their respective governments and (2) consolidating support and narratives that could enable their return to the presidency. To this end, we will analyze the development and evolution of the transnational alliances built by the PT between 2016 and 2022 and by Bolsonarismo between 2023 and 2024. We conclude that transnationalism is an essential dimension of these movements’ political success during the periods analyzed.

Populism and foreign policy in Germany

Mario Kölling — 2025-06-26

The rise of populist parties of the extreme right and left poses serious challenges not only for democratic forces in Germany, but also for Germany's role in Europe and internationally. Their illiberal proposals and their nationalist and sovereigntist discourse are hardly compatible with multilateralism and Germany's traditional commitment to global governance. This paper will first provide the broad outlines of Germany's foreign policy. This is followed by an analysis of public opinion on receint foreign policy of the Federal govermet. The third section examines the positions of two populist parties on foreign policy outlines. Finally, it analyses whether the positions of these two populist parties have had an impact on the foreign policy approaches of the traditional parties and the federal government's own foreign policy.

Political Reforms in Hungary (2010–2024): Impacts on Hungarian Democracy

Gabriella Thomázy — 2025-06-26

This study aims to analyze some lesser-known Hungary's political reforms after 2010, such as the policy on migrant workers, the new Hungarian citizenship law, and voting abroad. To achieve this, a mixed methodology is used, including the analysis of current laws, literature review, and the collection of statistical data and international indexes. The research focuses on two main objectives. First, it analyzes the new migration policies that encourages the arrival of migrant workers from autocratic regimes. Second, it examines the electoral system for votes from abroad and the application of a double standard between Hungarians with or without residence in Hungary. The research findings show that these policies are part of a strategy to consolidate the ruling party's political power by reducing democratic representation and, at the same time, strengthening relations with autocratic regimes aligned with the Hungarian government.

Book review Un sociologue de métier

Eguzki Urteaga — 2025-06-26

Dobre, C. E., Palavicini Corona, G., & Díaz Estrada, F. (Eds.) (2024). Society and New Paradigms: Challenges for Diversity and Vulnerability Inclusion, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan, 108 pp.

Adriana Cantón — 2025-06-26

Valentín Jiminián, J. C. (2022): Los movimientos sociales dominicanos en el siglo XXI, Santo Domingo, Editora Alfa y Omega, 323 pp. ISBN:978-9945-9292-3-2

Ana Belén Benito Sánchez — 2025-06-26