Uruguay’s national elections on October 26 will determine more than who occupies the Republic’s presidency, vice presidency, and Senate and House chambers — voters will also determine the government’s political orientation. The occasion will force Uruguayans to choose between the progressivism of the Frente Amplio party — which government has promoted for the past 10 years — and a return to the conservatism of the opposition Blanco and Colorado parties.
Public finance fellow John Diamond recently testified before the Texas House Ways and Means Committee on dynamic scoring and analysis use in tax policy.
Marijuana decriminalization and legalization have gone past being a trend and are settling in as federal policy, writes nonresident fellow Gary Hale, a 31-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration. This policy brief includes recommendations for how the DEA can adjust its policies to adopt a new paradigm on marijuana policy.
After more than five decades, China's central government is modernizing, standardizing and regulating the Hukou system of registration that largely tied farmers to the lands on which they were born, and kept them out of the cities and away from competing with urban residents for jobs and benefits. China is now officially gradually phasing out its highly unequal two-tier system of citizenship.
The BRICS clearly want something tangible to demonstrate their global prominence and the power of non-Western values. Russell Green examines the critical issues that must be resolved before the BRICS bank can open its doors.
Neal Lane, senior fellow in science and technology policy, testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on July 17, 2014. Lane is co-chair of the American Academy of Arts and Science's project on New Models for U.S. Science and Technology Policy, and his testimony addressed the project's objective of sustaining a long-term, nonpartisan, national focus on science and technology policy issues of vital importance to the country.
The Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 ruling on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case Monday, allowing some for-profit companies to opt out of paying for certain contraceptives for their employees. Elena Marks, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation and Baker Institute nonresident fellow in health policy, offered her insights on the ruling and how it will impact implementation of the Affordable Care Act, women’s access to reproductive care and future court cases.
On May 23, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a series of bills to implement constitutional changes to the country’s political and electoral processes. The reforms bring some of the most dynamic shifts to Mexican politics since the 1990s, including replacing the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) with the National Electoral Institute (INE). The new INE and the measures behind it now strive to replicate the IFE’s success in the country's states and municipalities.
This issue brief examines the signals conveyed by Mexico's 2014 energy reforms, and analyzes the limitations in law, institutional design and policy that may delay, if not derail, the reforms' success.
