<p>In this dissertation, I take a new approach to presidential scandal, which is frequently attributed to evidence of misbehavior. I argue instead that scandal is a socially constructed <italic>perception</italic> of misbehavior which opposition elites help create. I formalize this argument by developing a model of presidential scandal, which predicts that allegations of scandal by opposition legislators can influence the occurrence of scandal within some intermediate range of allegation scandalousness and credibility. I derive two comparative statics showing that the incidence of scandal should increase as the transaction costs of allegations decrease and as the critical mass of opposition legislators required to create a scandal decreases.</p><p>I then test the predictions of the model using monthly data from elite news reports for 1977–2006. I operationalized the critical mass comparative static using presidential approval among opposition party identifiers—a useful index of a polarized political climate. I find that the president is more vulnerable to the onset of scandal when his levels of opposition approval are relatively low. Conversely, when the president is relatively popular with opposition identifiers (during “honeymoons,” foreign policy crises, and wars), scandals occur much less frequently. In addition, scandals appear to have become more common over time, which could be the result of increased party polarization. Finally, I show that the underlying hazard of scandal was greater for second-term presidents than for first-term presidents. </p><p>Clearly, however, scandals vary widely in their size and significance. As such, I also create a dependent variable measuring the total quarterly volume of presidential scandal coverage in the <italic>Washington Post</italic>, which should capture the aggregate severity of scandals in a given time period. I show that lagged presidential approval among opposition identifiers is negatively associated with this measure. By contrast, more scandal coverage is published during presidents' second term in office and during election years. </p><p>Journalists and scholars frequently assert that divided government leads to a greater incidence of presidential scandal, but little systematic evidence exists to support these claims. An investigation reveals that divided government suffers from several important inferential problems, including a lack of comparable counterfactual data.. After addressing these issues, I estimate treatment effects for divided government and opposition control of Congress on both high-profile investigations of the president and scandal coverage, but none reach conventional levels of statistical significance. </p><p>Next, I explore the factors predicting when individual members of Congress will make scandal allegations against the president and the executive branch. Specifically, I test hypotheses developed from my formal model on a new dataset of scandal allegations against the president in the Congressional Record between 1985 and 2006. Results from multilevel event count models indicate that scandal allegations decline as state- and district-level presidential vote increases among members of the opposition party in both the House and the Senate. Members of the Senate are also more likely to make allegations as they gain seniority within the chamber. Finally, members who are up for re-election in the Senate make fewer allegations than those who are not.</p><p>Finally, I analyze the allegation data as a series of social networks. I present a new approach to analyze clustering in these data, which helps us to characterize patterns in allegations and member behavior. My analysis indicates that clustering among members—which suggests a convergence in scandal targets—is positively associated with increased scandal coverage at the Congress level. By contrast, I find that highly clustered allegations (i.e. those made by members who also made other allegations together) tend to receive less coverage than those that attract support from a broader coalition of members who would otherwise not be connected.</p> / Dissertation

The New Labor Procedure Act has generated many changes in the structure of the labor process itself: It has turned from being written and unfocused to become now an oral and concentrated one. As a consequence, there's only once chance for convincing the Judge.This article covers the strategy to be followed in this new process, from the strategy itself to the allegations, in order to generate certainty in the judge whom will solve the case. / La Nueva Ley Procesal del Trabajo ha generado cambios muy amplios en la estructura delproceso mismo: Ha pasado de ser un proceso escrito y desconcentrado a convertirse en uno oral y concentrado. Como consecuencia de ello, existe una única oportunidad de convencer al Juez.El presente artículo abarca la estrategia que debe seguirse en este nuevo proceso, desde la formulación de la estrategia misma hasta los alegatos, a efectos de generar convicción en el juzgador que resolverá el caso.

The right of freedom of association, nowadays, is considered a fundamental right of workers. However, and though it has been internationallyrecognized in several   Covenants of the International Labor Organization, it has been a tendency among Latin American governments to limit the exercise of this freedom.In the present article, the author criticizes what he considers to be an excessive regulation of the exercise of the right of freedom of association by workers, present in almost every country in the region. These limitations are manifested through constitutional or legal restrictions to the formation of labor unions, union unity regimes and difficulties for the constitution of labor unions. In that way, he calls for the guarantee of the right of freedom of association for workers in Latin America. / El derecho a la libertad sindical es considerado, hoy en día, como un derecho fundamental del trabajador. Sin embargo, y a pesar de estar reconocido internacionalmente en diversos Convenios de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, ha sido una tendencia de los gobiernos latinoamericanos la limitación del ejercicio de la libertad sindical.En el presente artículo, el autor hace una crítica a lo que él considera una excesiva regulación del ejercicio de la libertad sindical presente en casi todos los ordenamientos jurídicos de la región. Estas limitaciones se manifestarían a través de restricciones constitucionales o legales a la formación de sindicatos, regímenes de unicidad sindical y trabas a la constitución de los mismos. De ese modo, hace un necesario llamado a la garantía del derecho a la libertad sindical en Latinoamérica.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo compreender como vêm sendo desempenhadas as práticas dos psicólogos que atuam em instituições de referência para atendimentos em casos de alegação de abuso sexual contra a criança. Para este fim, foram analisadas as declarações de dez pais acusados de abusar sexualmente dos filhos, por meio de questionário enviado e recebido por correio eletrônico. Este material permitiu apreender como os pais acusados compreendem a alegação de abuso sexual imputada contra eles e como operam no sentido de provar a inocência. Também foi possível registrar-lhes as impressões, dúvidas e sentimentos eliciados pelas acusações, o que deu subsídio à realização de entrevistas presenciais com psicólogos em etapa posterior. Foram realizadas entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas com cinco psicólogas de cinco instituições diferentes. As informações prestadas permitiram analisar aspectos como a abordagem teórica e os métodos de avaliação psicológica em casos de alegações de abuso sexual contra criança, incluindo uma discussão acerca da ocorrência de falsas denúncias de abuso sexual. A partir dessas informações, foi possível concluir que tais práticas tendem a privilegiar a palavra da criança, esta última, vista, por muitos, como aquela que deverá anunciar e qualificar a denúncia. Nesses termos, os pais são silenciados, enquanto as crianças são colocadas no lugar de responsáveis por decidir questões jurídicas em nome de seus direitos. / This research intended to understand how is being done the work of the psychologists who work in attendance institutions in cases of alleged child sexual abuse. For this purpose, were analyzed the statements of ten fathers accused to abuse the child sexually through questionnaires sent and received by e-mail. This material allowed to apprehend how the accused fathers understand the allegation of sexual abuse inflicted against them and how they work to prove their innocence. It was also possible to get their impressions, doubts and feelings elicited from the indictment, which gave information to raise interviews with psychologists afterwards. Individual semi-structured interviews had been carried through with five psychologists from five different institutions. The given information had allowed to analyze aspects such as the theoretical approach and the psychological evaluation methods in cases of allegations of child sexual abuse, including a quarrel concerning the occurrence of false indictments of sexual abuse. From these information on, it was possible to conclude that such practical tends to privilege the childs speech, who will have to announce and define the indictment. In this order, fathers are silenced while the children are placed as responsible for deciding legal questions on behalf of their rights.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo compreender como vêm sendo desempenhadas as práticas dos psicólogos que atuam em instituições de referência para atendimentos em casos de alegação de abuso sexual contra a criança. Para este fim, foram analisadas as declarações de dez pais acusados de abusar sexualmente dos filhos, por meio de questionário enviado e recebido por correio eletrônico. Este material permitiu apreender como os pais acusados compreendem a alegação de abuso sexual imputada contra eles e como operam no sentido de provar a inocência. Também foi possível registrar-lhes as impressões, dúvidas e sentimentos eliciados pelas acusações, o que deu subsídio à realização de entrevistas presenciais com psicólogos em etapa posterior. Foram realizadas entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas com cinco psicólogas de cinco instituições diferentes. As informações prestadas permitiram analisar aspectos como a abordagem teórica e os métodos de avaliação psicológica em casos de alegações de abuso sexual contra criança, incluindo uma discussão acerca da ocorrência de falsas denúncias de abuso sexual. A partir dessas informações, foi possível concluir que tais práticas tendem a privilegiar a palavra da criança, esta última, vista, por muitos, como aquela que deverá anunciar e qualificar a denúncia. Nesses termos, os pais são silenciados, enquanto as crianças são colocadas no lugar de responsáveis por decidir questões jurídicas em nome de seus direitos. / This research intended to understand how is being done the work of the psychologists who work in attendance institutions in cases of alleged child sexual abuse. For this purpose, were analyzed the statements of ten fathers accused to abuse the child sexually through questionnaires sent and received by e-mail. This material allowed to apprehend how the accused fathers understand the allegation of sexual abuse inflicted against them and how they work to prove their innocence. It was also possible to get their impressions, doubts and feelings elicited from the indictment, which gave information to raise interviews with psychologists afterwards. Individual semi-structured interviews had been carried through with five psychologists from five different institutions. The given information had allowed to analyze aspects such as the theoretical approach and the psychological evaluation methods in cases of allegations of child sexual abuse, including a quarrel concerning the occurrence of false indictments of sexual abuse. From these information on, it was possible to conclude that such practical tends to privilege the childs speech, who will have to announce and define the indictment. In this order, fathers are silenced while the children are placed as responsible for deciding legal questions on behalf of their rights.

The name of the thesis: Approaches of Selected Institucions to Domestic Violence Allegations during the Divorce Proceedings The author: Bc. Petra Vašinová The tutor: PhDr. Miloslav Čedík Pages, marks: 64, 145 176 Separate attachments: 2 Bibliography includes 71 items Abstract: The diploma thesis deals with issues of allegations of domestic violence in the process of custody proceeding before the divorce as viewed by related institutions. The key research subject covers different procedures of selected workers in a case of an allegation. Based on the initial interviews a question came up if the institutions use inner guidelines to deal with possible situations of clients manipulating workers. The next subject were the workers' opinions of the issues and of the allegation charges and sentences. The theoretical scope of the thesis contains relevant information about divorce, parental conflict, manipulation, ways of solving such problems, consequences, parental alienation syndrome and information about allegation in both Czech and foreign researching. The research method that I used was the Interpretative phenomenological analysis and the data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Open and Selective coding were used to evaluate the data. Based on the above mentioned method it has been found...