¿To Liberalize or Criminalize? A Comparative Case Study on Changes in Abortion Legislation in Colombia and Nicaragua
(2008)Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- In this thesis I investigate the recent changes in abortion legislation in Colombia (liberalization) and Nicaragua (criminalization). By making a comparative case study I intend to find the factor(s) that could explain the different directions in legislation, given that both countries are of great similarity (location, religion, history, and political culture). The analysis made is based on John Kingdon's theories, thus the streams of processes (Problems, Policies and Politics), the Participants (inside and outside the government), and the Window of Opportunity are examined. As a complement the role of civil society as an agenda setter is studied further.
I discover that there were great similarities between the two countries; the... (More) - In this thesis I investigate the recent changes in abortion legislation in Colombia (liberalization) and Nicaragua (criminalization). By making a comparative case study I intend to find the factor(s) that could explain the different directions in legislation, given that both countries are of great similarity (location, religion, history, and political culture). The analysis made is based on John Kingdon's theories, thus the streams of processes (Problems, Policies and Politics), the Participants (inside and outside the government), and the Window of Opportunity are examined. As a complement the role of civil society as an agenda setter is studied further.
I discover that there were great similarities between the two countries; the initiators in both cases got through their proposals, participants within government had most of the power and a change in national mood was critical to enact changes in legislation. However, to reach my objective, this thesis shows that both processes were of very different nature; the Colombian legislation change was made through a judicial process ignoring the political sphere, whereas the Nicaraguan was a result of an immensely politicized debate in the context of national elections. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1315687
- author
- Diaz Rämö, Liinu
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2008
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- 'Abortion legislation', 'policy change', 'civil society', Colombia, Nicaragua, Social sciences, Samhällsvetenskaper, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
- language
- English
- id
- 1315687
- date added to LUP
- 2009-01-07 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2009-01-28 00:00:00
@misc{1315687,
abstract = {{In this thesis I investigate the recent changes in abortion legislation in Colombia (liberalization) and Nicaragua (criminalization). By making a comparative case study I intend to find the factor(s) that could explain the different directions in legislation, given that both countries are of great similarity (location, religion, history, and political culture). The analysis made is based on John Kingdon's theories, thus the streams of processes (Problems, Policies and Politics), the Participants (inside and outside the government), and the Window of Opportunity are examined. As a complement the role of civil society as an agenda setter is studied further.
I discover that there were great similarities between the two countries; the initiators in both cases got through their proposals, participants within government had most of the power and a change in national mood was critical to enact changes in legislation. However, to reach my objective, this thesis shows that both processes were of very different nature; the Colombian legislation change was made through a judicial process ignoring the political sphere, whereas the Nicaraguan was a result of an immensely politicized debate in the context of national elections.}},
author = {{Diaz Rämö, Liinu}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{¿To Liberalize or Criminalize? A Comparative Case Study on Changes in Abortion Legislation in Colombia and Nicaragua}},
year = {{2008}},
}