Latin American Federative Variables for ICT and development research : a comparison between Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela

• Main Author: Aranha, Márcio Iório
• Publication Date: 2014
• Other Authors: Pinheiro, Antonio Alex, Cruz, José Maria
• Format: Article
• Language: por
• Source: Repositório Institucional da UnB
• Download full: http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/34235; http://dx.doi.org/10.15213/redes.n9.p211
• topic: Regulação; Federalismo; América Latina; Telecomunicações

From the perspective of the information revolution and based on the methodology put forward by the Telecommunications Law Indicators for Comparative Studies (TLICS) Model published in 2011 and 2012, this paper builds on the federative indicator used by the literature on dependence of economic development on ICT to answer the following research question: What indicators better represent the institutional federative background of eight representative Latin American countries for the ICT comparative research? Six sets of federative indicators on revenue, fiscal transfer, regulation, adjudication, planning, and media are put together to compare the Latin American federative environment as a groundwork for the ICT comparative research. The empirical universe of the paper encompassed eight countries that formed a potpourri of four officially unitary countries — Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay —, and four federative countries — Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela —, that account for 82% of the Latin American surface area, 81% of its population, and 92% of its GNI (World Bank Data 2011). The article is organized in three main parts. A detailed description of the ICT federative indicators of the TLICS model and their underpinning concepts is performed in the first part. The second part applies these variables to the aforementioned Latin American countries. The third part delves into the comparison of the countries analyzed by means of categorizing the differences and commonalities revealed by those indicators. As a main outcome, based on data collected from the institutional background of those countries, we found clusters of commonalities between federative and non-federative countries that support the assumption that the sole reference to a single federative category, as opposed to the use of atomized indicators, cannot provide a real picture of their institutional background for ICT and development comparative purposes.