Democratization, media and elections: Electoral reform in Mexico

Abstract

The two last elections in Mexico – one for president, the other legislative – have taken place in an atmosphere of growing competitiveness and high political uncertainty, which has strained relations among the players involved. The electoral governance of increasingly inclusive regulations which facilitated the development of a moderate multiparty democracy seems not to guarantee the legitimacy and quality of the electoral process. The article analyzes the electoral reforms of 2008 with an emphasis on the media and the effect of reforms on the behavior of the different players involved: the parties, the dual structure of the media, the arbiter, and the audiences–voters.

ESG Controversies: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis for the Sociopolitical Determinants in EU Firms

“…ESG Controversies: Practices That Clash with Peacebuilding in a Business Institutional investors and financial institutions increasingly focus on ESG criteria related to business performance in environmental and social issues and corporate governance [1,4,8]. ESG factors can help stakeholders understand a company's performance and compare it with its competitors while evaluating its reliability and viability before investing or funding it [7,8].…”

“…That means that disclosing companies' performance in terms of ESGs enhances transparency in their sustainability practices and helps investors and financial institutions make better decisions. However, investors want access to the reported as well as unrecorded information, which may reveal ESG controversies [1]. Nevertheless, what are ESG controversies?…”

“…Notably, 2021 was the peak year of publications in the studied field, indicating that ESG controversies were made more intense after the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19. This sharp increase in academic publications about ESG controversy may reveal that a crisis, such as a pandemic, acts as a turning point for ESG practices [1,3]. The COVID-19 period has been an unprecedented stress test for businesses, especially for corporate social responsibility.…”

“…In the post-pandemic world, with plenty of challenges ahead, such as climate change and the demand of consumers and investors for sustainable and ethical business practices, the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria is a key priority [1]. Integrating ESG practices in a business strategy can be characterized as an emerging trend, contributing to sustainable development and efficient corporate governance.…”

“…From the investors' perspective, an ideal tool to capture harmful businesses practices is the controversy score. Specifically, the ESG controversy score can highlight monopolistic behaviors, fraud and harassment in the workplace, and environmental incidents [1]. This score was used as the dependent variable in this study; it is based on the weighted average of the ESG scores, and has a two-fold objective: (i) to identify companies that adopt harmful practices and (ii) to tackle the bias of market capitalization, from which many large-capitalization companies suffer, as they attract more media attention than small-capitalization companies [6,7].…”