LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS

Unit 1. How did contemporary Latin American political life come to be?

Week 1
Topic 1 (January 6)—Why is getting to know about Latin American politics worth your time?

• Please take some time this week to review a handful of on-line handouts that will help you to get the most out of this class:
  

• The course syllabus and The High Point University Honor Code. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns your ability to meet the basic requirements of either of these documents.

• Citation instructions for papers in Setzler courses (on-line handout). Just familiarize yourself with this so that you are aware of what will be expected of you in papers. For example, as you are taking notes on reading or summarizing readings for future use in papers, you should note page numbers for ideas since you will be asked to include page-specific citations in papers (but not on tests, of course).

• A handout that explains when and how you may use AI assistance in this course. You should read this before submitting any writing in this class

• A handout on how your tests will be graded (grading criteria for the short essay items).

• Paper grading criteria for Setzler upper-division classes and the rubric grade sheet that is used for all of your papers. If you receive feedback on an essay that you should work on your writing's organization, make sure to read this handout before you write your next paper. The last thing I want to do is surprise you in a negative way with your paper grades. These guides tell you what you should be aiming for in different elements of your writing, and they provide strategies to improve your performance. If you seek assistance from a writing tutor or the university's writing center, take a copy of the rubric with you. 
  

• To enable you to better participate in class, you will have a couple of map quizzes next week coming week. Please take the time over the first weekend of our class to become familiar with the location of a set of select countries in South and Central America, which I have noted the blank practice maps that I have placed on-line for your convenience.
  

• Finally, I have put a draft study guide in the PPT file. It will help you identify what you should be looking for as you read through the materials related to each topic covered in the first course unit. Because the readings change every time I teach this course and it has been a couple of years since I last offered it, I will be making revisions to this document as the term unfolds. However, the big themes covered in the final, pre-test version of the guide will be the same, and I think it will be useful for you to have a guide earlier than later.

Topic 2 (Jan. 8)—Does it make any sense to compare countries across a large, highly diverse setting like Latin America?

• Get a flavor of the region and politics that you will be studying for the next few months by watching this early episode in the Brazilian television series City of Men (Cidade dos Homens, Episode 3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gdEI3Zp8cs. If you are interested in knowing more about the series, see this link.
  

• Vanden and Provost, Chp. 1, "An Introduction to Twenty-First Century Latin America" (18pp). Read this quickly and use the study guide to help you understand what data and facts you to should be concentrating on so you don't get get bogged down in the details.
  

Week 2: Colonial legacies that shape contemporary politics

Topic 3 (Jan. 13)—How in the world did a few hundred Spanish Conquistadores topple two Latin American empires, and why does what happened centuries ago have any political relevance today?

• You will have your first map quiz 1 (10 minutes): You need to be able to match select countries in South and Central America up with their name. I have placed a map and a hand out containing a blank practice map in the PPT/Assignments folder. This exercise is meant to help you better participate in the class as the semester continues, and it will be one of just a few graded quizzes .

In class, we will be looking using the LatinoBarometer's online data analysis tool (https://www.latinobarometro.org/latOnline.jsp) to compare Latin Americans political attitudes and behaviors. Before you come to class on Tuesday, review the short screencast that I will post in this area soon. It explains what the LatinoBarometer and will give you a summary of the kind of work you will doing in class.

Note: We won't address the day's focus question or any of the readings listed below until Thursday or perhaps even a day later; I am assigning them now so that your workload for the week is split up into two blocks so that you don't have too much assigned for Thursday:

• Vanden and Provost, Chp. 2, "Early History." Read the opening chapter pages up to the section "Early Colony." 
  

• Jared Diamond, "The Arrow of the Disease" (Discover, 29pp). Read very quickly to get the main idea and to highlight evidence you could use on a test or in a pa per; the article expands on Diamond's documentary's explanation for why the effects of disease on the outcome of the Conquest was so one-sided.

Optional (because it was added late): As you are reading the Diamond chapter, complete the BlackBoard quiz on this homework. Instructors cannot link a webpage directly to a BlackBoard item, but this link should take you to the content page for our course, where you will find the quiz: https://highpoint.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_41749_1/outline.

Note that you may retake each BlackBoard quizzes multiple times and receive the highest grade. This is usually unnecessary if you complete the quizzes as you go, since the quiz items appear in the same order as the answers in the reading. Much of the highly detailed information you are asked about on the reading quizzes is not material you are expected to memorize and retain long term. These quizzes are meant to serve mainly as an attention check: to help you stay focused as you read and remember some examples that you can use later on test essays. Any specific facts or definitions that appear on unit tests will have been covered in your study guides and class PPTs.

• Optional if you want to know more about the conquest period: Watch a documentary on why the Europeans decimated the existing political structure with their arrival: Guns, Germs, and Steel, episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF8x-8xnTeI (55 minutes; or around 36 minutes if you change your YouTube settings to watch at 1.5x speed)

Topic 4 (Jan. 15, 20)—What can the colonial period tell us about why Latin American politics is the way it is now? 

• Vanden and Provost, Chp. 2, "Early History." Read the rest of the chapter,  
  

• John Chasteen, short excerpt from Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 2007). A readings quiz will be posted in BlackBoard for this chapter. 

As you are reading the Chasteen chapter, complete the BlackBoard quiz on this homework. Instructors cannot link a webpage directly to a BlackBoard item, but this link should take you to the content page for our course, where you will find the quiz: https://highpoint.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_41749_1/outline.

The reading quizzes in BlackBoard are graded A for 85% or higher; B for higher than 70%' or D for higher than 50%. Again, the questions are ordered so that you can complete them while reading, so you shouldn't need to retake quizzes, which are primarily designed to reward you for doing you homework in a timely fashion and to operate as an attention check for you. 

Week 3: Why did democracy fail to take root in post-colonial Latin America?

Topic 5 (Jan. 20, 22)—Why didn't independence lead to democracy in Latin America like it did in the US?

For Tuesday

• John Chasteen, short excerpt.  This reading will help you to understand the causes and outcomes of Latin America's independence movements. We are unlikely to get to Latin Latin American independence in this class, but reading this assignment for Tuesday will help to space out the week's reading load.
  

• You don't have a quiz on this reading because I don't want you digging down deeply into the details and worrying that you will need to know the specifics of different battles and key individuals. Remember that we aren't doing a deep-dive into cultural or military history. Instead, I want you to become familiar with the main motivations behind Latin American independence, which social forces drove the separation from Spain (conservative elites), and the key ideas/values that were used to to motivate independence. This being the case, pay closest attention to the section, "The Patriots' Winning Strategy: Nativism." Specifically, I want you to understand why democracy didn't have anywhere near the sociopolitical and ideological base that led to widespread democracy for certain types of North Americans in the aftermath of our "revolutionary" war while not having the same outcome in Latin America

For Thursday

• Howard J. Wiarda, "Independence and After." Read closely up to the section, Problems of New Nationhood. Wiarda's writing is older than you, but it is the best reading I have been able to find that examines the post-independence political development of Latin America in a way that is easily compared to the US as a familiar counter example. As you read this chapter, make a note of the many ways in which the Latin American pathway to independence and the key characteristics of the conflict differ from what you know about the US's separation from Britain. The dynamics and leadership of America's non-revolutionary but liberal (i.e., Enlightenment-driven) separation put it on the pathway toward democracy and development; in Latin America's case, the characteristics of its independence stalled development and especially democracy for many decades.
  

As you are reading this section of the Wiarda chapter, complete the first ten items on the BlackBoard quiz for this homework reading. Instructors cannot link a webpage directly to a BlackBoard item, but this link should take you to the content page for our course, where you will find the quiz: https://highpoint.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_41749_1/outline. After you've answered the first ten items, click the button down at the bottom-right of the quiz to save and close your work on the quiz so that you can reopen it it when you finish the back half of the chapter.

• On Thursday, you will have your second map quiz 1 (10 minutes): There is a (second) blank map in the PPTs folder that has a list of selected countries and cities. For the quiz, you will put the countries names in the right place on the map. For the cities, you will put each city's number in the right place on the same map.
  

Week 4: Topic 6 (Jan 27, 29)—Why did underdevelopment and antidemocratic politics persist into the 20th C.?

• For Tuesday's class, finish Wiarda's chapter on independence and it's aftermath into the early 20th C. While you are reading, finish the quiz in BlackBoard: https://highpoint.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_41749_1/outline. We likely will not cover all of this material in this class, but I want to space out your reading load for the week.

• Ahead of Tuesday's class, complete the front side of the 6-country grid that is in the PPT folder. This is my way of helping you to build a reference sheet so that you can see some of the big differences between countries that we will follow and analyze more than most of the rest of Latin America during the semester. Incidentally, Cuba is not on the grid because it doesn't allow public opinion polling by the the major groups that study attitudes in the rest of the region.

• In Tuesday's 's class, we will spend some time going over how to use the LatinoBarometer's online analysis tool (or you can use SPSS if you have a background in that. Ahead of Thursday's class, Complete the back side of the grid handout from class; the front-side asked you to summarize data from class and your textbook, while the backside requires you to use the LatinoBarometer. For this assignment, you don't need lots and lots of detail. I will not ask you to turn this is, but will ask you to a question on your first exam that covers this material.

When using the LatinoBarometer to fill in the grid, try to get a sense of the overall distribution of each variable for the six countries as a whole and note countries where a given variable (i.e., support for democracy, trust for one's fellow citizens, etc.) is especially high or low.  In class, I distributed a one-page guide on using the Online Analysis tool; a copy of that document is in the PPTs/assignments folder. Important; You ARE permitted to use AI tools to help you interpret and condense the findings you see while completing LatinoBarometer analyses, with the critical caveat that you need to review and carefully compare any AI output with your original Online Analysis tool results to make sure that everything looks accurate.

• For Thursday's class, review: Howard J. Wiarda, "Entering the Modern World," Read this quickly, focusing on the big picture. I will be a guide in class to point out the critical junctures and actor you to need to be familiar with. I don't get bogged down in the details of this reading so there is no quiz. This chapter's main point is that, in the aftermath of Mexico's Revolution, the Bolshevik (Russian) Revolution, WW1, and the Great Depression, Latin American countries begin to follow distinct pathways in trying to incorporate urban workers and an emerging middle class into modern political and economics systems. You want to focus on the big picture.
  

Week 5

Topic 7 (Feb 3, 5)—Religion: A force for change at last?

For Tuesday, we will finish up our overview of Latin American political history and begin a brief exploration of two political actors that were central to the struggle for democracy in Latin American in the 20th century: The Roman Catholic church and the military.

In the first Chasteen reading, you learned about the historical role of Catholicism played in supporting traditional, anti-democratic elites, so our return to this topic will focus on how and why the Church changed to become a democratic force for the most part.

For Tuesday:

• Read: José Darío Rodríguez Cuadros, "The religious shift in Latin America" (Hérodote, 2018, 15pp)

• Closely review this short Vox article on the politics surrounding the canonization (i.e., sainthood for) Oscar Romero.
  

• In class, we will watch outtakes from Romero (a feature-film focusing Bishop Romero, liberation theology, and aspects of Cold War politics in the region). 

• If you feel like you need more of background and contextual information than we are covering in class, optionally review: Vanden and Provost, Chp. 6, "Religion in Latin America" (20pp). Focus on the sections covering Catholicism, liberation theology, and Protestantism.

For Thursday

• Ahead of class: The Economist, "Latin America is becoming more secular."
  

• This assignment has been postponed until after the test: In class, we will finish up the discussion on religion and then start to take a look at some more LatinoBarometer data specific to the military. Bring your laptops with you.
  

• After class, if you need to review how to use the survey's online analysis feature to analyze cross-tabular data (e.g., how does religiosity vary by gender) or over time (e.g., are Latin Americans getting more supportive of military rule), here's summary of how to do this kind of work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC1g59qMKGw (15 minutes; or 10 at 1.5x speed if you just need a quick refresher). Since I recorded this screencast, the look of the LatinoBarometer's online tool has changed some, but the techniques are still the same.

Week 6

Topic 7 (Feb 10, 12),—Why has the military always been so influential in Latin American politics? Will it continue to be?

For Tuesday

• Read the first half or so of a textbook chapter on the history of the military in Latin American politics. We won't likely cover the material in this reading closely in this class, but I would like you to get the first half of the chapter read up to (but not including) the section on how new democracies in the region struggled with the question of amnesty for military personnel who abused human rights. This reading is being assigned now so that you do not have an overly demanding reading load next week ahead of the exam for Unit 1. 

For Thursday

• Note, this assignment has been postponed until after the test to give us time to watch part of a film: Bring a copy of your completed LatinoBarometer grid assignment (the grid will be in the LatinoBarometer subfolder in the PPT folder)
  

• Read the back half or so of Peter Smith's chapter on the history of the military in Latin American politics. While you are doing so, finish up the BlackBoard quiz on this chapter.

• Be familiar arguments about whether additional military intervention is likely in Latin America's future (collectively, these are less reading than a single article): 

Adam Isacson, "What is Latin America’s Political Turmoil Doing to Civilian Control of the Military? (Washington Office on Latin America, 2020, 3pp)

Frank Moral and Brian Fonseca, "It’s Not the 1970s Again for Latin America’s Militaries. Here’s Why." (Americas Quarterly 2019, 5pp).

https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-28/bukele-the-cool-dictator-unrivaled-at-el-salvadors-elections.html

John Haltiwanger, What’s Next for the U.S. Military in Latin America? (Foreign Policy, 2026, 8pp).

• In class, if time allows, we will likely watch a few short outtakes from I'm Still Here, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Feature Film of 2025 and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It is based on real events and depicts day-to-day life and political repression under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. The film provides a good introduction to two documentaries we will watch in the next course unit, which follow Brazil’s path to democratization in the 1980s and 1990s and then into its democratic crisis in the 2020s.
  

And here are some optional films you might watch if you have a keen interest on the topic of military rule in Latin America:

• Argentina, 1985 (produced by and available at Amazon). This feature film tells the real-life story of the prosecution of Argentina's former military leaders for human rights violations.

• No (trailer, description, rent on Amazon) details how Chilean society came together to remove General Pinochet from power in a plebiscite vote would have allowed him to stay in power for another 8 years (in addition to the 16 years he'd already been in power) if it had passed. 

• The Judge and the General (description, rent on Amazon) also is available on-line; it examines the prosecution of Pinochet.

The exam for Unit 1 will be Tuesday, February 17. You need to make sure that HonorLock works (with Chrome) on your computer, or you will need to write your essays by hand. If you prefer to write out your essays, let me know in advance, so that I am prepared to give you a paper version of the test.

My original plan was to have the paper for the first unit will be due at the start of class a week later (i.e., on Tuesday, Feb. 24); however that is during Spring Break. Consequently, the paper will be due at the start of class on March 3.The topic and instructions for the paper have been placed in the online PPTs/Assignments folder at least a week before your test.