Please note: At your instructor's discretion,
there may be minor alterations to the reading
assignments listed below. One of the major advantages to
providing you with an on-line readings archive is that
timely articles can be added or substituted when
appropriate. Opening documents downloaded from this
website will require that your computer have
Acrobat Reader . You will also need the
class-specific password to open individual files.
Unit 2: The Slow and Uneven Democratization of Latin
America
Some resources for the rest of the term:
Topic 1 (February 19, March 3)—Why has democracy
continued to struggle to take root in Latin America?
Populism and the political incorporation of historically
marginalized groups
Thursday, before
break:
- Work on your papers. In class, we will watch most or
all of Our Brand is Crisis (Koch Lorber Films,
2006). We will watch this documentary (not the terrible,
feature-length film) in class. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3mE5beWuQ
For the Tuesday after break:
-
Partially read Vanden and Provost, Chp. 4, "The Other
Americans." Review the sections relevant to
African-descendant Latin Americans, starting with "The
Role of Sugar and Slavery" through the section
"Contemporary Afro-Descendant Movements"). pay close
attention to the section, "Concept of Race." You are
welcome to read the sections on indigenous history and
group politics, too, but the Van Cott article covers
similar concepts in much less detail, and is better
suited for the purposes of this class. .
-
Raul Madrid, "The Rise of
Enthopopulism in Latin America (World Politics,
2008, 32pp). Read this article quickly, but play close
attention to the big ideas, including the difference
between ethnic, populist, and "ethnopolitical"
parties. What kind of Latin Americans support the last
of these types of parties, and why have they been more
successful than the other two types of parties in
Latin American countries with a large share of
indigenous voters. Are these types of parties a
problem?
Topic 2 (March 5)—How democratic is Latin
America? And how do we measure this?
-
Quickly read chapter 8 in your textbook. Do not get
overly caught up in the details; we have already
discussed in detail Latin America's anti-democratic
founding, the problem's with the region's first
attempt to construct US-style democratic institutions,
and elite (and sometimes mass) support for military
intervention into politics. As you read this chapter,
focus on the information you would need to answer a
test question that asked you: How has Latin America's
political culture--specifically,
mass and elite values, beliefs, and practices
regarding democracy--impeded the consolidation of
stable democracy in the region?
-
Kurt Weyland, "Why Latin America Is
Becoming Less Democratic" (Atlantic 2013, 13pp).
As you read this article, pay close attention to what
populism is, what it looks like in practice, and why
it is a real threat to democracy once deeply
entrenched by either populist leaders or a party they
have captured. Pay close attention to why Weyland sees
leftist populists as ultimately more of a problem than
right-wing populists (i.e., how/why do the former
typically come to power, who is their base, and what
economic policies do they pursue that
strengthen/undermine their hold on society over time).
His analysis may explain why left-leaning bouts of
authoritarian populism have tended to last longer than
right-leaning variants as the region as a whole
democratized
You have a BlackBoard quiz on that combines items
for this article and the next one. The first 10
items are for the Weyland article and the second are for
the Mainwaring one. The expectation is that you will
take these quizzes while you are reading, and not just
skim the articles quickly for the answers. My assumption
in writing and grading tests is that students who are
quickly sailing through quizzes, getting all items
correct will have no problems in summarizing key ideas
and providing examples from these same articles on
exams.
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