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 3:
Latin America's Political Economy and Development
Some resources for the rest of the term:
Topic 1 (4/8)—Why has Latin America faced such serious
economic and social development issues, and how is this
related to politics?
-
As a reminder, you have your Unit 2 paper due
electronically and in hard copy by the start of
Thursday's class this week.
- Charles Blake, a
short excerpt from Politics in Latin America. The
most useful parts of this partial chapter are the table
summarizing three major economic development models and
the various charts exploring the relationship between
economic outcomes and political liberties.
-
Vanden and Provost, Chp. 7, "The Political Economy of
Latin America." Skim very quickly the first sections
of this detail-oriented chapter, starting to read more
carefully only when you get to the section on
"Dependency and Underdevelopment." Don't get
overwhelmed by the details--just focus on a few key
topics. Know what dependency theory is and why it
matters that Latin American countries long had
difficulties building diversified, industrial
economies similar to those in the advanced industrial
democracies. Similarly, be able to describe what
import-substitution-industrialization is and what
problems it addresses and creates. Finally, be able to
explain what "structural adjustment" and
"neoliberalism" are and why these approaches to
economic development became so prevalent in Latin
America, starting in the 1990s.
-
United Nations Development Report,
Briefing note for Brazil (2019, includes
development measures for both Brazil and Mexico), I
assign this short document (9 pages) to give you some
sense about how the World Bank and the UNDP (United
Nations Development Program measure human development.
Some of the measures are all about the economy, but
political scientists and economists are also very
interested in how human capital--life expectancy,
schooling, poverty rates, inequality, and
gender/class/race differences in access to
educational, economic, and political resources vary
across time and societies.
-
As an extension to some data you will seen in class,
here are some samples of the variation that we see in
economic freedom in Latin American economic systems
(From The Heritage Foundation's "Economic
Freedom Index," which is widely used in academic work.
Print out and read closely (each of these is just one
page):
Topic 2 (4/10): Did Chile's
authoritarians build a better economy than its
democrats ever could have? No.
-
Your Unit 2 paper (on democracy in Latin
America) is
due at the
start of class. Please have a stapled paper
copy ready to submit and also remember to submit the
required electronic copy.
-
Watch this 20 minute (shorter if 1.5x speed is used)
summary of Chilean political history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsWDarMiVCw.
As with the other study countries, you are not
expected to become an expert on Chilean history and
are being assigned this to provide the context
necessary to understand how the military regime 1973
military regime came to power in Chile, how it ruled,
how it was ousted, and how its economic and political
legacies continue to impact Chile's contemporary
political system and issues.
-
In class, starting on April 10 and perhaps continuing
on April 17, part of the class content will include
outtakes of a film on the Chicago Boys. If you miss
the film in class, you will need to rent and watch the
film from Amazon ($3.99 for standard definition format
if you click "More purchase options"):
https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Boys-Carola-Fuentes/dp/B0CP7QYZTJ
-
Optional: If you want a written summary of political
history covered in the 20-minute video assigned above,
read parts of Vanden and Provost, "Chile" (32pp):
Read only up to the section on interests groups. Focus
on the economic and political situation that brought
the Pinochet military government to power, its
approach to economic development, and and why it
finally left power, and how Chile's post-military-rule
governments have handled both democratization and
economic development. Skim any material not related to
these issues.
Topic 4 (4/15, 17)—Chile's economy and politics under
democratic rule
-
We don't have class on April 15, so that students can
attend various Honors Day research presentation and
awards events. In lieu of class, please watch::
50 Years After Pinochet (a 47
minute documentary looking at the political crisis
that resulted in Chile's efforts to rewrite their
constitution)
Your reading for April 17 adds up to less than a
textbook chapter, but provides a nice survey of
contemporary econimc and politics in Chile:
-
United Nations Development Report,
Briefing note for Chile (2019). Read the
first five pages only. Note how dramatically
things have improved since the military was pushed out
of power in 1989, but also notice how much inequality
influences life in Chile. Chile's averages on several
human development indicators indicate that it is on
par with some of the advanced industrial democracies
in terms of its resources to address basic human
needs; however, Chile also shows that that indicator
averages can mask extreme inequality.
-
United Nations Development Report,
Briefing note for Venezuela (2019). Look at just
pages 3-5, and compare the data for Venezuela and
Chile. Key lesson: Governments that claim to be
socialist and focused on the needs of everyday people
are neither.
-
Jack
Nicas, "Chile Rejects Conservative Constitution"
(2023, 4pp)
-
Optional films
on the prosecution of General Pinochet: If you can
track it down, the film The Judge and the General
was exceptionally well received by reviewers. The
Pinochet Case is available at Amazon Prime (for
$2.99 in SD).
April 22: Last day of
class. We will not try to cover Venezuela in
day, but I have posted that material below in case anyone
is interested in continuing their study of Latin American
politics over the summer.
Note: We do have a final exam in this class, but you
will not have a unit 3 paper. The final exam
will ask you to complete two, equally weighted components.
The first part will cover only the material from Unit
3; due to the structure of the last unit (not as much
was covered as was intended), the unit test (only)
will be open-note, open book.
The second part will be a single-question essay test
that incorporates one or more major themes covered in
the course as a whole; you will be provided with the
long-essay topic in advance of the final exam period.
This part of the test will be closed-note, no
supporting materials except for a note card.
-
If you are a
graduating senior, check in with Dr. Setzler to
arrange an early exam. Your grades are due
by Monday, April 29 at 8am.
-
For everyone else: The final exam, as
scheduled by the University, is Wednesday, April 30,
3:30 – 6:30.
If we had an additional week of class--which we
don't--this is what we would cover. I thought I'd leave
the readings and resources posted in case you would like
to keep on learning about Latin America when the term is
over:
Is Chavismo a model of effectively mixing state
capitalism with democratic socialism so that the poor
benefit, too? Or is it just plain old populism?
-
Watch this 20 minute (shorter if 1.5x speed is used)
summary of Venezuelan political history through 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmeyGzsQo8s.
As with the other study countries, you are not
expected to become an expert on Venezuelan history
and are being assigned this to provide the context
necessary to understand the the country's contemporary
political system and issues.
-
Optional:
Vanden and Provost, Chp. 17, "Venezuela." This is a
good read if you want a written summary of the
political history covered in the 20 minute video
assigned above. This may well be the shortest chapter
in your textbook because Venezuela's current situation
is less connected to its past than most of the other
countries we will study. Skim the historical development
sections very quickly, taking in just enough of the
details to get a sense of the big picture of what led
to Chavismo emerging (i.e., understand the what the
Punto Fijo era was and why Venezuela's two-party
democracy was never as strong as it looked). Slow down
to take in the material on the political and economic
conditions which allowed Chavez to rise to power, what
Venezuela's government looks like now, and how it
stays in power. What are the main economic and
development strategies in Venezuela and why is the
country falling apart politically and economically?
-
A documentary worth watching: A la Calle
(available on HBO's Max), which looks at political
protest and opposition to the Venezuelan regime. The
film clips will add perspective and context to the
textbook chapter and other readings. You will get more
out of the film if you read the textbook chapter
first.
-
Optional, but very informative of what Chavismo
looked like at its height: Frontline: The Hugo
Chavez Show: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hugochavez/view/.
A 90-minute documentary on Chavez's rise to power and
his strategies to stay there until his death. If the
link doesn't work, you can find a copy on YouTube with a search.
Why is the Venezuela's authoritarian government still
power?
-
Moisés Naím and Francisco Toro,
“Maduro’s Mess Has Little to Do With Ideology”
(Foreign Affairs 2020, 6pp). Why can't we just chalk
the political problems of Venezuela as the logical
conclusion of socialism in practice?
-
Michael Schifter, "Maduro the
Survivor" (Foreign Affairs 2023, 5pp). This
article complements and--unfortunately--updates the
film, showing why mass protest has not yet brought
down the government. What does populism look like in
Venezuela, and how can a government the performs so
poorly stay in power?
-
CRS, "Venezuela: Political Crisis
and U.S. Policy," (Congressional Research
Service, 2023, 3pp).
-
Benedicte Bull and Antulio Rosales.
"The crisis in Venezuela." (European Review of
Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 2020, 17pp). Much
of the information in this article repeats ideas in
the two other, shorter assignments, so read
selectively, and use this assignment to flesh out
details and context for three articles listed
directly above. This article is assigned because
it summarizes several different viewpoints about the
causes of the political and economic problems
Venezuela faces and the challenges it will have
reversing its economic and political crises. Focus
just on the big picture and major arguments: Why did
democracy shift into autocracy in the mid 2010s? What
is a "rentier" economy, and how does the nature of
Venezuela's economy fuel corruption, criminality, and
authoritarianism? What role are outside
countries--including the US--playing in the political
and economic crises Venezuela is experiencing? And how
likely is a transition back to democracy anytime soon,
and what would that look like?
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