GOVT 227 Latin American Politics

This course examines the dynamics of political and economic change in modern Latin America, with a focus on six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Topics include industrialization and the advent of mass politics, Marxist revolutions and movements, military coups and dictatorships, the neoliberal turn, the third wave of democratization, the challenge of democratic consolidation, and the recent resurgence of the left. The course compares a variety of theoretical approaches (modernization, dependency, cultural, institutionalist, leadership-centered) in an effort to explain both general processes of change and important differences between countries.[W]