GOVT 3293 - Comparative Politics of Latin America

(crosslisted)
(also DSOC 3290, LATA 3290) (GB) (SBA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

G. Flores-Macias.

This course is designed as an introduction to political, economic, and social issues in 20th-century Latin America. Topics are organized chronologically, beginning with the process of industrialization and incorporation of the popular sectors in the 1930s and 1940s, and ending with the recent rise of the left to power in the region. Among the main issues covered are populism and corporatism, dependency theory and import-substitution industrialization, revolutions, the breakdown of democracy, military rule, democratic transitions, debt crisis and market reforms, social movements, and migration. Throughout the semester, we will draw on examples from the entire region, but the course will focus on six main countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Venezuela. Knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is not required.