Modern Latin American Politics

Modern Latin American Politics

Grace Livingstone

This session considers political governance and political movements in Latin America from the early twentieth century to the current day.  It gives an overview of the different approaches to the study of politics.   It discusses how far political formations can be related to the political economy of Latin America and its changing sociology or whether political developments can be better understood by analysing institutional structures, political parties and the practice of political actors.  To probe these questions,  we will consider the rise of military governments in the 1960s and 1970s.  Using a historical perspective,  we will also analyse current political events in Latin America.

Key words:  military dictatorship, dependency, bureaucratic authoritarianism, neoliberalism, institutionalism

Required Reading (see Moodle)

• Scott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival and Fall (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013) Introduction, pp.1-28 
• Guillermo O’Donnell, Bureaucratic Authoritarianism: Argentina 1966-1973 in Comparative Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), Chapter 1, pp. 1-39.
• María Elena Acuña Moenne, ,Embodying Memory: Women and the Legacy of the Military Government in Chile’, Feminist Review, No. 79, 2005, pp. 150-161.
• Helpful background reading (but not required reading): Thomas Skidmore and Peter Smith, Modern Latin America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) Chapter 2, pp.42-68

Please read about the current political situation in one Latin American country.  Who is in power?  Who are their supporters?  Is their government stable?  Who are the opposition?  Are there protests?  Is there violence?     Please be ready to talk about it for a couple of minutes so we can compare and contrast countries

Further Reading

• Ellner, Steve  Latin America’s Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty First Century  (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlfield, 2014) 

• Escobar, Arturo, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical InterDependence, Autonomy and the Making of Worlds (Durham: Duke University Press, 2018). 

• Grigera, Juan, ‘Populism in Latin America: Old and New Populisms in Argentina and Brazil’, International Political Science Review, 2017, Vol.38 (4), pp.441-455 

• Grugel, Jean and Pia Riggirozzi, ‘Neoliberal Disruption and Neoliberalism’s Afterlife in Latin America: What’s Left of Post-Neoliberalism?’, Critical social policy: a journal of theory and practice in social welfare. Volume 38: Number 3 (2018); pp 547-56 

• Femenias Maria Luisa and Amy Oliver, Feminist Philosophy in Latin America and Spain, (Amsterdam, Rodopi:, 2007) 

• Kingstone, Peter, and Deborah Yashar, Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics, (New York: Routledge, 2017) 

• Levitsky, Steven, James Loxton, Brandon Van Dyck, Jorge I. Dominguez (eds.), Challenges of Party Building in Latin America, (New York: Cambridge University Press: 2016) 

• Kothari, Atish, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, & Alberto Acosta (eds), Pluriverse: a Post-Development Dictionary (New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2019) 

• Mainwaring, Mainwaring, and Timothy R. Scully (eds.), Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America, (Stanford: Stanford Univeristy Press, 1995) 

• Mignolo, Walter & Arturo Escobar, Globalization and the Decolonial Option (London: Routledge, 2010) 

• Negretto, Gabriel,  Making Constitutions Presidents, Parties, and Institutional Choice in Latin America, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013). 

• Nercesian, Ines ‘America Latina en el Siglo XXI, Reflexiones Inconclusas’   in Burkart, Mara y Giletta, Matías (coords.): ‘Dossier Argentina: treinta años de democracia’ Observatorio Latinoamericano , Nº 12,  UBA, 2013.   

•  Riggirozzi, Pía & Christopher Wylde, Handbook of South American Governance, (London: Routledge, 2017) 

• Stein, Ernesto and Mariano Tommasi (eds.), Policymaking in Latin America: How Politics Shapes Policies, (New York: Inter-American Development Bank, 2008).  

• Segato, Rita, The Critique of Coloniality (London: Routledge, 2022) 

• Svampa, Maristella, Debates Latinoamericanos: Indianismo, Desarrollo, Dependencia y Populismo, (Edhasa: Buenos Aires, 2016) 

• Vanden, Harry and Gary Prevost (eds.) Politics of Latin America: The Power Game (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).