This course concentrates on the dynamics of social and political change and the building of citizenship in Argentina and in Latin America, with special references to cases such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Comparative description of political systems, political parties, and social movements. Analysis of processes of breakdown of democracy, military dictatorships, transition to democratic rule and more recent democratic consolidation. Quality of citizenship and democratic institutions. This class is worth three semester credits.
Political and Social Change in Argentina and Latin America
Course Description
The course studies the formation and evolution of the Argentine and Latin American
societies and their political systems through a historical and comparative approach
since the Crisis of Independence up to the present times. It focuses also on the
gradual emergence of typically local, social and political institutions that
characterize the Latin American dynamics, such as caudillismo. The confluence of
complex ethnic and cultural components through conquest, colonization, and
immigration are studied to approach and compare the different regional societies.
Finally, it is sought to set a political pattern to analyze the current transition.
Course Requirements
Following the UB policy, students need a minimum of 75% of attendance to be in
good standing for the final exam. Classes missed for national holidays will be
recovered on Fridays. No excuse will be granted for travels not programmed by the
course. The teaching process developed through theoretical and practical activities
seeks to stimulate active and reflexive, individual and group participation through
critical reading.
Grading Policy
Attendance and in-class participation: 20%
Presentation (report): 10 %
Written Midterm Exam: 30%
Final Exam: 40%
For a better understanding of the comparable table for grading: check the student
handbook (page 9) in orientation kit packet.
Academic Calendar
Week 1: Unit 1
Introduction: Toward New Political Relations in the Post-Independence Period,
1800-1824
Thomas Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America (New York: Oxford
UP, 1989) Chapters 3, 4, 5
Week 2: Unit 1
The Origins of a Latin American ideological field, 1820-1870
Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress (Berkeley: UC Press, 1980) Chapters 1, 2
Bradford Burns, Latin America: Conflict and Creation (Los Angeles: UC Press, 1983)
Chapter 2, p. 34-41
John Charles Chasteen and Joseph S. Tulchin (eds.), Problems in Modern Latin
American History: A Reader (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1994)
Chapter 2, p. 37-41, 48-55
Week 3: Unit 1
Politics and society in the neocolonial order, 1870-1910
Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress Chapters 5, 6, 7
Bradford Burns, Latin America: Conflict and Creation Chapter 4, p. 76-97
Week 4: Unit 1
The Political and Social Transformations of the New Century, 1870-1910
Leslie Bethell (ed.), Ideas and Ideologies in Twentieth Century Latin America
(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996) Chapter 2
Bradford Burns, Latin America: Conflict and Creation Chapter 5, p. 106-129
Week 5: Unit 2
Report due date
Populism, 1910-1960
Marjorie Becker, "Black and White and Color: Cardenismo and the Search for a
Campesino Ideology," Comparative Studies in Society and History 29 (3)
1987, p. 453-65
Bradford Burns, Latin America: Conflict and Creation Chapter 7, p. 207-288
Week 6: Unit 2
Populism, 1910-1960
Daniel James, Resistance and Integration (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988)
Introduction
Ian Roxborough, "Populism and Class Conflict," E. Archetti, Sociology of Developing
Societies (London: Macmillan, 1987) p. 119-123
Steve Stein, "Populism and Social Control," E. Archetti, Sociology of Developing
Societies (London: Macmillan, 1987) p. 123-135
Ernesto Laclau, Politics and Ideology in Marxist Teory (London: At. Highlands, 1977)
Chapter 4
Week 7: Unit 2
Populism, 1910-1960
John D. French, The Brazilian Workers' ABC (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P,
1992) Introduction, Conclusion
John Charles Chasteen and Joseph S. Tulchin (eds.), Problems in Modern Latin
American History: A Reader (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1994)
Chapter 4, p. 97-123
Week 8
Midterm exam
Week 9: Unit 3
Bureucratic-Authoritarian State, 1960-1990
David Collier, The New Authoritarianism in Latin America Princeton: Princeton UP,
1979) Chapters 1, 2
Week 10: Unit 3
Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State, 1960-1990
Joe Foweraker, Todd Landman, nd Neil Harvey, Governing Latin America
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9
Week 11: Unit 3
Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State, 1960-1990
Peter Calvert and Susan Calvert, "The Military and Development," Linda Alexander
Rodriguez (ed.), Rank and Privilege (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1994),
p. 155-188
Gabriel Marcella, "The Latin American Military, Low-Intensity Conflict, and
Democracy," Linda Alexander Rodriguez (ed.), Rank and Privilege
(Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1994), p. 189-219
William Ackroyd, "Military Professionalism and Non-Intervention in Mexico," Linda
Alexander Rodriguez (ed.), Rank and Privilege (Wilmington: Scholarly
Resources, 1994), p. 219-234
Week 12: Unit 4
Redemocratization, 1980-
Alfred Stepan (ed.), Redemocratizing Brazil New York: Oxford UP, 1989)
Chapter 1, 9
Week 13: Unit 4
Redemocratization, 1980-
John Walton, "Debt, Protest and the State in Latin America," Monograph
Sergio Serulnikov, "When Looting Becomes a Right: Urban Poverty and Food Riots
in Argentina," Monograph
Week 14: Unit 4
Redemocratization, 1980-
Philip Oxhorn, "Social Inequality, Civil Society, and the Limits of Citizenship in Latin
America," Monograph
Week 15
Final exam
Bibliography
John Ch. Chaspeen, Born in Blood and Fire (Norton: New York, 2001)
Tulio Halperín Donghi, Contemporary History of Latin America (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1987)
Demetrio Boesner, Relaciones Internacionales de A. Latina (Caracas: N. Sociedad,
1987)
Fernando Enrique Cardoso y Enzo Faletto, Dependency and Development in Latin
America Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979)
National Holidays
Classes missed on March 24, August 16 and October 11 due to national holidays will
be made up on Fridays.
Print this page