Past Courses

Graduate Course Descriptions: Spring 2002

Latin American Politics
Political Science U779.01
Professor Kenneth Erickson (erickson.miraken@verizon.net)

Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Room TBA, 3 Credits

Examination of major issues and processes in selected Latin American countries. Issues and concepts include democracy, authoritarianism, and redemocratization; political corporatism; socialism; revolution; political institutionalization; role of social movements and such sectors as workers, peasants, technocrats, the military, and the Church; political-economic dependency; economic development; the neoliberal political economy and contemporary political behavior and public policy. The readings have been chosen so as to present many of the
principal concepts employed in comparative political analysis of Latin America, while also illustrating the reality of specific country cases. Countries receiving the greatest attention are Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Cuba.

Class sessions will be part lecture and part colloquium on the assigned readings. Students are responsible for the entire books listed in the course outline, unless selected pages are indicated. Class members are required to prepare, in advance of each weekly session, a 3-to-6 page
(double-spaced) review of the readings under discussion that week, for a total of 6 reviews during the term. The review should be an analysis and evaluation of the book or readings, rather than a summary; it should discuss the author's approach or methodology, the appropriateness of the evidence, and the effectiveness of the argument. Students may, if they
wish, turn in 8 reviews, of which the 6 best will count toward their grades.