High Intermediate

Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of three semesters (or five quarters) of college-level Spanish at their home university in the U.S.

***THIS CLASS IS WITH INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ONLY***

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

1. Distinguish some of the central problems of Latin America’s political evolution, considering structural aspects as well as the specificities of national issues.

2. Train students in methodological foci of Latin American history, and develop analysis and critique skills, as well as a foundation of concepts related to the subject.

CONTENT

1. Central problems and tendencies in Latin America’s political evolution.
a) Conceptual aspects about a political topic and its transformations
b) Structural aspects and change-promoting agents
c) Populism and Democracy
d) Latin American Revolutions. Case studies.

2. Development and Modernization
a) Crisis of the developmental model of raw material export
b) Industrialization processes and discussion about sustainable development
c) Exhaustion of the developmental models from within and the application of Neo-liberal models.

3. Crisis of “State of Compromise” to re-democratization of the 1980’s
a) New military professionalism and the new authoritarianism
b) Theoretical problems regarding transition and democratic consolidation
c) Politics in Latin American literature

4. Latin America in an international context
a) The United States and Latin America
b) Processes of Integration

METHODOLOGY

This class focuses on developing comprehension and analysis of structural phenomenon that have given way to Latin American reality. Required for this course is the utilization of interdisciplinary methodologies, such as:

1. Investigational methods through the study of recent historical phenomena
2. Socialization of information through debates; focus on problem analysis
3. Workshops. Presentation of theoretical and interdisciplinary aspects. Search and analysis of sources.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bethell, L., Historia de América Latina, editorial Crítica, Barcelona, 1990

Collier, D. El nuevo autoritarismo en América Latina, editorial Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 1994.

Faletto, Cardoso, Dependencia y desarrollo en América Latina, editorial Siglo XXI. México, 1971.

Halperin, T. Historia Contemporánea de América Latina, editorial Alianza, Madrid, 1983.

O’Donnell, et.al., Transición desde un Régimen Autoritario, editorial Paidos, Buenos Aires, 1988.

Mols, M. El Estado en América Latina, editorial Ciedla, Buenos Aires, 1995.