SS/PO 304 - Politics and Society in Latin America

This course analyzes the relationships between politics and societies in Latin America. It explores how different social actors and movements have tried to achieve a presence in the public sphere. The course also analyzes how common people have been incorporated into the political system, their political actions, and the different mechanisms of domination and resistance.

The course is divided into five discussion topics. The first analyzes how working people were incorporated into the political system by populist movements. It explores the difficult relationships between populist movements and liberal democratic institutions, and the legacy of populist patterns of incorporation in present day politics. This section uses case studies from Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. The second section studies how political parties work in poor neighborhoods. Using the Argentinean case different forms of patronage, such as clientelism, is explored. The third section analyzes the role of social movements in the creation of citizenship in contemporary Ecuador. Have social movements escaped form patronage and populist politics? How have they accommodated to existing cultural political patterns? The fourth explores the roles of social movements in recent constitution making processes in the Andean nations. The final explores the characteristics on the new left in Latin America.