Ignored Legacy
In The School of the Americas, author Lesley Gill discusses the ways in which the United States has ironically and hypocritically supported authoritarian regimes in the name of protecting democracy and national security. Gill elaborates that this was done not…
International Contexts
This week’s chapter on international influence on Latin American Democracy ties in interestingly with Schoultz’s article. The article discusses at length the positive correlation between US Aid given to Latin American countries and human rights violations happening in those countries….
International Contexts
Gill’s The Military, Political Violence and Impunity reminded me, especially in its opening pages, of an over-caffeinated vice president of the “Students for Socialism” club at the bi-weekly “rage against the machine meeting” at the grunge coffee shop near campus….
To Intervene Or to Not Intervene
In Chapter 4 of Democracy in America, Smith and Sells explore the various ways in which the United States has intervened in Latin America in the past in hopes of abating the cold war concerns about the rise of communism…
Worldwide Chess
Schoultz leaves us with a question of “why in the mid-1970s the United States tended to award relatively large amounts of aid to Latin American governments which repressed their citizens’ human right.” Obviously, I am no historian or political science…
Border Wall Blues: How Trump’s Attacks on Free Trade May Backfire
The United States has been an incredibly influential actor in Latin American politics ever since they took Texas from Mexico in the 1830s. In the century and a half after the U.S. would periodically lend their support to certain leaders…
National Sovereignty and Latin America
Can national sovereignty coexist with international institutions? Is national sovereignty critical to the international system anymore? While international institutions stress the importance of national sovereignty, this principle has evolved since the creation of the United Nations post-WWII. Under the definition…
Authoritarianism and The Southern Cone
Naturally, one would assume with capitalistic expansion classical liberal values would accompany, especially after the model set forth by western nations like England and the United States. Industrialism and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism aren’t inherently synonymous or related frankly. That is what…
Industrialization: Authoritarianism or Semi – Democracy?
I believe that O’Donnell’s findings, within the reading, are interesting to interpret. For example his idea about industrialization and the development of the populist and gaining support through the creation of initial phase of industrialization, which he classifies as consumer…
Week 3 The Military
In chapter 3 of Smith’s Democracy in Latin America, we can see the varied involvement of the military in Latin American politics over the years. Interactions between the public and the military have changed their relationship, separating them further and…
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