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…
Authoritarianism or Democracy in Latin America?
After reading Collier and Chapter 3, there are some ideas about the construction of Authoritarian regimes in Latin America that I want to discuss. Firstly, it was interesting to read about the relationship between industrialization and political transformations. Collier parts from…
The Correlation of Power – Militaries and Citizens
There appears to be a consensus that the foundations of the present forms of democracy can be attributed to the use of primarily military authoritarian regimes solving the historically authoritarian forms of government (i.e. aristocracy and oligarchy). The debate is…
Popularity of Populism
I thought the link between industrialization and the election of a populist candidate/ activation of the popular sector was a link that was fun to think through. It initially made me consider why populist candidates were not elected from industrialized…
Military and Authoritarianism in Latin America
In Collier’s piece, he presents an argument that attempts to explain the rise of authoritarian and military regimes in specific areas of Latin America. Collier presents analysis from Guillermo O’Donnell in which three elements (regime qualities, nature of the politically…
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