Aims

- To introduce students to the political and social problems of Latin America based on a global analysis of the contemporary stages of political processes in relation to socio-economic developments.
- To make students aware of the complexity and diversity of Latin American realities, and of the relevance of comparative approaches.
The main thrust of the course will be the question, "What democracies are there in Latin America?" This question focuses both on the existence and nature of Latin American democracies, and the possibilities that they have for survival and deepening.
A response will involve an examination of the characteristics and dynamism of these political systems, and a consideration of the main historical aspects of Latin American societies.
Content
The course is in three parts.
I. The first part will present some elements of an understanding of specific features of Latin America.
II. The second part will address the historical processes, and analyse difficulties in constituting nation-states after independence, the formation of an oligarchic order, the formation of popular national states, forms of authoritarianism, and the return to democracies in the 1980s.
II. The third and last part will be given over to national cases, and will be brought to a conclusion with an examination of certain challenges to current processes of political democratisation.
Methodology
This will be a professorial course with discussions.

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