Understanding Latin American Politics

Provides a comparative analysis of political and economic development in Latin America Understanding Latin American Politics assesses Latin American political and economic development. This title examines the relationships among political, economic, and social factors in Latin America. Reader engagement is increased through the use of contemporary case studies and primary documents.

This textbook integrates domestic and international factors for understanding Latin American politics. The thematic structure of the book is to utilize three different levels of analysis to explain Latin American politics: international, national, and local. This approach has the benefit of incorporating the dynamics of globalization while also including political factors more at ground level, including the influence of subaltern groups. Although there may be important international influences on domestic politics, they interact with and are mediated by national political figures and grassroots activists. The book has four sections: Theoretical and Historical Background; Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean; The Andean Region and Venezuela; and Brazil and the Southern Cone. Each chapter contains key terms, discussion questions, and further sources and a range of pedagogical materials for use in the classroom. This textbook is available in an open access digital edition.

From afar, Latin America looks like a blurry tableau: devoid of defining lines, particularities and nuances. Little is understood about the idiosyncrasies of Latin-Americans, their cultural identity and social values. Differences between Brazilians and Spanish Americans, or amid the diverse Spanish American countries, are not sufficiently understood. Even less is known about the amplitude of the Iberian heritage of such countries, or about the miscegenation and acculturation processes that took place among their different constitutive races. There is no clarity regarding the Western nature of Latin America or about its cultural affinities with Latin Europe. Nor is there sufficient understanding of the links between the Latin population of the United States and the inhabitants of Latin America.This book aims to fill the gap by focusing on Latin America's history, culture, identity and idiosyncrasies. It serves as a guide to understand regional attitudes, meanings and behavioural differences of the region. It also analyses the present economic situation of the region, while trying to predict the future of the region. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book will be of interest to readers keen on exploring the region for potential opportunities in trade, investment or any other kind of business and cultural endeavor.

Highlighting eleven different topics in separate chapters, the thematic approach of Latin American Politics offers students the conceptual tools they need to analyze the political systems of all twenty Latin American nations. Such a structure makes the book self-consciously comparative, allowing students to become stronger analysts of comparative politics and better political scientists in general.

This book examines U.S.-Latin American relations from an historical, contemporary, and theoretical perspective. By drawing examples from the distant and more recent past—and interweaving history with theory—Williams illustrates the enduring principles of International Relations theory and provides students the conceptual tools required to make sense of inter-American relations. It is a masterful guide for how to organize facts, think systematically about issues, weigh competing explanations, and confidently draw your own conclusions regarding the past, present, and future of international politics in the region.

Published in 1969 under title: Communication of the Gospel in Latin America.

For over thirty years, Latin American Politics and Development has kept instructors and students abreast of current affairs and changes in Latin America. Now in its ninth edition, this definitive text has been updated throughout and features contributions from experts in the field, including twenty new and revised chapters on Mexico, Central America,the Caribbean, and South America.

Understanding Latin America's recent economic performance calls for a multidisciplinary analysis. This handbook looks at the interaction of economics and politics in the region and includes a number of contributions from top academic experts who have also served as key policy makers (a former president, ministers of finance, a central bank governor), reflecting upon the challenges of reform.