Syllabus

Taking Stock of a Region:

Latin American Political Developments versus Economic Outcomes

Master of Peace and Security Studies Block Seminar 6102-BLV Winter Semester 2016-2017 Date: October 27 & 28, 2016 From 10:00 – 18:00 Hrs. IFSH Building, room number 002_016

Dr. Miguel A. Buitrago USAC, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Programm Professor miguelabuitrago@gmail.com

Description

In the course of the last four decades, the Latin American region has come to fully embrace democracy as a preferred form of government. The consequences were: the political elites have grown conscientious in their democratic role; governments have come to fully embrace the formal rules, which have largely become routine; a relative prosperity and economic growth has returned. However, under this positive surface, the region still suffers from extreme poverty and inequality, endemic corruption, weak institutions, and a sobering declining faith on democracy. What explains this paradoxical outcome? What role play difficult to quantify political factors such as ethnicity, social movements, corruption, inequality, migration, populism, caudillism, political culture, popular sovereignty, regionalism, international relations, regional integration, political reforms, etc.?

The seminar will analyze, from a comparative and political-economy perspective, the Latin American region’s experience in the last four decades. It will provide a systematic approach for the study of the effects of the above mentioned factors on economic outcomes. In doing so, it will provide means for better understanding of the questions raised by the hotly debated concept of the paradox of democracy in Latin America.

Learning goals

Students will become familiar with basic democratic theory and the implementation of comparative and political-economy as an interdisciplinary approach to better understand phenomena. At the same time, based on a problem-oriented approach, students will gain insights into the political, economic and social reality of the Latin American region and learn about structures, processes and governance in the democratic system using quantitative and qualitative evidence. Lastly, students will gain insights on analysis, synthesis, application, creation, evaluation as well as explanatory skills, at different levels of abstraction.

Requirements

There are no prerequisites for this seminar. However, students are required to have interests on the topic and the region as well as the willingness to learn, actively participate in discussions and work to earn the credits for the seminar. In addition, students are expected to, in anticipation of the date of the seminar, prepare an individual presentation on a particular factor/issue/event in a Latin American country and explore the effects of such factor/issue/event on economic outcomes. The distribution of factors/issues/events will be coordinated prior to the first day of the seminar. A handout is suggested, in order to allow students to follow the presentation closely. In addition, students are expected to actively participate in the discussion.

Suggested reading

·         Hellinger, Daniel C. 2015. Comparative Politics of Latin America. Democracy at Last? New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.

·         Isbester, Katherine, ed. 2011. The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America. Ten Country Studies of Division and Resilience. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

·         Kingstone, Peter. 2011. The Political Economy of Latin America. New York and London: Routledge.

Guidelines for Presentations

In order to explore the impact of factors/issues/events on economic performance, students are asked to choose one factor/issue/event in a particular Latin American country and explore its relationship with economic performance. One example might be, the impact social ethnic movements have had on the economic performance of Bolivia. To achieve that, each student must prepare a 25 minute presentation. Discussion will follow in a block of time after each presentation.

Please come ready to present as we will set the order for presentations at the beginning of the seminar. We will also discuss the short brakes before we start.

Students can take an approach of their preference; however the presentation must address the following questions:

·         Which country are we talking about?

·         Basic facts about the country

·         Explicative historical context leading to the factor/issue/event chosen

·         How has the economy evolved in recent times?

·         What is the link between factor/issue/event and the performance of the economy?

·         Can that be quantified?

·         Who are the involved actors?

·         What about the democratic institutions? Is there any impact?

·         What is the nature of the linkage? (conflictive, productive, corruptive, etc.)

·         Conclusions

Of course, these questions are to serve as guidelines to approach the presentation. That means that they don’t need to restrict your creativity and you don’t need to answer all of them.

So that I can prepare the seminar I ask you to please, chose one country and formulate the title of your presentation in the form of a question and let me know the topic of the presentation up to one day before the seminar (October 26); per email at miguelabuitrago(at)gmail.com or over the seminars blog will be fine.

Seminar plan

October, Thursday 27

1000 – 1030	Introductions & Organization
1030 – 1130	Introduction to Latin American politics Regional, Historical and conceptual context
1130 – 1145	Brake
1145 – 1215	Presentation 1
1215 – 1245	Presentation 2
1245 – 1315	Discussion
1315 – 1415	Lunch
1415 – 1445	Presentation 3
1445 – 1515	Presentation 4
1515 – 1545	Discussion
1545 – 1600	Brake
1600 – 1630	Presentation 5
1630 – 1700	Presentation 6
1700 – 1730	Discussion
1730 – 1800	Conclusions for the day

October, Friday 28

1000 – 1030	Recapitulating what we learned the day before
1030 – 1100	Presentation 7
1100 – 1130	Presentation 8
1130 – 1200	Discussion
1200 – 1215	Brake
1215 – 1245	Presentation 9
1245 – 1400	Lunch
1400 – 1430	Presentation 10
1430 – 1500	Presentation 11
1500 – 1530	Discussion
1530 – 1545	Brake
1545 – 1700	Group Work
1700 – 1730	Discussion
1730 – 1800	Final Conclusions

Teaching and Learning methods

My approach to teaching is based on a combination of the Socratic and the SAMR methods and the implementation of higher order thinking skills.

Learning methods used will be: Presentations and subsequent relevant discussion.

Administrative issues

According to the program’s guidelines, each student’s work in a block seminar must represent the work of 25 to 30 hours of “course work”, including the preparation for the seminar, the 8 hour presence and participation in the day of the seminar and the preparation for the short presentation on the topic of your choice. You may present with Power Point. I suggest bringing a one page handout for students to be able to follow your presentation. For any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

I am looking forward to the seminar!

Dr. Miguel A. Buitrago