Including delegative democracy, representative democracy, polyarchy, constitutional and citizens’ democracy
Understanding their diversity
Including well institutionalized representative systems and systems that are more fragmented and where there is a crisis of representation; the rise of participatory democracy
Why does Colombia score low on measures of electoral democracy?
Why does Venezuela also score low on the same measures?
What country has the largest number of internally displaced people in Latin America?
What was the Platt Amendment?
What two Central American countries signed Peace Accords in the 1990s?
Is Central America less violent today than in the period of civil war?
Who was Augusto Sandino?
How did Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez respond to a peasant rebellion in the 1930s?
What event occurred in 1944 to change Guatemala’s history? And in 1954?
Who was Arbenz? Why did the US overthrow him?
Who said Latin America has no “usable history”?
What caused the crisis of oligarchic states?
What were three or four of the main problems with ISI?
What is the ejido?
What three crises brought down the PRI?
What did Castro do in 1953 that won him wide notoriety?
What did Castro do in 1953 that won him wide notoriety?
What event the following year convinced Castro, Che and others young radicals that power could not be won through elections?
What were some of the main problems created by Communism in Cuba?
The US invaded Cuba to prevent Castro from acquiring nuclear weapons. True or false?
What was the “Special Period”?
What event in 1972 led to the decline of the Somoza dictatorship?
What leader of the 1932 rebellion in El Salvador is memorialized in the name of a recently elected party?
What country in Central America has no army?
Which has the highest level of human development? Which is richest?
What Central American president copied Fujimori’s autogolpe?
How many greater is the GDP per capita of the average person in the United States compared with the average Central American?
How has Morales threatened judicial independence in Bolivia?
What party was launched by CONAIE in the 1990s?
Who led the revolt in Ecuador in 2000 that brought down President Mahuad?
What policies by Mahuad provoked the revolt?
Why did President Gutierrez disappoint the indigenous movement?
What do people mean by the “Brazilian economic miracle”?
What are the “two canons of representation”?
Who was Marcos Perez Jimenez?
What was the Caracazo?
What does MVR stand for?
What Venezuelan leader was close to the Kennedy administration?
What did the Venezuelan referendum of 2009 change?
Give examples of direct participation
Now give concrete examples in specific countries
What three countries in the Andes have changed their constitutions since 1999?
What is the separation of powers?
What is the Lista Russian?
What is the “parapolitica scandal” about?
Sample Essay Questions
Pacts between outgoing authoritarians and incoming civilians facilitated the process of transitions to democracy in the 1970s and 1980s, and this tied the hands of succeeding democratic governments. Is this changing as a result of the “left turns” we observe in Latin America in the current decade?
Does indigenous mobilization help consolidate or destabilize democracy?
Why is presidential re-election a big issue in Latin America today? Should there be term limits?
What values does democracy have unless it improves the quality of life for everyone? Discuss with reference to specific cases.
What is political culture? What aspects of Latin American politics does it explain? Assess the view that “culture does not matter”.
Are any countries in Latin America today in violation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter? Which? Explain your assessment.
Democracy must be “made safe” in order to endure. Do you agree? What does Latin America’s recent history tell us? Use specific examples.
After decades of war, electoral democracy has become the norm in Central America. How has this come about?
Readings from Smith, ed. Latin American Democratic Transformations
