Syllabus
Taking Stock of a Region:
Latin American Political
Developments versus Economic Outcomes
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Master of Peace and Security Studies
Block Seminar 651-BLV
Winter Semester 2017-2018
Date: November 9 & 10, 2017
Hrs.: 10:00 – 17:00 & 10:00 – 15:00
IFSH Building, room number 002_016
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Dr. Miguel A. Buitrago
USAC, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Programm
Professor
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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 politic-economic factors such as poverty, ethnicity, social movements,
corruption, inequality, migration, populist policies, caudillism, political culture, regionalism, regional integration, economic
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 and political 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 historical context, 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 (i.e. critical thinking), 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
·
Weeks, Gregory. 2015. Understanding Latin American Politics. Boston: Pearson
·
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.
·
Bundeszentrale
für politische Bildung (BpB). http://www.bpb.de/internationales/amerika/lateinamerika/.
Guidelines
for Presentations
In
order to address the posed question, students are asked to choose one
factor/issue/event in a particular Latin American country and explore its
effects on political-economic outcomes. One example might be, the impact social
ethnic movements have had on the economic development 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
should approach the issue from a political-economic angle; however the
presentation must address most of 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?
·
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 week before the seminar (November
9 and 10) per email at miguelabuitrago(at)gmail.com or over the seminars blog.
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
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