SOME BASICS

As a point of comparison

WHY AND HOW WILL WE STUDY LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS? What do we mean by “Latin America”? Why would you want to study Latin America vs. some other region out there? How is immigration from LA shaping the US? What are the cultural, social, and economic implications for America? How do drugs impact both American and Lat Am society? How do guns & gangs? How has US foreign policy towards Lat. Am. shaped our relationship with other regions? What about exporting our world view and values? Will a more serious trading or political block emerge in the Americas beyond NAFTA? What role will Brazil and Mexico play in 21 st century politics. Will either of them emerge as a competing “hegemon,” at least in the region> What can Latin America tell us about the relationship between democratization and development? What can Latin American countries tell us about our conceptualization and policies vis-à-vis racial, ethnic, and political minorities (including women)?

HOW DO POLITICAL SCIENTISTS STUDY LATIN AMERICA? What is the “comparative politics” subfield of political science about? How is it different from “international relations”? What makes the political sciences “scientific”?: Why are we “conservative” compared to some of the other social science? Why do “we” focus mostly on “empirical” vs. “normative” inquiry? Why do we focus so much on “classification” and “causation” for the ends of “generalization”? Why use theories, hypothesis testing, and variables What are the strengths and limitations to looking at Latin America in this way? (vs say the way cultural anthropologists do?) Does studying LA scientifically benefit Latin Americans? Or is it just another example of cultural and economic imperialism?

CAN CATEGORIES HELP US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND LA? Why almost do almost all of the social sciences group the world into cultural regions? Couldn’t we find better comparisons by grouping across regions? What is most similar comparison (examples: Mexico vs. Brazil; Venezuela vs. Colombia) What are most dissimilar comparison: Brazil vs. Paraguay; Argentina vs. Guatemala (good for thinking about “contagion” variables or “path dependency” Using “hard cases” (the influence of American ideas in Cuba) or “subnational” studies (Brazil, Mexico) Let’s do some categorizing (Lots of the data are from: United Nations Development Program, Democracy in Latin America)