This course is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to the major themes of contemporary Latin American politics and, consequently, democracy and political development. While the course stresses the political aspects of the developmental process, its objective is to show the linkages between economic, social, cultural, and political phenonema--both at national and international levels. The first half of the course discusses formal political institutions – democracy, executives and legislatures, courts, and party systems – and the second half discusses bottom-up political topics. For example, we will discuss vote buying, informality, drug violence, protest, and revolution.  

The course is made up of 10 weekly sessions. You can expect each session to be about 2 hours, consisting of a mix between online and in-person activities.  The key elements of each 2 hour session will include a one-hour live-streamed lecture and an in-person one-hour seminar. The priority will always be to keep everybody safe, so you can expect some variation in the structure of the sessions as the weeks progress