Teaching

This course offers an overview of the development and politics of Latin America. It has been developed to help students understand the intersection of history, politics and economics that affect how Latin American societies and governments function, as well as what are the major challenges of the current period. We will examine the challenge of constructing durable, representative democracies in Latin America following the transition away from authoritarian rule in the 1980s. The first part of the course will briefly examine the legacies of colonialism and review the history of authoritarian rule and the challenges of democratic transitions and economic reforms in Latin America. In the second part of the course we will focus on country case studies, including: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. For each case, we will review the relevant history and specifics of economic and political transformations. In the final part, we will focus on some important topics in the study of Latin American politics, including clientelism and corruption, the politics of poverty and inequality, and civil society. By the end of the semester, students will be able to identify the diverse and historically contingent contexts of Latin American countries in terms of their levels of economic development, their quality of democracy, their systems of government, and the consequences for human welfare.

This course explores social policy variation in the Global South and focuses on the new anti-poverty politics that has been a prominent feature of recent development policies. It examines why systems of social protection differ across countries. Research finds that democracy is beneficial for social protection, as democratic countries tend to implement generous social policies that improve the living conditions of their inhabitants. As a consequence, democracies tend to have healthier, more equal, and more educated populations. However, not all democracies advance the well-being of their populations equally and some authoritarian regimes have also implemented transformative social change.

The first part of the course provides an overview of the systems of social protection in developing countries and the different policies that make up a social policy regime. In the second part we examine the causes of variations across cases, including democracy, partisanship and protest. The final part analyzes the different systems from the lenses of inclusion/exclusion, using a variety of detailed case studies, including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey.

Modern states have different types of political regimes and organizational structures, and modern governments have differing orientations toward economic management and democracy as well as varying propensities for vote buying, corruption, and the integration of ethnic minorities. By exploring the characteristics, causes, and consequences of such variation in countries around the world, this course will expose students to some of the major topics and theoretical perspectives guiding research on states, regimes, and governments in the contemporary world.

The first part of the course explores the concepts of state, political regime, and government, with special attention to defining regime types and assessing explanations for their emergence and survival. The second part of the course explores representation and responsiveness of political institutions, positive and negative consequences of electoral politics, and citizens’ welfare under different types of political regimes. To conclude, we discuss the significance of democratic politics and assess the achievements and limitations of the study of democracy and dictatorship.

Are people with higher educational achievements more likely to vote? Is this relationship between education and voting behavior likely to vary between countries? Are university towns more likely to vote for Democrats? Does having a Republican President increase the unemployment rate? These are all questions that can be answered affirmatively or negatively if one were to examine a few select instances—an unsatisfying result for someone aspiring to a science of politics.

This course introduces students to quantitative research methods used for research in political science. This course is comprised of two parts. Part I is conceptual: helping students think systematically about research design and causality. Part II is practical: helping students develop the skills necessary to understand and to use basic statistical tools in the empirical evaluation of theoretical propositions in social science. At the end of the course, students will have an appreciation for how research is conducted and will be able to provide simple quantitative evidence to answer questions of their interest.