Latin American Politics Paper
Discussion Paper Instructions
Students are expected to write a one-page double-spaced discussion paper (approx. 250 words, excluding bibliography) based on the assigned readings. Responses to “Discuss” prompts listed with each week’s meeting in the syllabus (below). Your papers should be ~1 page in length or about 250 words, double spaced. Your task is to critically engage with the assigned week’s material by providing a critical overview of the assigned readings NOT only summary, but also paying attention to what the larger issues are and what the literature has said about it. Papers should respond to the question and draw from course materials to support your positions, assertions, and analyses.
This short essay should be a critical overview of the topic covered in that module and critically engage with the required readings. In doing so, students must highlight the larger issues/debates surrounding the topic, draw linkages among the readings, and between the readings and the topic, and highlight how the topic fits within the larger issues covered in the course. Note that these papers should not be summaries of the week’s assigned readings; rather, they should develop theoretical, empirical, or methodological critiques of one or more articles and/or highlight new directions for future research on the week’s topic. Please see the grading rubric below for guidance on how response papers will be assessed.
Learning objectives: Art of succinct writing/summarizing large and complex ideas in a coherent manner.
Please note, it is nearly impossible to write any paper, no matter how short, without a significant amount of prewriting and revision. There will be many potential arguments to each prompt. Your task is to find the best argument you can make and to make care that your prose is the servant of your ideas – not vice versa. Discussion papers will be due via Quercus before the start of the classes to which they correspond.
For all written work in this course, please use the Chicago Manual of Style’s in-text author-date format as you cite your sources. You should also include a Works Cited list at the end of your work. The Works Cited section will not count in length/word count restrictions.
Neoliberalism and After
Read:
Daniel Hellinger (2015) Chapter 6: Development and Dependency: Theory and Practice in Latin America, in Comparative Politics of Latin America.
(Pages 174-189 only)
Sarah Radcliffe (2012) “Development for a Postneoliberal Era?: Sumak Kawsay, Living Well, and the Limits to Decolonization in Ecuador” Geoforum 43(2): 240-249.
Alexander Main and Gustavo Codas (2016) “The End of a Progressive Cycle?” NACLA Report on the Americas 48 (4): 381-384.
Recommended:
Daniel Hellinger (2015) Chapter 15: Democracy in Times of Globalization, in Comparative Politics of Latin America
Petra Costa (2019) The Edge of Democracy (Netflix original film, available on www.netflix.com)
Discuss:
What were the main impacts of market reforms and structural adjustment in Latin America?
How did the Pink Tide respond to neoliberalization?
What does Sumak Kawsay offers as an alternative to development? What did Sumac Kawsay look like in practice in Ecuador?
Has the Pink Tide ebbed? Why?
