This much-expanded and updated second edition of Democratic Latin America takes an institutional approach to Latin American politics to discuss contemporary politics and to highlight how past politics have shaped current institutional designs. It draws explicit connections between certain political features- such as fragmentation, efficiency, accountability, instability, consensus, or responsiveness- and the institutional design of a country. Students thus learn not only that a country is unstable or has high rates of participation or low levels of corruption, but they also learn why. And more importantly, they also learn how politics can be shaped by different institutional arrangements.
Features:
New topics of research have been added to ensure the recognition of the latest changes in the region, including: corruption scandals; the turn of the "pink tide"; protest and social movements; LGBT rights; citizen security and organized crime; new forms of legislative accountability; and the use of social media as a political resource in Latin America.
Democratic Latin America
continues to offer an original way of teaching and learning about Latin American politics.