Introduction to Latin America

• Introduction of Latin America overviews the region's history and common challenges.

Coherency in Latin America

• Shared experiences in colonialism, coercive labor practices, and ethnic hierarchies, specifically regarding mestizos.
• Unified religious and cultural values rooted in Catholicism.
• Common socio-economic challenges like poverty, inequality, and rapid urbanization, including gentrification.
• A history of struggling to consolidate democratic rule and experiencing regime changes, from authoritarianism and dictatorships to semi-democracies and democracies.
• Common development strategies include economic liberalism (1880s-1930s), state-led industrialization (1930s-1980s), neoliberalism (1980s-1990s), and a resurgence of statism ending around 2015.
• Shared political and economic strategies.

Theories of Underdevelopment

• Modernization theory, created by Europeans and the global north in the 20th century, suggests that economic growth, social change, and political development go together.
• Contact with the world is considered beneficial, and traditional culture is seen as a primary obstacle.
• Dependency theory posits that a dependent country's development is conditioned by another country's expansion.
• Dependency theory is directly opposed to modernization theory.
• Industrialized countries in the global north have industrialized by exploiting others.
• Terms of trade are often detrimental for Latin America due to the price of exports versus imports, leading to an eventual cutoff from the world economy.
• Foreign collaborators are viewed as obstacles.

Incoherency and Variation Within Latin America

• Differences in colonial experiences, socioeconomic challenges, relative success of late industrialization, political institutions, and quality of democracy.
• Racial and ethnic diversity includes white, black, mulatto, mestizo, and indigenous populations.
• Different ethnicities constitute the majority in different Latin American countries, with a stronger identification with the country rather than ethnicity.
• Presence of Indigenous and Afro-Latin American social movements.
• Political parties include the "Left Turn," encompassing radical and moderate left-wing factions, as well as right-wing parties.
• The current state of democracy varies across the region.

Challenges in Latin America: Poverty and Inequality

• Almost a third of Latin America lives in poverty.
• Attempts to reduce inequality are measured using the Gini Index, which illustrates the distribution of wealth.
• A Gini index of 0 indicates complete equality.
• Latin America has some of the highest Gini Indexes, where the top 10% controls 77% of the wealth.

Latin America as a Laboratory of Economic Systems

• Systems include import-export (1880-1930), Import Substitution Industrialization (1930-1960), deepening of ISI (1960-1970), neoliberalism (1970-2000), and the Left Turn (2000-2015).

Import Export Model

• Characterized by economic liberalism, laissez-faire policies, and comparative advantage.
• High demand for raw materials.
• Foreign investors centralize power.
• Central control of the state is typical.
• Political elites are connected to the export sector.
• Governance often turned into dictatorship or oligarchic democracy with limited democracy and restricted voting rights to a small minority.
• Based on European ideas of nationhood, involving mass migration and whitening.

Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) (1930-1960)

• Policies shifted after the 1929 crash, emphasizing domestic industrialization to replace imports of finished goods.
• High demand for industrialized products.
• A national popular vision of the nation, “el pueblo,” where racial and ethnic identities were downplayed.
• Emphasis on national sovereignty and factories.
• Efforts were made to reject European and U.S. powers.
• Emphasis on workers as a whole, focusing more on nationality rather than race, captured by the phrase "Las patas en la fuente."

Populism

• A cross-class coalition characterized by a direct, unmediated relationship between the masses and a charismatic leader who has a direct connection with the people.
• Economic populism focuses on policies that benefit “the masses”.
• Government measures promote industrialization through tariffs, quotas, cheap loans, tax breaks, and investments in state-owned companies.

Advancement and Economic Problems of ISI

• Exemplified by Mexican and Brazilian "miracles" in contrast to plantation societies.
• Industrial output increased six-fold from 1950-1980.
• Manufacturing production increased in the 1960s, accounting for 21% of the GDP.
• The percentage of the labor force in manufacturing increased to 28%.
• Economic problems include rapid urbanization straining infrastructure, lack of quality jobs, inefficient enterprises, dependence on imports and foreign capital, and deteriorating terms of trade.
• Multinational Corporations (MNCs) repatriate profits which do not stay in Latin America, high levels of government spending.
• Balance of Payment (BoP) Crisis is a record of a country’s economic transactions with the rest of the world, including trade, services, and capital flows.

Deepening of ISI (1960s-1980s)

• Characterized by Inflation BoP crisis.
• A shift from non-durable consumer goods to durable and intermediate goods.
• Aims at stimulating investment with a high cost of producing capital.
• There is a de-emphasis of concessions to the working class.
• Bureaucratic authoritarianism marked by military coups and suppression of elections and censorship.

Comparing Stages of ISI

• 1st stage: production of nondurable goods using generally low tech, referred to as the "easy phase," populist, and encouragement of togetherness.
• 2nd stage: production of durable goods using high tech, is more capital-based, excludes workers and the middle class, and involves industrialists in discussions with foreign industrialists.

Balance of Payment (BoP) Crisis and 1982 Debt Crisis

• Incentives to borrow during the deepening of ISI in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
• The end of ISI and the import boom leads to military regimes in Argentina and Chile.
• Incentives to lend due to the 1973 oil hike and in 1981 led private banks to lend vast amounts to LATAM countries (petro dollars), driving up interest rates.
• 1982 Debt Crisis resulting from continued borrowing, world recession, and higher interest rates created a "Lost Decade."
• Mexico was the first to default on its debt ($80 billion), followed by many others.

Neoliberalism

• Problems attempting to solve include high spending leading to deficits, and borrowing leading to debt crisis.
• Proponents of neoliberalism: Chicago boys (Chilean students who learned economics from Milton Friedman), International financial institutions (the World Bank, International Monetary Fund).
• Use of conditional loans (short percentages and use of reforms).
• Neoliberal prescriptions by the IMF/WB include cuts in government expenditures, liberalization and privatization, liberalization of labor markets, and privatization of state-owned enterprises.
• Consequences of neoliberal reforms include a reduction in government deficits, mixed GDP growth and economic performance.
• Poverty and inequality levels remained stagnant or worsened.
• Job creation shifted towards informality, where labor activities generate income without state regulation.
• More short-term contracts for workers and less job security.
• Large portions of LATAM countries operate in informal sectors, more than half in Mexico.
• Shock therapy and gradual reforms based on neoliberalism alter the outcome of inequality in different countries through implementation of drastic reforms.
• Political effect: People elected leaders that stood for anti-liberal reforms, excluding Colombia & Mexico.

Cuba and its Revolution

• Background to the Revolution spans from Spanish independence to U.S. occupation and the Platt Amendment (1901-1934).
• The Platt Amendment allowed the U.S. to oversee Cuban economic, political, and military affairs.
• The U.S. made Cuba a protectorate.
• Cuba followed an import-export model based on a one product economy(sugar).
• Crash in sugar price in 1920s-30s prompted a revolutionary path instead of ISI.
• Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship lasted from 1934-1959.
• Revolution succeeded in Cuba in 1959 due to mobilization from below, memory of Platt Amendment and Granma.

Cuban Revolution

• It was against Batista, a corrupt and ruthless dictator linked to U.S. interests, who lost external support.
• Initially defined as a nationalist revolution, it became authoritarian with control over media and universities.
• Egalitarian socioeconomic policies shifted toward socialism to address malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, and housing.
• A combination of authoritarianism and socialism led to a communist revolution in the economic and political systems.
• Increasing confrontation with the U.S. during the Cold War.
• Agrarian reform and nationalization.
• U.S. moved into total opposition to Castro, leading to CIA assassination plots and destabilization efforts.
• The April 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion failed.
• Cuba sought military protection from the USSR, resulting in the Missile Crisis (1962), leading to the U.S. agreeing to leave Cuba alone.
• Castro declared the revolution Marxist/communist.

Achievements and Politics of Cuban Revolution

• Free and good quality education and affordable and accessible quality health.
• Incorporation of women and black Cubans, but racism and sexism persisted.
• Collapse of the USSR in 1991 led to an economic crisis in Cuba.
• Continuation of the U.S. embargo via the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.
• Increasing tourism and dollarization occurred.
• Overall, wasn't a revolutionary failure, but not a revolutionary success, because Cubans are growing tired of the lack of free speech.
• Cuban citizens protested in 2021 and were imprisoned for protesting.

Political Regimes in LATAM

• Democracy: fair and equal voting, equality, individual and political freedom.
• Authoritarianism: Not democracy or totalitarianism but some elections at lower levels of government.
• Totalitarianism: Concentrates all power within itself and has high mobilization, is highly ideological, and involves complete elimination of opposition.

Authoritarianism Varieties

• Traditional authoritarianism with neopatrimonial characteristics and family ties within the government.
• Single-party rule in Mexico (1929-2000) lasted for seven decades and was based on party institutions rather than individual leaders.
• Bureaucratic authoritarianism primarily vesting power in the military.

Bureacratic Authoritarian Regimes (BARs)

• Military takeovers in the 1960s-70s due to internal factors like oligarchic interests threatened by ISI deepening and labor corporations, and domestic industrialists critical of corrupt politicians supporting stronger government.
• External factors included Cold War politics with U.S. fear of Soviet/Cuban inroads, and foreign businesses fearing expropriation seeking macroeconomic stability.
• Military regimes involved all military branches agreeing to intervene, overthrowing democratically elected leaders, typically during the 2nd stage of ISI.
• Exclusion and repression of labor and the left using technocratic coalitions and foreign capital participation.

Transitions to Democracy

• Nearly every Latin American country has transitioned to democracy (re)introducing elections/extending suffrage.
• Possible causes for these transitions: economic crisis of 1982, protests by labor unions, mobilization of new social movements, and demonstration effects (third wave of democracy).
• Divisions between hardliners and softliners within the military.

Democracy

• A system of governance accountable for actions by citizens in the public domain using competition, cooperation, and elected representatives.
• Procedural definition of democracy involves regular fair elections where all adults can vote.
• Citizens can organize parties, run for office, and are free to express themselves without reprisal.
• Measures of democracy can be viewed as dichotomous or on a continuous spectrum.

Argentina Political System: Import-Export Model and Oligarchy (1880s-1920s)

• "Whitening" project: immigration 1880-1946 composed of European immigrants.
• Based on beef, wheat, and British capital (railroads).
• High vulnerability to external shocks and foreign capital.
• Characterized by high inequality: wealth for landowners around Buenos Aires, stagnation of interior.
• Urbanization and growth of the middle class, and militant urban labor movement occurred.
• First democracy: 1916 free elections with universal male suffrage.
• Radicals (UCR) represented middle-class interests, but the economic model remained intact.
• Conservative coup and oligarchic democracy during the "Infamous Decade" of 1930-43.

Peronism/Populism

• Created in the 1940s, focused on workers, and was ideologically eclectic.
• Nationalistic in their push for an organized working day, similar to ISI.
• A powerful and charismatic leader supported by strong party identification.
• Mass expansion of organized labor improved wages and rights, although not necessarily democratic.
• Resulted in divided military, political stalemate, economic volatility, polarization, stereotyping, and problems associated with ISI.

Deepening of ISI and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism (1966-73 and 76-83

• BAR seeks to exclude popular sectors.
• Involved problems with ISI and the rise of military and civilian technocrats.
• Cycle of violence in the 1970s with urban guerillas and right-wing paramilitaries.
• The Dirty War involved disappearances and the Falklands War fought against the UK.

Transitions to Democracy and Neoliberalism

• Alfonsín of Radicales won in 1983 .
• Trials of military officers produced "Nunca Mas: The report of the Argentine National Commission of the Disappeared".
• Laws of full stop and due obedience were enacted.
• Demonstrations were organized by the "La abuelas de la plaza de mayo".

Neoliberalism and Democracy

• Context of hyperinflation and economic stagnation with no reversal to authoritarianism.
• In 1989 Peronist party elections, winning, neoliberal reforms: stabilization programs and structural adjustment Programs.
• Implemented a "bake-and-switch" approach during the campaign.
• Consequences of neoliberal reforms include increased inequality, with Gini coefficient rising and more than 1½ of Argentinians working in the informal sector by 2005.
• Inflation decreased with a peak in 2000.
• Washington signals to not provide a rescue package → capital flight into dollars.
• 2003 elections won by Kirchner: Peronist but w. anti-menem/ anti-liberal position.
• From 2003-2015, voters have elected & reelected the left segment of the Peronist party.

Left Turn and Economic Recovery in Argentina

• Redistributive social policies in response to the crisis implemented health policies and cash policies
• Annulment of Full Stop and Due Obedience Laws.
• Argentina saved themselves from the “que vaya se todos crisis” by exporting soybeans due to growing demand from China.
• Inflation has been high since 2023 with current levels up to 250% at it's peak.
• Javier Milei promised and is implementing spending cuts, and opposes humanitarian and abortion rights.

Complexities of Mexico

• Had a major social revolution in the early 20th c.
• Poverty and inequality levels are like countries that never had a revolution.
• Mexico's political stability since the 1930s is greater than the rest of LATAM, but democracy has only arrived since 2000.
• The PRI was key to these characteristics.
• Post-independence Mexico (1810-1876) was characterized by crisis, war with the U.S., and the selling of land by the Catholic church.
• The Pofirio Diaz Era (1876-1911) sought a strong central state dictatorship.
• Involved a national army, export model, and whitening of population due to demand want by Madero.

Mexican Revolution (1910)

• Sought middle & upper class: political reform.
• Sought workers: labor conditions and labor rights.
• Civil War (1911-1920)
• PRI Regime (1929-2000)

Institutional Revolutionary Party

• Inclusion of workers and peasants in tent party
• Corporatism: peasants, workers, military middle class, CTM, and Fidel Velazques.
• Electoral rules required signatures making it hard for smaller parties to get representation.
• Presidents determines who runs as president after his term

Brazil (1889-1930)

• Based on export-import growth linked to coffee and cattle.
• Oligarchic power-sharing with the alternation of presidents.

ISI (1930-1964)

• Vargas was President and there was mobilization to centralize power.
• 1937 Estado Nuvo/ New (Corporatist) State; State structuring of groups that produce officially sanctioned, non-competitive, compulsory interest associations.
• "el pueblo”, racial mixture

Deepening of ISI (1964-85)

• Characterized by military rule that excluded the working class.
• Shift from non-democratic control to taking governmental power as an institutional military government.
• Change from military maneuvering behind the scenes (1945-64).
• Deepen ISI via military dictatorship

Slow Transition to Democracy

• Pacted transition: amnesty
• Diretas Ja (direct elections now) and 1985 civilian president.
• The 2nd elected president after the transition was impeached demonstrating importance for democracy.
• Mandatory voting and citizens participating in strong democracy had consequences if they didn't vote.
• Direct democracy at the local level through participatory budgeting .
• This was created by Brazil.

Left Turn 2003-2016

• Led by the president Lula a union leader.
• Was from the PT Workers party.

Contemporary Challenges for Brazilian Democracy

• High constraints in policy making while still sustaining economic growth with soybeans.
• The country implements Bolsa Familia and has issues surrounding wealth distribution, poverty, and racism.
• There has been an increase in students admitted to federal universities based on the percentage of black, indigenous etc. groups in each state. These policies were declared constitutional by Brazil’s supreme court." Implementing affirmative action in Brazil.

Chile: From Oligarchy and Instability to Neoliberalism and Democracy

• Stable history of restricted democracy broke down when the government implemented economic redistribution.
• Chile became a model case for new democracies and neoliberal economic, but shifted in 2019.
• It was characterized by export-import growth based on nitrate and copper from 1895-1932 and oligarchical parlimentary democracy.
• Export-import growth was based on nitrate and copper.
• The Alessandri rule had support from middle class and also support from the military

Transition to Socialism to Bureaucratic Authoritarianism

• There was alternating access to power across: Right, Center, and Left.
• In 1970-73 Allende won with support democratically so he goal to democratic transition to a socialist economy.
• Responses to Allendes reforms were from the U.S. and media leading to sabotage.
• Pinochet eventually led a CIA operation and coup after.
• There was increased opposition and congress centered right at the time; leading to 1973-89 Bureaucratic Authoritarian Regime.

Transition to Democracy

• Pinochet defeated in 1988 leading to 1989 elections and democracy
• The regime led to several Legacies of 1980 constitution and of negotiated transition in Chile.

Economic Systems and Social Policy in Latin America

• Highly unequal countries, with most working in informal sectors.
• Whats known about LATAM's socio-economic structure so dar?
• There was a boom in the commodity market leading to resources and democracy. The Current State of Democracy. High levels citizens have the freedom of information as well as election devoid of fraud. Many still face challenges such as high level office holders could be pressured or violence against candidates.

The Left Turn

• There was a period in which left of center parties won across LATAM (2000-2016).
• The left is characterized by redistribution via state action. Long term causes include the end of war with high inequalities. They increased commodity revenues and social policies.
• Many conditional cash transfers and were often met with commodity exports with environment impact.

The Politics and Well Being of Brazil

• Had one of the largest economies and is the most unequal countries
• Universal healthcare and social particpation.

Universal healthcare (sistema unico de saude (SUS)

• Has provided several healthcare and education and healthcare as assitance leading to redemocratization.
• Auxilio emergencial during the pandemic and supports new types of decision-making.