Political Science 4605 Latin American Politics through Film Spring 2011

Dr. Schwindt-Bayer Teaching Assistant: Nathan Madden Office: 202 Professional Building Office: 22 Professional Building Office Phone: 882-7268 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Office Hours: M 1-4; Th 12:30-3:30 Office Hours: Tu/Th 11-12

Course Website: https://blackboard.missouri.edu/ ERes Course Link: http://eres.missouri.edu (password=pol4605)

Course Description The political history of is diverse and complex. From the Spanish and Portuguese colonial regimes to the democracies of today, the region has witnessed an array of political types and associated problems. It has had to deal with repression from within and abroad, revolutionary struggles, an entangled church and state, extreme poverty, and violence to unprecedented degrees. The challenge for us is to understand why Latin America has developed as it did and how current democratic governments deal with the legacies of the past.

This course will provide an introduction to Latin American politics by surveying some of the major political issues the region has faced during the past four hundred years. We will do this in a rather untraditional fashion – through film. We begin by exploring (albeit superficially) the political history of Latin America up until 1960. Specifically, we will look at the European conquest, examining the complicated relationship between the Catholic Church, the imperial powers, and indigenous groups, and then progress to the revolutionary struggles of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in the 1950’s. In Part II, we analyze the repressive authoritarian governments of the 1970’s and 1980’s in South and Central America, evaluating the ’ role in putting those regimes in power, its counter-insurgency efforts during prominent civil wars, and the more general consequences of these regimes for social, economic, and political (in)stability in the region. We conclude with an examination of today’s democracies and the myriad of challenges that they face – poverty, crime, drugs, economic instability, populist leaders, and the ever-present threat of a return to the authoritarian past.

Each week we will view a film and analyze the political issues that emerge from it. You will be responsible for reading the necessary background materials prior to class and contributing your analysis of the film and readings to discussion. You will also be required to submit a weekly analysis paper on the film, readings, and our class discussion. This course stresses critical thinking, analytical, and writing skills, and I expect you to apply these in all aspects of the course. By the end of the semester, you should have a solid understanding of the politics of Latin America from which you can study the region in more depth. The course also will help you understand the challenges facing new democracies and developing countries around the world.

Course Requirements The grading scale for this course will be the following: A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (0-59). The grade you earn in this course will come from several course requirements.

1 Class Attendance and Participation. This course requires a significant amount of reading, critical thinking, and discussion. Students are expected to attend all class sessions, finish the readings prior to each class, and participate actively in class discussions. In general, class sessions will consist of a brief introduction to the film, a presentation of the film, and a discussion of the political issues addressed in the film and readings. Because of the importance of your preparedness and quality contributions to discussion, attendance and participation will comprise 20% of your final grade. Participation cannot be made-up if you miss class for any reason. This course only meets once a week making your attendance at each class session imperative.

Weekly Response Paper. Each week after class, I will post several questions about the week’s topic on the “Assignments” page of the course website (Blackboard). The goal of these questions is to help you make connections between the readings and the films and to highlight key aspects of Latin American politics. You will need to write a response paper that answers three of the four questions (1 page for each question) each week and upload your response paper to Blackboard by midnight on the Thursday following class. You are required to submit a response paper every week, but I will only grade six of them and will drop the lowest grade. Each graded response paper will be worth 7% of your final grade for a total of 35%. The grades will be posted on Blackboard so they will not include written comments, but I encourage you to talk to me or the teaching assistant during office hours if you would like more detailed comments on your grade or suggestions for improving your analyses.

Exams. There are three exams in this course. Each exam will require you to respond to a broad question(s) in a typed, grammatically-correct essay that must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day of the exam. The questions will require you to synthesize the material covered in the readings, films, and class discussions and write a thoughtful essay that draws across several weeks’ topics. I will distribute the exam questions at the end of class one week prior to the exam (and post them on Blackboard). Each exam will be worth 15% of your final grade. No late exams will be accepted without a university-accepted excuse and prior approval from the professor (NOT the teaching assistant).

With all work that you turn in this semester, please proofread it prior to submission. Grammatical and spelling errors will significantly lower your grades, and if it becomes a regular problem, we reserve the right to refuse to grade your paper and give you a “0.”

Summary of course requirements:

Class Attendance and Participation 20% Response Papers (5 weeks @ 7%) 35% Exam 1 15% Exam 2 15% Exam 3 15% Total 100%

Course Readings The following text is required for this course and is available at the university bookstore:

Vanden, Harry E. and Gary Prevost. 2008. Politics of Latin America: The Power Game, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. (Referred to in the course outline as “Vanden and Prevost”)

Additional course readings are available through the “Course Readings” page of the Blackboard course website and the library ERes system: http://eres.missouri.edu. Readings noted below with a single asterisk (*) are on Blackboard while those noted with two asterisks (**) are on ERes.

2 Additional Issues  Cell phones and pagers must be turned off prior to entering class. No texting during class.

 You are expected to attend all class sessions, arrive on time, and stay until the class is over. If you must miss class or arrive late/leave early, please notify me in advance.

 You must use your University email account for this class ([email protected]). This is the address I will use when sending out important emails related to the course, and it is the email address registered with Blackboard. If you choose to use an alternative email address, be sure that you have set your “mizzou” account to forward automatically to your personal account.

 Sleeping, reading newspapers, working on material for other courses, and doing other activities unrelated to this course will NOT be tolerated. I will ask you to leave the class if you cannot abide by this request.

 Please do not bring laptops to class. You will not need them to view and discuss the films.

 Please note that the material covered in the films we will view this semester is powerful and provocative. While I strongly encourage you to express your critical opinions of the films and topics, you must do so respectfully. I will not tolerate disrespectful behavior of any kind toward me or any student in the class.

 Some of the films shown in this course contain foul language, violence, and nudity. If you cannot handle these topics in an adult manner, then you should not take this course.

Academic Integrity Academic integrity is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. In this course, you are expected to submit original work and behave in a respectful manner toward both the professor and other students in the class. Breaches of the academic integrity rules are extremely serious matters. Sanctions for such a breach range from instructor- imposed academic sanctions, such as a failing grade for the course, to University-imposed disciplinary sanctions, such as probation or expulsion. If you have questions, please consult the University's academic integrity website, http://academicintegrity.missouri.edu/, and the University M-book, www.missouri.edu/~mbook.

ADA Statement If you have special needs as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and need assistance, please notify the Office of Disability Services, A038 Brady Commons, 882-4696 or course instructor immediately. Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate your special needs.

3 Course Outline

Week 1 – Introduction to Latin American Politics through Film (1/18) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Introduction,” 1-17.

Part I: Political History of Latin America up to 1960

Week 2 – No Class (1/25)

Week 3 - The Clash of the Iberian Peninsula and Indigenous Americans (2/1) Film: The Mission (1986) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Early History,” 18-40. Vanden and Prevost, “Religion in Latin America,” 130-148. Vanden and Prevost, “The Other Americans,” 80-92 (first half only).

Week 4 – The Roots of Revolution in Latin America (2/8) Film: Che (2008) Readings: ** Skidmore, Thomas E. and Peter H. Smith. 2005. “Latin America, the United States, and the World” in Modern Latin America, 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 396-439. ** Guillermoprieto, Alma. 2001. “The Harsh Angel” in Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America. New York: Pantheon Books, 73-86. * Guevara, Che. 1963. “Guerrilla Warfare: A Method” reprinted in Che Guevara Speaks, New York: Pathfinder Press, 2000, 89-108 or http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1963/09/guerrilla- warfare.htm.

Week 5 – The Cuban Revolution (2/15) Film: Fidel Castro (2005) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Cuba,” 339-367. * Uriarte, Miren. 2002. “Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads” Oxfam America Report. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/O A-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf, 6-31 (NOTE: part of the report only). * Rojas, Rafael. 2004. “Fidel Castro’s Feat” (3 pages) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/sfeature/sf_views_rojas.html (or .pdf file) * Falcoff, Mark. 2004. “Cuba’s Future – or Futures” (3 pages) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/sfeature/sf_views_falcoff.html (or .pdf file) * Weissert, Will. 2007. “Raul Castro Can’t Match Fidel’s Charisma, but Life in Cuba Little Changes” Associated Press Worldstream. (4 pages)

Week 6 – Exam and Discussion (2/22) Exam 1 due at the beginning of class. No new readings. Discussion on the films, readings, and papers in Part I.

4 Part II: Authoritarianism in Latin America Week 7 – The Dirty War in Argentina (3/1) Film: The Official Story (1985) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Argentina,” 395-429. ** Brysk, Alison. 1994. The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 23-62 (Chapters 2-3). * Economist. 2006. “The Slow Battle for Justice,” September 14, 2006.

Week 8 – The United States and the Chilean Coup D’Etat (3/8) Film: Missing (1982) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Chile,” 431-461. ** Oppenheim, Lois Hecht. 1999. Politics in Chile: Democracy, Authoritarianism, and the Search for Development. Boulder: Westview Press, 53-138 (Chapters 3-5). * Economist. 2006. “Pinochet Obituary.” December 13, 2006.

Week 9 – Civil War in Central America: The Case of (3/15) Film: Men with Guns (1998) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Guatemala,” 269-299. ** Sanford, Victoria. 2004. Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 76-120 (Chapters 3-4).

Week 10 – Exam and Discussion (3/22) Exam 2 due at the beginning of class. No new readings. Discussion on the films, readings, and papers in Part II.

Week 11 – Spring Break (3/29) No Class

Part III: The Challenges of Democracy in Latin America

Week 12 – Drugs and Democracy in (4/5) Film: Maria, Full of Grace (2004) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Colombia,” 495-523. ** Crandall, Russell. 2002. “The Roots of Violence in Colombia,” in Driven by Drugs. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 53-99. ** Thoumi, Francisco E. 2004. “Illegal Drugs in Colombia,” in The Political Economy of the Drug Industry, ed. Menno Vellinga. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 70-84.

Week 13 – Electoral Politics: Bolivia (4/12) Film: Our Brand is Crisis (2005) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Bolivia,” 557-588. ** Singer, Matthew M. and Kevin M. Morrison. 2004. “The 2002 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Bolivia.” Electoral Studies, 23: 172-182. ** Lehoucq, Fabrice. 2008. “Bolivia’s Constitutional Breakdown.” Journal of Democracy, 19(4): 110-124.

5 Week 14 – Poverty, Crime, and Democracy in Brazil (4/19) Film: City of God (2002) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Brazil,” 380-393. * Power, Timothy J. and J. Timmons Roberts. 2000. “A New Brazil? The Changing Sociodemographic Context of Brazilian Democracy” in Readings in Latin American Politics: Challenges to Democratization, ed. Peter R. Kingstone. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 297-322. * Arias, Enrique Desmond. 2004. “Faith in our Neighbors: Networks and Social Order in Three Brazilian Favelas” Latin American Politics and Society, 46(1): 1-39.

Week 15 – The Rise of the Left: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela (4/26) Film: The Revolution will Not be Televised (2003) Readings: Vanden and Prevost, “Venezuela,” 463-493. ** Gott, Richard. 2005. Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. New York: Verso, 63-70 (ch 10), 134-139 (ch 19), 143-149 (ch 20), 217-274 (part 6). * Economist. 2007. “With Marx, Lenin, and Jesus Christ,” January 11, 2007. (2 pages)

Week 16 – Exam and Discussion (5/3) Exam 3 due at the beginning of class. Discussion on the films, readings, and papers in Part III.

6