Political Scienc 244

Spring 2000

 

 South American Politics

 

                                                           

Barbara Geddes                                                                        310-825-4441

Office hours: Tu 2-4                                                                               310-459-6413

3339 Bunche                                                                                         geddes@ucla.edu

 

 

            I see this course as the theoretical core for anyone with a serious interest in Latin American politics.  In it, we will focus on democratic political institutions and their consequences for governability, stability, and responsiveness to citizens.  We will scrutinize a number of the arguments that have been prominent in the literature:  that parliamentarism is more stable than presidentialism; that stable party systems increase the likelihood of stable democracy; that electoral rules determine the kind of party system that develops; and that federalism contributes to effective economic performance.  We will be interested both in making the logic underlying these arguments clear and also in assessing the evidence that supports them.

 

            The course will allow ample opportunities for comparing, analyzing, and criticizing what has become the dominant theoretical perspective in Latin American Politics.  In the process of doing this, students should be able to begin synthesizing their own intellectual approaches and identifying areas for future research.  To encourage comparing, analyzing, criticizing, and synthesizing, grades in the class will be based on three short analytic papers.  Students wishing to begin research papers during this class are encouraged to do so and may complete them by taking a 596 the following quarter.

 

            This class is a discussion seminar.  The reading must be done before the seminar meets so that discussion can be lively and informed.

 

Required books:  Scott Mainwaring and Timothy Scully, eds.  1995.  Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America.  Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Barbara Geddes.  1994.  Politician’s Dilemma: Building State Capacity in Latin America.  Berkeley: UC Press

Scott Mainwaring and Matthew Shugart, eds.  1994.  Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America.

Mark Jones.  1995.  Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracies.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press

A Xeroxed Reader, availablle at Westwood Copies, on Gayley near Weyburn  (Students who took the Latin Americanist Political Institutions Workshop last year may already have copies of a number of the articles included in the reader.  If you do, I will lend you the articles you don’t already have and you can xerox them instead of buying the whole reader.  Email me for a copy of the reader’s table of contents.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schedule of Reading Assignments

 

Week 1, April 4:  The Current Situation in South America: An Overview

 

Week 2, April 11:  Democratization: Institutional Continuity and the Creation of New Political Institutions

Reading:  Przeworski and Limongi, “Modernization: Theories and Facts”; Geddes, “What Do We Know about Democratization after Twenty Years?”; and Geddes, “A Comparative Perspective on the Leninist Legacy in Eastern Europe”, all in xeroxed reader; Mainwaring and Scully, Building Democratic Institutions, pp. 1-36

 

Week 3, April 18:  Party Systems

Reading:  Mainwaring and Scully, Building Democratic Institutions, rest of book; Roberts and Wibbels, “Party Systems and Electoral Volatility in Latin America”; Coppedge, “Latin American Parties: Political Darwinism in the Lost Decade,” both in xeroxed reader

 

Week 4, April 25:  Fundamentals of the Institutionalist Approach

Reading:  Geddes, Politician’s Dilemma, pp. 1-130 and 182-96; Cox and McCubbins, “The Institutional Determinants of Policy”; Jones, “A Guide to Electoral Systems of the Americas” and “A Guide to Electoral Systems of the Americas: An Update”; Carey, “Institutional Design and Party Systems,” all in xeroxed reader

 

Week 5, May 2:  Presidentialism

Reading:  Mainwaring and Shugart, Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America; Londregan, “Ideology and Valence,” in xeroxed reader

 

Week 6, May 9:  The Interaction between Presidentialism and Electoral Rules

Reading:  Jones, Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracy; Morgenstern and Domingo, “Gridlock and Breakdown,” in xeroxed reader

 

Week 7, May 16:  The Effects of Electoral Rules:  Basic Ideas

Reading:  Cox, Making Votes Count, chap. 3; Cox, “Centripetal and Centrifugal Incentives in Electoral Systems”; Carey and Shugart, “Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote”; Morgenstern et al., “The Electoral Disconnection?” all in xeroxed reader

 

Week 8, May 23:  The Effects of the Many Variations of Electoral Rules in Latin America

Reading:  Taylor, “Formal versus Informal Incentive Structures and Legislator Behavior: Evidence from Costa Rica”; Ames, “Institutions and Politics in Brazil, chap. 2; Magar et al., “On the Absence of Centripetal Incentives in Double-Member Districts: The Case of Chile”; Morgenstern, “Organized Factions and Disorganized Parties: Electoral Incentives in Uruguay”; Cox and Shugart, “In the Absence of Vote Pooling: Nomination and Vote Allocation Errors in Colombia,” all in xeroxed reader

 

Week 9, May 30:  The Effects of Federalism

Reading:  Samuels, Careerism and Its Consequences: Federalism, Elections, and Policy-Making in Brazil, chaps 1,2, and 5, in xeroxed reader

 

Week 10, June 6:  Recent Changes in Political Institutions

Readings to be assigned