Things you should know for the Midterm
- …how Latin American resource endowments have shaped their economic trajectories, and the implications of those resources for economic growth and instability in the region
- …the broad effect that colonialism has had on development of Latin American institutions, how the colonial experience helps us understand uneven development today, and how these factors differs from the North American experience
- …the differences between the US and Latin America when it comes to conceptualizations of race, and what color elasticity is and its impact on identifiation
- …the ways that ethnic minorities have pursued increased recognition in Latin America, how state responses have changed over time, and the potential dilemmas associated with redressing historical grievances (e.g., the controversy over race quotas in Brazil)
- …the link between inequality and conflict, especially concerning land, and why highly unequal landownership might undermine development
- …the “Revolution from Above” in Peru, what is unusual about it, and what it teaches us about why elites may allow democratic transitions
- …the dynamics driving land invasions in the region and the consequences of land invasions for development
- …the three factors associated with rising crime in Central America from the Yashar reading, with specific examples for each
- …how and why gangs (as opposed to the state) provide governance to illicit economies in Latin America
- …how being a victim of crime impacts peoples’ political behavior, beliefs, and the implications for how governments treat crime
- … where (which countries) and why (the reasons) Latin America experience drops in poverty in the 21st century
- … the different “kinds” of poverty categories, and how they differ
- …what factors conspire to pull people into poverty and related impediments to upward mobility
- …what state capacity is, its different manifestations, its relationship to taxation and public spending, and why it’s so low in Latin America
- …the different approaches to improving taxation and state capacity in Latin America, how they work, what problem they are trying to solve, and their successes and pitfalls: VATs, decentralization, participatiory budgeting, noncontributory social programs
- …why taxation and spending in Latin America tends to be regressive
- …the problem of informality for economic growth, taxes and social insurance, and how states in the region have tried to provide for informal workers
- …the push and pull factors in the formation of slums in Latin America, and how slumdwellers make decisions about where to seek housing
- …the implications of living in a slum for people’s economic, social, and health outcomes, and the dynamics surrounding “renting” a house or home in a slum
- …why states vary so much in their approach to slums, and how state approaches to managing slums have changed over time
Things you should know for the Final
- …what vote-selling and clientelism look like in Latin America
- …public attitudes surrounding vote-selling, and the logic of list experiments for measuring clientelistic behavior
- …how politicians rely on brokers to buy votes, and the principal-agent problems inherent to those arrangements
- …the credible commitment problem inherent to vote-buying, how brokers overcome these problems, and how voting technologies make vote-buying easier (or more difficult)
- …the underlying considerations in targeting either swing or core voters for vote-buying
- …the broad outlines of the Odebrecht Scandal and its impact on politics in the region
- …why corruption can be a murky concept difficult to disentangle from other accepted practices
- …how Latin Americans view corruption within their countries, what corruption looks like at different levels of government, and the consequences of citizens believing that corruption is widespread for the prospect of electoral accountability
- …the role of discretion and accountability in corruption, and what corruption looks like with respect to public spending
- …how Brazil’s audit lotteries worked, their successes and limitations
- …how elections are supposed to reduce corruption, and why they often don’t
- …what the Pink Tide was, who it constituted, and their political platforms/policies
- …the link between the rise of Pink Tide candidates and the breakdown of political parties, the logic of brand dilution, and why parties would dilute their brands in the first place
- …the connection between the debt crisis of the 1980s, austerity, and the rise of the Pink Tide
- …who supported Chavismo, and how Chavez’s electoral coalitions changed over time
- …the economic, political, and social legacies of the Pink Tide
- …what democratic erosion is, how it differs from the democratic breakdowns of the 1970s, why it’s such a murky/slippery concept, and how the incidence of erosion is changing over time
- …which political maneuvers are typically associated with democratic erosion, and how erosion can often happen through entirely legal channels
- …how the debate between direct and representative democracy maps onto democratic erosion
- …the trade-off highlighted by Anria in Morales’ rule with respect to democracy
- …why even voters who support democracy can support candidates who actively undermine democratic institutions
- …how political oppositions can fail to prevent or even exacerbate erosion, and why oppositions often fail to provide a credible alternative
- …why the Pink Tide seems to have declined, which administrations comprise the “blue wave”, and the factors associated with the decline of the PT in Brazil
- …the controversy surrounding Dilma’s impeachment and the broader use of politically motivated impeachments in Latin America
- …the controversy surrounding the ousting of Evo Morales from Bolivia
- …the decision-making process underlying migration to the US from Latin America
- …how negative credentials and foreign-earned capital affect the reintegration prospects for Guatemalan deportees