Material Detail

This is a free online course offered by the Saylor Foundation.

'“(Latin) America is ungovernable; all who have served the revolution have plowed the sea!”  Simon Bolivar, liberator of much of South America, spoke these famous words on his deathbed in 1830 while reflecting on what he deemed the failure of democracy to take root in Latin America in the early part of the 19^thcentury.  Looking through the historical struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last century and a half, these words continue to hold some truth.  The story of Latin America is one of inequality, complexity, failures, and unrealized possibilities.  Latin America and the Caribbean have entered into the 21^st century with a legacy of persistent poverty, authoritarianism, corruption, and inequality.

This course will introduce you to the politics of Latin America and the Caribbean and examine the causes and effects of the region’s development.  In many ways, Latin American/Caribbean politics defies any sort of coherent logic attempting to bring it together, a fact that is much reflected in the field of Latin American studies.  Instead of approaching the field in pursuit of one central theme, you must come at the topic from multiple directions and different perspectives.'

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