Delaware Review of Latin American Studies
Issues

Vol. 12 No. 2  December 30, 2011

Latin American Politics and Development. (7th edition). Howard J.Wiarda and Harvey F. Kline eds. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 2011 (1979). 6 tables, 22 political maps, index. xiii + 642pp.

Megan Ybarra*
Willamette University, Oregon

In the seventh edition of Latin American Politics and Development, Wiarda and Kline take on the task of overhauling their definitive reader. While the heavy book and dense text seems foreboding, the book is appropriate for undergraduates in political science because it walks the line between making meaningful generalizations and highlighting a diversity of experiences. The introductory and concluding chapters of the book, by Wiarda and Kline, focus on transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, while highlighting social contradictions. A clear strength of Wiarda and Kline’s chapter on “The Context of Latin American Politics” is that it manages to span from colonialism to current events, with the trade-off that key trends in neoliberalization since the 1970s receive relatively little attention. Likewise, the authors describe recent advances in “human rights” without offering the basis for these developments in truth commissions and reconciliations.

The reader is at least implicitly geared towards a US audience. It may be helpful for an undergraduate audience to think of Simón Bolívar as the “George Washington of Latin America” (p. 22, Wiarda and Kline) as long as the proper caveats are discussed. In terms of “modernization” and “democratization,” North America is explicitly the standard against which Latin American nations are measured. Again, this may be an appropriate starting point for analysis, so long as students understand that this is not the only way to understand politics and development in Latin America.

Perhaps the greatest difficulty that an undergraduate audience may face is that the introductory chapters use terms without offering a definition or citation. In particular, the introductory chapter explains that Latin America has modernized, democratized, and globalized, but does not offer a definition of globalization or distinguish between modernization as a political ideology and indices the authors use as a measure of modernization (e.g., GDP growth rate). While the authors have deftly explained political theories spanning the twentieth century, their own analysis explicitly posits a modernizing and democratizing framework, going so far as to identify moments of “takeoff.” Perhaps more troubling, the authors’ uncritical use of globalization implies that it is a one-way force that Latin America must bow to, as other authors occasionally do with imperialism and neoliberalism.

Notwithstanding the preceding, the reader has notable strengths.  The first key strength of the book is that the editors, Wiarda and Kline, asked contributing authors to address broad areas of change, including changes in political culture and values, economics, social and class structure, political groups and organizations, public policy, and international institutions. Thus, while the book does not provide in-depth coverage, it excels in offering a comprehensive overview of politics.

In terms of trends in democratization, the continued treatment of social movements, including women’s organizations, as new interest groups points to the authors’ lack of interest relative to a growing body of work on informal politics through social movements and in urban areas. The latter is particularly important, given that the majority of Latin America’s population lives in urban areas. Likewise, instead of asking whether Latin America is turning left, Wiarda and Kline classify governments like Evo Morales’ as “delegative democracies” (pp. 93-94).  As such, these sections would be better read in conversation with contrasting arguments.

A second key strength of the book is that it has individual chapters on 20 countries, including Brazil and Haiti. While the organization of these countries into “South America” and “Central and Middle America and the Caribbean” is a bit awkward, each chapter seems intended as a stand-alone overview. These chapters would be a great starting point for students working on research papers, or used as necessary background for course materials (movies, case studies, etc.).

With 25 chapters and almost as many authors, it is impossible to comment on individual chapters.  However, it may be noted that contributors--established and new scholars alike--are well-versed in the political systems of South America. These scholars contribute essays on contemporary Argentina (Linda Chen); Brazil (I. Siqueira Wiarda); Chile (Paul E. Sigmund); Colombia’s vibrant civil society amidst violence (Vanessa Joan Gray), Peru’s balancing act between authoritarianism and democracy (David Scott Palmer); “electoral caudillismo” in Venezuela (David J. Myers); Uruguay’s success story (R.H. McDonald and Martin Weinstein); democratic consolidation in Paraguay (Paul C. Sondrol); “multiethnic and plebiscitarian politics” in Bolivia (Fabrice Lehoucq); and a new chapter on Ecuador (Catherine M. Conaghan).

Another ten equally informative chapters deal with the political systems of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean with contributions from younger and older scholars. They contribute essays on Mexico and its “internal war” (Judith A. Gentlemen); the current situation in Cuba (Juan M. del Aguila); Costa Rica (Mitchell A. Seligson); Nicaragua (Richard L. Millett); El Salvador’s “uncivil peace” (Tommie Sue Montgomery and Christine J. Wade); the contradictions of democracy in Guatemala (Dwight Wilson) and Honduras (J. Mark Ruhl); the new political scene in Panama (Steve C. Ropp); and the search for democracy and development in the Dominican Republic (Esther Skelley Jordan), and Haiti (Georges A. Fauiol). Each of the chapters in this group and the one on South America chapter has useful suggestions for further reading.

On balance, the seventh edition offers key updates for professors considering use of a reader for Latin American politics. While still providing key contextual explanations for readers who are first approaching the subject, this volume adds coverage of recent changes in terms of paramilitaries, drug trafficking, and economic crises.

* Megan Ybarra is Assistant Professor of Politics, Department of Political Science, Willamette University, Oregon.  Dr. Ybarra conducts research in the northern lowlands of Guatemala, working primarily with Maya Q’eqchi’ groups.  Dr. Ybarra has published various scholarly essays on her research, her latest publication being “Privatizing the Tzuultaq’a? Private property and spiritual reproduction in post-war Guatemala." The Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (4):738-810, 2011.



Last updated December 20, 2011