Fall 2006

MWF 10:30-11:20

Hearst 202

Office: MW 11:20-3:00, and by appointment

HIS 340: Dictatorship & Democracy in Latin America

Torres-Garcia (1943)

Dr. Nick Maher

Hearst 304

(404) 504-3473

nmaher@oglethorpe.edu

Course Description

The image of a Latin American dictator, dramatically decked out in full military uniform, publicly working a crowd into a nationalistic fervor while his agents, dressed in plain clothes, secretly brutalize the citizenry into silence is engrained in the popular imagination. Dictatorship is part of the political tradition in Latin America. Why? Why have there been so many dictatorships in Latin America? What conditions made it possible for them to gain such power? How did they maintain power? What did they hope to achieve? Why have almost all political orientations (Republicanism, Liberalism, Nationalism, Populism, and Communism) offered up a dictator as their champion at some point in Latin American history? How have Latin American nations been able to make a transition to democracy? And finally – perhaps most importantly – how did dictatorships affect the everyday lives and perceptions of the people living under them?

In this course we will examine the roots, character, and impact of authoritarian rule - and resulting resistance movements - in Latin America. We will look at the Caudillos that competed for power after independence, the Liberal dictatorships of the late 19th Century, the Depression Dictators of the 1930s, the Populist dictators of the 1940s and 1950s, and the rise of military-bureaucratic dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s. We will focus on the rise and fall of your favorite dictators from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Course materials will include primary and secondary written sources, films, and novels.

Required Texts

1. Asturias, Miguel, The President (Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, Inc., 1997).

2. Corradi, Juan & Patricia Fagen,, Manuel Garreton (eds.), Fear at the Edge: State Terror & Resistance in Latin America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).

3. Hugh Hamill, Caudillos; Dictators in Spanish America (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1995). ISBN: 0806124288

4. Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino, Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism (New York: Viking Penguin, 1998 .) ISBN 0-14-043677-4

5. Traba, Marta, Mothers & Shadows (Columbia: Readers International, 1989).

6. Readings on Reserve

¸ Film Schedule

Date	Film	Where
	1. The Official Story
	2. Time of Butterflies
	3. Kamchatka
	4. Scraps of Life

Films will be on reserve. If you cannot make the showing, you must see the film before the Wednesday after the showing, and bring in a one-page discussion of the film. If you come to the showing, then you do not need to hand in anything.

1.

Course Requirements

First Paper 20%

Midterm Exam 20%

Second Paper 20%

Final Exam 25%

Participation/Presentation 15%

Map Quiz 0%

The two Tests will be designed to give you an opportunity to demonstrate that you have been reading the assignments and thinking about the material presented in class.

Late papers will be graded down one full grade for the first 24 hours late and a second full grade for up to one week late. No papers will be accepted beyond that.

You must get a 100% on the Map Quiz – or take it again. A good way to prepare is to go to the following site: http://www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk/map/index.shtml.

2. 1. Argentina	Buenos Aires	3. 2. Bolivia	La Paz (administrative) Sucre (constitutional)
4. 3. Belize	Belmopan	5. 4. Brazil	Brasília
6. 5. Chile	Santiago	7. 6. Colombia	Bogotá
8. 7. Costa Rica	San José	9. 8. Cuba	Havana
10. 9. Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	11. 10. El Salvador	San Salvador
12. 11. Ecuador	Quito	13. 12. French Guiana	Cayenne
13. Guyana	Georgetown	14. 14. Guatemala	Guatemala
15. 15. Haiti	Port-au-Prince	16. 16. Haiti	Port-au-Prince
17. 17. Honduras	Tegucigalpa	18. 18. Mexico	Mexico, D.F.
19. 19. Nicaragua	Managua	20. 20. Panama	Panama
21. 21. Paraguay	Asunción	22. 22. Peru	Lima
23. 23. Puerto Rico	San Juan	24. 24. Suriname	Paramaribo
25. 25. Uruguay	Montevideo	26. 26. Venezuela	Caracas

Class Participation means actively speaking up in class discussions. Your comments should be thoughtful considerations of the readings and the comments of your classmates. The Presentation will be a brief description of current political/economic/social conditions in a specific country.

Attendance is, of course, mandatory. There will be no distinction between “excused” or “unexcused” absences. If you were not in class, you were not in class. You may miss two classes for any reason and with no penalty; more than two absences will result in a reduction in your final course grade. If you have a total of nine absences you will get an F or FA in the course, regardless of the quality of your work or your grades in tests. Use your absences wisely.

Honor Code: “Because Oglethorpe students and faculty expect each other to be truthful in the intellectual endeavour they share, academic work at the University is done under the provisions of an Honour Code. Oglethorpe students affirm their commitment to the Honour Code with a written pledge on each piece of graded work, as requested by the instructor. Both students and faculty have the responsibility of reporting suspected violations” (The O Book).

Cheating: (a) The unauthorized possession or use of notes, texts, or other such materials during an examination. (b) Copying another person’s work or participation in such an effort. (c) An attempt or participation in an attempt to fulfill the requirements of a course with work other than one’s original work for that course.

Plagiarism includes representing someone else’s words, ideas, data, or original research as one’s own, and in general failing to footnote or otherwise acknowledge the source of such work. One has the responsibility of avoiding plagiarism by taking adequate notes on reference materials, including material taken off the internet or other electronic sources, used in the preparation of reports, papers, and other coursework.

University Policy on Course Withdrawal: Students withdrawing from a course may do so through the 9^th week, or two weeks after the published mid-semester date with a “W”. For two weeks between the 9^th and 11^th weeks the grade “W” or WF” may be given at the discretion of the instructor. Students withdrawing after the Friday that falls on the 11^th week will receive a grade of “WF”. Only in the event of medical emergency or hardship may students appeal a grade of “WF” to the Provost.

University Policy on Incompletes: If a student is unable to complete the work for a course on time for reasons of health, family tragedy, or other circumstances the instructor deems appropriate, the grade “I” may be assigned. If the student completes the work within thirty days of the last day of exams of the semester in question, the instructor will evaluate the work and turn in a revised grade. Any “I” not changed by the professor within forty five days of the last day of exams will automatically be changed to a grade of “F”.

Reading Schedule

Week 1: Introduction & Definitions

Aug 30 Course Introduction

Sept 1 Assignment: Research the current state of Democracy in Latin America. What are the trends? What are the arguments about the “Turn to the Left” and the “Crisis of Democracy” in Latin America today? What recent or pending elections are significant in Latin America today?

Week 2: Establishing Power in Independent Latin America

Sept 4 Labor Day

Sept 6 Facundo Introduction & ch.1-2

(R) Raymond Crist, “Geography and Caudillismo: A Case Study”

Sept 8 ¸ The Official Story

Week 3: Rule by Caudillos

Sept 11 Facundo ch.3-7.

Sept 13 Facundo (chaps. 8-10)

Sept 15 Hamill, Caudillos: Dictators in Spanish America (chaps 1-5).

Facundo (finish).

Week 4: Liberal Dictatorships: Development & Scientism

Sept 18 (R) Glen Caudill Dealy, “Two Cultures and Political Behavior in Latin America”

Hamill (chaps 6, 8).

Sept 20 (R) F. Katz, Secret War in Mexico, Introduction.

Presentation by Sam Waters

Sept 22 Hamill (chaps 10-14).

Paper #1 Due

Week 5: Poverty and Dictatorship: Central America

Sept 25 (R) “Modernization by The Army,” in Alain Rouquie, The Military and the State in Latin America (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1982); 72-97.

(R) “The Military and Latin American Politics, 1919-1945,” in The Politics of Antipolitics; 57-60.

Sept 27 Hamill (chaps 16)

Presentation by Rachel Hensler

Sept 29 Hamill (chaps 17)

Week 6: The President

Oct 2 Asturias, The President (first third)

(R) W. LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions

Presentation by Tim Ernst

Oct 4 Asturias, The President (second third)

Presentation by Rachel Gandy

Oct 6 Asturias, The President (finish)

Week 7: Sultanism

Oct 9 No Class (Columbus Day!)

Oct 11 Hamill (chaps 18-20)

Oct 13 (R) Lawrence de Besault, “Introduction” and “What Others Think of President Trujillo.”

Presentation by Melissa Grammont

¸ Time of Butterflies: See by Monday the 16th (on reserve in the library)

Week 8: Populism

Oct 16 (R) David Rock, “From Oligarchy to Populism,” & “The Apogee of Peron”

Oct 18 (R) Robert Levine, “In the Saddle,” “The Estado Novo” & “Populism, Vargas Style”

Hamill (chaps 22-23).

Presentation by Hannah Wiles

Oct 20 Midterm Exam

Week 9: Socialism

Oct 23 (R) Marifeli Perez-Stable, “Mediated Sovereignty, Monoculture, and Development” and “Politics and Society, 1902-1958.”

Hamill (chap 24-25)

Presentation by Erin Gibson

Oct 25 (R) Thomas Wright, “Fidel Castro’s Road to Power” and “Cuba: The Making of a Revolution,” from Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution

Oct 27 (R) Reinaldo Arenas, Old Rosa

Presentation by Caitlin Kelly

Week 10: The United States & Dictatorship

Oct 30 (R) Susanne Jonas, The Battle for Guatemala: Rebels, Death Squads, and U.S. Power, (chps 2-4)

(R) Norman Bailey, “United States as Caudillo,” & Chester Jones, “If I were a Dictator.”

(R) “The United States and the Latin American Military”

Presentation by David Rigdon

Nov 1 (R) Alain Rouquie “The Sixth Side of the Pentagon?” & “The Praetorian Guards and the Patrimonial State,” in The Military and the State in Latin America

Presentation by Brandon Rhodes

Nov 3 (R) “Multinationals, Development and Democracy?” Multinational Monitor interview with Henry Geyelin in Draper (ed.), Democracy and Dictatorship in Latin America (1981)

(R) Albert Smith, “Transferring the Tools of Counterinsurgency,” U.S. Department of Defense, “A School of the Americas Study Manual”

Villa Grimaldi, Chile

Week 11: Bureaucratic Authoritarianism

Nov 6 Hamill (26-27)

(R) Thomas Wright, “Chile Under Allende: A Peaceful Road to Socialism?” from Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution

“Repression and State Security,” in Fear at the Edge; 39-71

Presentation by Amanda Moore

Nov 8 (R) Collier & Slater, “The Chilean Road to Socialism, 1970-1973”

(R) Lois Hecht Oppenheim, chapters 4-6 from Politics in Chile (1999)

“Repression and State Security,” in Fear at the Edge; 39-71

Presentation by Sean Ziegler

Nov 10 (R) Collier & Slater, “The Pinochet Years,” from A History of Chile, 1808-1994 (1996)

Week 12: Language & Violence

Nov 13 (R) “A Lexicon of Terror,” from Marguerite Feitlowitz, A Lexicon of Terror (1998)

Fear at the Edge : “Introduction,” “Fear in Military Regimes: An Overview,” “Some People Die of Fear: Fear as a Political Problem,” and “Victims of Fear”

(R) Lois Hecht Oppenheim, chapter 7 from Politics in Chile (1999)

Nov 14 Colombian torture survivor and artist will speak in the Student Center from 12:00-1:00. See flyer of his July performance: Hector Aristizábal

Nov 15 (R) “The Military Speaks for Itself,” in Politics of Antipolitics

(R) Fernando H. Cardoso, "On the Characterization of Authoritarian Regimes," and David Collier, “Overview of the Bureaucratic Authoritarian Model,´ in David Collier, Ed. The New Authoritarianism in Latin America

Nov 17 (R) Nunca Mas: Report of the Argentine National Commission on the Disappeared.

Week 13: Literary Response

Nov 20 Fear at the Edge : “Strategies of the Literary Imagination”

¸ Kamchatka

Week 14: The Church Opposition

Nov 27 Mothers and Shadows (first half)

Nov 29 Fear at the Edge : “Gender, Death, and Resistance: Facing the Ethical Vacuum”

Mothers and Shadows (finish)

Dec 1 ¸ Scraps of Life

Week 15: Chile Spreading Opposition

Dec 4 Fear at the Edge : “Resistance to Fear in Chile: The Experience of the Vicaria de la Solidaridad,” & “Fear of the State, Fear of Society: On the Opposition Protests in Chile”

Dec 6 (R) M. Barrera & J. Valenzuela, “The Development of Labor Movement Opposition to the Military Regime” & “Popular Mobilization and the Military Regime in Chile.”

Paper #2 Due

Dec 8 (R) “The Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes,” in Bruce Farcau, The Transition to Democracy in Latin America (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1996)

Fear at the Edge : “Beyond Fear: Forms of Justice and Compensation” & “Toward Societies without Fear”

Week 16: Conclusions

Dec 11 Catch-up

Dec 14 Final Exam 8:00 a.m.