Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> World - Caribbean & Latin American

Since 1959, the government of the Caribbean island of Cuba, 90 miles away from the United States of America, has defied its powerful neighbor. The story of the improbable survival of the Cuban Revolutionary Government in its struggle against the most powerful country in the world has kept international attention on Cuba for more than half a century; but it has also overshadowed the brilliance of the hybrid culture developed in the island since the Spanish conquerors brought Western civilization to the Americas 500 years ago.

Rafael E. Tarrago pays due attention to the first four...

First published in 1989, "The Dictionary of Contemporary Politics of South America "provides a guide to the most important organizations, figures, events and themes in the contemporary politics of South America. The countries covered are Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Suriname and Guyana, as well as the French overseas department of French Guiana. Central American and Caribbean affairs are also touched on when they have implications for South American politics.

Taking a broad definition of the term contemporary, the authors...

First published in 1991, "The Dictionary of Contemporary Politics of Central America and the Caribbean "provides a guide to the most important organizations, figures, events and themes in the contemporary politics of Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The countries covered include Mexico, Guatamala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia, Dominica, St Kitt s-Nevis, Antigua and Puerto Rico.

The background information supplied in the book explains how, for...

In recent decades, Bolivia, Colombia, Italy, and Venezuela have all faced the turmoil and democratic crisis of party system collapse. In Bankrupt Representation and Party System Collapse, Jana Morgan analyzes the causes of such collapse. She does so through a detailed examination of Venezuela's traumatic party system decay as well as comparative analysis of seven other countries. Collapse occurs when the party system as a whole is unable to provide adequate linkage between society and the state, failing to furnish programmatic representation, integration of major societal...

The definitive history of the drug cartels, Narcoland takes readers to the front lines of the "war on drugs," which has so far cost more than 60,000 lives in just six years. Hernandez explains in riveting detail how Mexico became a base for the mega-cartels of Latin...

Since the early 1980s, Latin American countries have been innovative in a range of policy and cultural experiences, including health care, voting, pensions, and multiculturalism. And yet, their policy innovations are rarely found in textbooks. This book addresses that gap, providing a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of both the history of "looking down" at Latin America and the political, economic, and cultural "lessons" (including successes, failures, and unintended consequences) that should inform important policy discussions around the world.

Will social change in Latin America lead to a kinder, gentler form of globalization or a model that offers a radical rethinking of how we produce and distribute wealth? What are the effects on social movements and their ability to push for change when progressive governments are elected? Does democratic participation mean greater economic equality? On the Move addresses these questions by providing an up-to-date, continent-wide account of political and social change in Latin America.

Globalization has, over the last two decades, structurally adjusted local communities to...

Paul Almeida's comparative study of the largest social movement campaigns that existed between 1980 and 2013 in every Central American country (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) provides a granular examination of the forces that spark mass mobilizations against state economic policy, whether those factors are electricity rate hikes or water and health care privatization. Many scholars have explained connections between global economic changes and local economic conditions, but most of the research has remained at the macro level. Mobilizing...

Mexico and the United States each have a constitution and a federal system of government. This fact has led many historians to assume that the Mexican system of government, established in the 1820s, is an imitation of the U.S. model. But it is not.

First published in Spanish in 1955 and now translated by the author and amplified with new material, this interpretation of the independence movement tells the true story of Mexico's transition from colonial status to federal state. Benson traces the Mexican government's beginning to events in Spain in 1808-1810, when provincial...

For more than thirty years, musician Carlos Varela has been a guide to the heart, soul, and sound of Havana. One of the best known singer-songwriters to emerge out of the Cuban nueva trova movement, Varela has toured in North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. In North America, Varela is "Cuba's Bob Dylan." In Cuba, he is the voice of the generation that came of age in the 1990s and for whom his songs are their generation's anthems. My Havana is a lyrical exploration of Varela's life and work, and of the vibrant musical, literary, and cinematic culture of...

For more than thirty years, musician Carlos Varela has been a guide to the heart, soul, and sound of Havana. One of the best known singer-songwriters to emerge out of the Cuban nueva trova movement, Varela has toured in North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. In North America, Varela is "Cuba's Bob Dylan." In Cuba, he is the voice of the generation that came of age in the 1990s and for whom his songs are their generation's anthems. My Havana is a lyrical exploration of Varela's life and work, and of the vibrant musical, literary, and cinematic culture of...

Until 1930, Argentina was one of the great hopes for stable democracy in Latin America. Argentines themselves believed in the destiny of their nation to become the leading Latin American country in wealth, power, and culture. But the revolution of 1930 unleashed the scourges of modern militarism and chronic instability in the land. Between 1930 and 1966, the Argentine armed forces, or factions of the armed forces, overthrew the government five times.

For several decades, militarism was the central problem in Argentine political life. In this study, Marvin Goldwert interprets the...

First published in English in 1990 as Latin American Politics: A Theoretical Framework, a translation of Torcuato S. Di Tella's original Sociologia de los procesos politicos, this new edition also focuses on the prerequisites for democracy in any society and on the role of the popular classes in social change. Di Tella draws on the work of Montesquieu, Burke, Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim in formulating his explanatory theories. These theories are then tested against crucial events in Latin American history--from the rebellions of the eighteenth century...