POLS 313

Latin America

Area Studies courses cover the government and politics of selected nations within a distinct geopolitical area of the world in order to gain understanding of the institutions and dynamics of the area. This Area Studies survey course is designed to give students an understanding of Latin America. It covers the region in the pre-Columbian era, its history as part of the Spanish Empire, the independence movements of the nineteenth century and the modern day existence of each nation state in the area to the twenty-first century. The impact of religion, colonialism, the natural resource situation, socio-economics, ideology, conflict and resolution and foreign and domestic policies will be examined in the region on a country-by-country basis. The course includes an examination of dominant political institutions, actors, processes and belief systems within the context of political culture and history and an analysis of area political economy and foreign policy in the environment of global interdependence. Countries to be covered include but are not limited to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The course concludes with a summation of the region as it stands today and an assessment of where it is likely to go in the near future.

Units: 3.0

Hours: 54 hours LEC