Latin American Politics and Development (6th ed)

This updated Sixth Edition of a leading textbook on comparative Latin American politics provides a concise overview by the editors, complemented by authoritative chapters on individual countries by invited specialists.

The only text organized on a country-by-country basis that represents all Latin American countries, "Latin American Politics and Development" offers instructors maximum flexibility in organizing courses.

The Sixth Edition is thoroughly revised and updated for enhanced coverage of topical issues, including women's and indigenous social movements, the consolidation of democracy, and the political consequences of economic regionalism (such as NAFTA and MERCOSUR).

The revision includes several chapters by authors new to the volume, and updated chapters on each country in the region, each of which is contributed by a well-known specialist.

Special attention is devoted to the populist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, crisis in Argentina, trouble up and down the Andes (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), Mexico's problems, and the prospects for post-Castro Cuba.In the overview chapters, Wiarda and Kline emphasize the trend toward democratization, and democracy's problems, as the organizing theme of the book, covering such pressing issues as economic reform, globalization, political unrest and the international drug trade.

Wiarda and Kline organize their analysis around Latin America's distinct background and position in world politics and the world economy.

They also describe patterns of political development; the dynamics of political behaviour, institutions, public policy and the constant tension between those who favour a political regime in keeping with the authoritarian past and those who prefer a Latin American version of democracy.