PSC 245 - Populisms in Latin America

Course Units: 1

(Not offered this Academic Year) Many forms of leadership and politics in Latin America are characterized as populist, but there is wide spread disagreement as to what populism is. Claimed by no one, most of the time populism is blamed, disapprovingly, upon leaders and movements connoting demagoguery, manipulative appeals to people’s emotions and disregard for formal institutions and rules. This course scrutinizes three different “populist moments,” from the first half of the 20th century to the present. Major figures such as Peron or Vargas; neoliberal reformers from the 1990s, from Fujimori to Menem; as well as more recent leaders such as Chavez, Morales, Correa, and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will be examined.