Politics in the Americas North and South

UG - Undergraduate

The Americas--both North and South--are a socially, politically, and culturally diverse region of the planet. The region nevertheless shares a significant number of historical and contemporary political and social problems and perspectives: from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego it was populated by a diverse multiplicity of cultures and civilizations before the European conquest displaced, exterminated, and/or hybridized with them; it was the region of the planet most involved in the enslavement of millions of people of African descent; it later went through violent wars of independence and the revolutionary creation of new political entities; it was, again, the region that received the largest waves of immigration from Europe as the latter went through the crises generated by the industrial revolution and world wars; it was also the region where massive transitions to democracy took place during the second half of the twentieth century, from the American Civil Rights movement in the sixties to the birth of stable democracies in the Latin American Southern Cone in the eighties; it is thus also the region of the planet with one of the largest democratic and egalitarian traditions and imaginations; and, finally and sadly, it is also one of the regions in which such traditions and imaginations are today openly threatened or in considerable decline. This course will focus on these phenomena as they relate to the current state of political life in Americas. During the semester, we will read from three classic works on the genesis of democratic societies in the continent: Jos Carlos Maritegui's Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, W.E.B. Du Bois' Black Reconstruction in America, and Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, edited by Guillermo O'Donnell. During the second half of the semester, we will focus on contemporary politics and will read from Marilena Chau's Between Conformity and Resistance, Bruce Ackerman's We the People, and Judith Butler's Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Students will also regularly read the New York Times to relate the readings to current events.