POSC 3315 W12.1

Studying Latin American politics Context ◦ Who’s in, who’s out

Should we include the excluded? Why don’t we? Is LA a region? ◦ Historically? ◦ Economically? ◦ Politically? ◦ Culturally?

Why does this matter? ◦ What does it let us do? Why Latin America is western. ◦ Who says it isn’t? ◦ Why say it is?

Latin America and the Third World ◦ What is the TW? ◦ What are its common features? ◦ What are its points of divergence? ◦ How useful is the concept?

How to study LA Two approaches; not antithetical Comparative Politics ◦ Systematic ◦ Problem-driven or theory-driven ◦ Tries to transcend borders ◦ Aims to build theory – midrange or grand ◦ Deductive + inductive

Area studies ◦ Define by geography, cultural similarity, historical ties ◦ Thick description ◦ Inductive + deductive ◦ Limited generalization ◦ Detailed knowledge of culture, language, history

Why together? Need to think of logic of comparison and basic comparative politics research approaches. Some need lots of detail; e.g., case studies, binary studies and small-N studies Others, large-N studies, do not ◦ But let us look at region-wide (20 country) questions.

Most comparative politics =single case, binary,or small-N studies Single case ◦ How can this be comparative? Why do this? Binary studies: two cases ◦ Most Similar Systems (MSS) ◦ Least Similar/Most Dissimilar Systems (LSS/MDS)

What’s the difference? ◦ MSS: similar on most points; diverge on one  May not be able specify cause of difference’ may be multiple and interacting  Work well with within-case comparisons ◦ MDS: similar on one; diverge on most  How do different systems  same/similar result?  Multiple, interacting causes here too ◦ Either can be binary or small-N

In case studies, binary comparisons and small-N studies ◦ Select cases very carefully  Case study: a case of what? What principle is examined?  Binary and small-n: look for hard cases, ones that look unlikely to prove your point. Large-N: above are qualitative, these are qualitative

Large N works for some things, e.g., correlates of democracy, but not others, e.g., policies for rapid economic development In Latin American area studies a large-N study might cover all 20 states Case studies, binary and small-N studies well adapted to focusing on a specific area Large-N studies let us take in all/most/many of the countries