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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
…the record would seem to suggest that Latin American political studies have more often than not been unimaginative in concept and pedestrian in approach. A certain healthy eclecticism has been diluted by a Pavlovian tendency to respond to passing fads within the discipline. Political scientists committed to Latin American studies have in recent years rushed to follow the the comparative pack. They have distinctly been trend-followers rather than trend-setters.
1 Martz, John D., ‘Political Science and Latin American Studies: A Discipline in Search of a Region,’ Latin American Research Review No. 6 (Spring, 1971), p. 94.Google Scholar
2 Silvert, Kalman H., ‘American Academic Ethics and Social Science Research Abroad: The Lesson of Project Camelot,’ in Horowitz, Irving Louis (ed.) The Rise and Fall of Project Camelot: Studies in the Relationship Between Social Science and Practical Politics (Cambridge, Mass., Institute of Technology Press, 1967), p. 98.Google Scholar
3 See Gómez, Rosendo A., The Study of Latin American Politics in University Programs in the United States (Tucson, The University of Arizona Press, 1967), p. 11.Google Scholar
4 Pye, Lucian W. (ed.), Political Science and Area Studies (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1975), p. 3.Google Scholar
5 See, e.g., Blanksten, George I., ‘Political Groups in Latin America,’ The American Political Science Review, No. 53 (03 1959), p. 126;Google ScholarKling, Merle, ‘The State of Research on Latin America: Political Science,’ in Wagley, Charles (ed.), Social Science Research on Latin America (New York, Columbia University Press, 1964), p. 168;Google Scholar and Gómez, op. cit., p. 4.Google Scholar
6 e.g., Pye, Lucian W., ‘The Non Western Political Process,’ The Journal of Politics, No. 20 (08 1958), pp. 468–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7 Rustow, Dankwart, ‘New Horizons for Comparative Politics,’ World Politics, No. 9 (07 1957), p. 546.Google Scholar
8 See Scott's, Robert E. chapter contributions in Pye, Lucien W. and Verba, Sidney (eds.), Political Culture and Political Deuelopment (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1965),Google Scholar and La Palombara, Joseph and Weiner, Myron (eds.), Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton, Princeton University Press 1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Martz, John D., ‘The Place of Latin America in the Study of Comparative Politics,’ The Journal of Politics, No. 28 (02 1966), pp. 57–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The last in the series Studies in Political Development sponsored by the SSRC Committee on Comparative Politics was published in 1971. Binder, Leonard, Coleman, James S., La Palombara, Joseph, Pye, Lucian W., Verba, Sidney, and Weiner, Myron, Crises and Sequences in Political Development (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1971).Google Scholar The first six volumes were essentially case studies of some aspect of political development in a specific country. The 1971 work represented an attempt to build a coherent and interdependent set of propositions in terms of which political development could explained. For an excellent critique which persuasively demonstrates that this objective was not accomplished, see Holt, Robert T. and Turner, John E., ‘Crises and Sequences in Collective Theory Development’, American Political Science Review, No. 69 (09 1975), pp. 969–94.Google Scholar
10 Needler, Martin C., Political Development in Latin America: Instability, Violence and Evolutionary Change (New York, Random House, 1968).Google Scholar
11 See Silvert, Kalman H., ‘Politics and the Study of Latin America,’ in Pye, (ed), Political Science and Area Studies, pp. 160–3.Google Scholar
12 Hirschman, Albert O., ‘The Search for Paradigms as a Hindrance to Understanding,’ World Politics, No. 22 (04 1970), pp. 329–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Gil, Federico G., The Political System of Chile (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1966).Google Scholar
14 Padgett, L. Vincent, The Mexican Political System (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1966).Google Scholar
15 See, e.g., Change and Development: Latin America's Great Task (New York, Praeger, 1971).Google Scholar
16 See, e.g., Política, tecnología y desarrollo scocioeconómico (México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 1975).Google Scholar
17 Perhaps the single best known book on dependency is Frank, André Gunder, Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution (New York, Monthly Review Press, 1969).Google Scholar
18 See, e.g., Latin America: From Dependency to Revolution (New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1973).Google Scholar
19 See, e.g., Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Falleto, E., Dependencia y desarrollo en America Latina (México, Siglo XXI, 1969);Google Scholar and Sunkel, Osvaldo and Paz, Pedro, El subdesarrollo latinoamericano y la teoría del desarrollo (México, Siglo XXI, 1970).Google Scholar
20 For an excellent critique of dependency theory, see Bath, C. Richard and James, Dilmus D., ‘Dependency Analysis of Latin America: Some Suggestions,’ Latin American Research Review, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1976), pp. 3–54.Google Scholar
21 See, e.g., Pike, Fredrick B., The New Corporatism: Social-Political Structures in the iberian World (Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 1974), to which all of these scholars have contributed.Google Scholar Also, see Malloy, James (ed.), Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976).Google Scholar
22 See, e.g., Robert Scott on Latin America and other area specialists in La Palombara and Weiner, Political Parties and Political Development. They utilized a substantial amount of space in setting the stage for more refined analysis.Google Scholar
23 Silvert, ‘Politics and the Study of Latin America,’ p. 168.Google Scholar
24 Pye, Political Science, p. 18.Google Scholar
25 Ward, Robert E., ‘Culture and the Comparative Study of Politics,’ inGoogle Scholaribid., p. 44.
26 Silvert, ‘Politics and the Study of Latin America’, p. 154.Google Scholar
27 In this essay and a forthcoming posthumous book, Silvert essentially offers a critique of neo-utilitarian tendencies of contemporary political science.Google Scholar
28 Schmitter, Philippe C., ‘New Strategies for the Comparative Analysis of Latin American Politics,’ Latin American Research Reuiew, Vol. 4 (Summer, 1969), p. 83.Google Scholar
29 Palombara, Joseph La, ‘Macrotheories and Microapplications in Comparative Politics: A Widening Chasm,’ Comparative Politics, No. 1 (10 1968), p. 54.Google Scholar
30 Glaticio Ary Dillon Soares, ‘Latin American Studies in the U.S.: A Critique and a Proposal,’ Latin American Research Review, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1976), pp. 51–69.Google Scholar
31 Duverger, Maurice, Political Parties: Their Organiration and Acti.iity in the Modern State, trans. Barbara, and North, Robert (New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1959).Google Scholar
32 See Scott, Robert E., ‘Political Parties and Policy Making in Latin America,’ in La Palombara, Political Parties and Political Development, p. 334.Google Scholar
33 At various points in Latin American history there have been deviations from the concept of presidential supremacy. Uruguay from 1951–72 and Chile both before and after the 1925 Constitution are two examples of less than half a dozen cases.Google Scholar
34 These are roles he attributes to the Argentine military but they can be readily applied to the military throughout Latin America. Snow, Peter G., Political Forces in Argentina (Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1971).Google Scholar
35 Stepan, Alfred, The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1978).Google Scholar
36 Fitch, John Samuel, The Military Coup dEtat as a Political Process: Ecuador, 1948–1966 (Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1977).Google Scholar
37 Astiz, Carlos Alberto, ‘The Decay of Latin American Legislatures,’ in Knrnberg, Allan (ed.), Legislatures in Comparative Perspective (New York, David McKay Co., Inc., 1973), p. 118. The other two branches also tend to be unrepresentative.Google Scholar
38 Ibid., p. 125.
39 Eckstein, Harry, ‘Party Systems’ in Sells, David L. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 2 (Chicago, The Macmillan Co. and the Free Press, 1968), p. 439.Google Scholar
40 See Duverger, Maurice, Party Politics and Pressure Groups: A Comparative Introduction (New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1972), pp. 18–32, where he includes both two and multi-party systems in the concept of the pluralistic party system.Google Scholar
41 Sartori, Giovanni, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976).Google Scholar His work purports to cover all party systems with the exception of certain ‘fluid polities’ in Africa. Nevertheless, the only Latin American systems he details are those in Mexico and Chile.
42 See Sartori, Giovanni, ‘The Typology of Party Systems - Proposals for Improvement’ in Allardt, Erik and Rokkan, Stein (eds.), Mass Politics: Studies in Political Socialization (New York, The Free Press, 1970), p. 323.Google Scholar
43 Martz, John D., ‘Dilemmas in the Study of Latin American Political Parties,’ The Journal of Politics, No. 26 (08 1964), p. 517.Google Scholar
44 Sartori in Allardr and Rokkan, op. cit., p. 382, writes that a type refers to a specific attribute compound. Classifications are defined by a precisely stated single criterion. He uses the term taxonomy when it is unnecessary to distinguish between classifica tion and typology.Google Scholar
45 Blanksten, George I., ‘The Politics of Latin America’, in Almond, Gabriel A. and Coleman, James S. (eds.), The Politics of Developing Areas (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1960), pp. 455–531.Google Scholar
46 See Almond, Gabriel A. and Coleman, James S. (eds.), The Politics of the Developing Areas, p. 40.Google Scholar
47 Martz, ‘Dilemmas in the Study of Latin American Political Parties,’ p. 515.Google Scholar
48 La Palombara and Weiner, loc. cit., p. 34.Google Scholar
49 Ibid., see pp. 335–67 and pp. 331–67 and pp. 268–8 respectively.
50 McDonald, Ronald H., Party Systems and Elections in Latin America (Chicago, Markham Publishing Co., 1971).Google Scholar It is interesting to note that I have been unable to find a review of this work in a major journal. Only the Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 52 (08 1972), pp. 529–30 carried a short one-paragraph summary note.Google Scholar
51 McDonald, op. cit., p. 16.Google Scholar
52 Duverger, Political Parties, p. 283Google Scholar
53 McDonald, op. cit., p. 17.Google Scholar
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid., p. 173.
56 Ibid., p. 11.
57 Ibid., p. 87.
58 Ranis, Peter, ‘A Two-Dimensional Typology of Latin American Political Parties,’ Journal of Politics, Vol. 30 (08 1968), pp. 798–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
59 Ibid., p. 803.
60 Ibid., p. 802.
61 Angell, Alan, ‘Party Systems in Latin America,’ Political Quarterly, Vol. 37 (07 1966), pp. 309–23, is the only other relatively recent general article on Latin American party systems published in English by a major journal and not otherwise included in this essay. It is an attempt to differentiate unfamiliar aspects of party structure and behavior in Latin America for students of Western politics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
62 Alexander, Robert J., Latin American Political Parties (New York, Praeger Publishers, 1973). Originally Alexander had proposed a study of radical political parties in Latin America. Praeger, however, persuaded him to expand his treatise.Google Scholar
63 Ibid., p. xvi.
64 See the review by Schoultz, Lars in the American Political Science Review, Vol. 69 (09 1975), pp. 1052–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
65 See Payne, James, Patterns of Conflict in Colombia (New York, Yale University Press, 1968).Google Scholar
66 Alexander, loc. cit., pp. xviii–xx.Google Scholar
67 Bernard, Jean-Pierre et al. , Guide to the Political Parties of South America, trans. Perl, Michael (Baltimore, Penguin Books, 1973).Google Scholar
68 Chalmers, Douglas A., ‘Parties and Society in Latin America,’ Studies in Comparative International Development, No. 7 (Summer, 1972), pp. 102–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar That Latin Amencanists are, in fact, imbued with a certain inferiority complex is illustrated in the origins of the Chalmers article. He notes (footnote 6, p. 104) that the reason for his belief that the socio-political structure of Latin America is distinct from other parts of the world is not because the literature of Latin Americanists has demonstrated it, but rather because recent studies by non-Latin Americanists have concluded the same thing without setting out to do so!
69 Kaufman, Robert R., ‘Corporatism, Clientelism, and Partisan Conflict: A Study of Seven Latin American Countries,’ in Malloy, James M. (ed), Authoritarianism and Corporarism in Latin America (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), pp. 109–48.Google Scholar
70 Silvert, Kalman, ‘A Proposed Framework for Latin American Politics,’ in Martz, John D. (ed.), The Dynamics of Change in Latin American Politics (Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1965), p. 9.Google Scholar Also see many relevant comments in Silvert, , Essays in Understanding Latin America (Philadelphia, ISHI, 1977).Google Scholar
71 See Eckstein, Harry in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, p. 436.Google Scholar
72 Martz, ‘Dilemmas in the Study of Latin American Political Parties,’ p. 526.Google Scholar
73 Kantor, Harry, The Ideology and Program of the Peruvian Aprista Movement (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1953).Google Scholar
74 Martz, John D., Acción Democrática: Evolution of a Modern Political Party (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
75 Ranis, Peter, ‘Trends in Research in Latin American Politics: 1961–1967,’ Latin American Research Review, Vol. 3 (Summer, 1968), pp. 71–8.Google Scholar
76 Latin American Political Parties: A Bibliography. Compiled by Harry Kantor and the Staff of the University of Florida Program in the Comparative Study of Latin American Political Parties (Gainesville, Reference and Bibliography Department, University of Florida Libraries, 1968).Google Scholar
77 The Kantor book was re-published and brought up-to-date with an epilogue in 1966 by Octagon Books (New York).Google Scholar
78 Hilliker, Grant, The Politics of Reform in Peru: The Aprista and Other Mass Parties of Latin America (Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins Press, 1971). It actually makes relatively brief reference to other mass parties.Google Scholar
79 Oviedo, J. E. Rivera, Historia e ideologla de los Demócratas Cristianos venezolanos (Caracas, privately printed, 1969),Google Scholar while certainly not definitive, does fill a gap in the literature on the Venezuelan Christian Democratic Party (COPEI). This is one analysis of note in Spanish. Another is Carlos Araya Pochet, Historia de los Partidos Politicos: Liberacidn Nacional (San José, Editorial Costa Rica, 1968) concerning the PLN in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, such studies are not widely available in the U.S. Therefore, they arc not included in this study.
80 Lewis, Paul H., The Politics of Exile: Paraguay's Febrerista Party (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1968).Google Scholar
81 English, Burt H., Liberación Nacional in Costa Rica: The Development of a Political Party in a Transitional Society (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1971).Google Scholar
82 Walker, Thomas W., The Christian Democratic Movement in Nicaragua, Comparative Government Series, No. 3 (University of Arizona Press, 1970).Google Scholar
83 von Sauer, Franz A., The Alienated ‘Loyal’ Opposition: Mexico's Partido Accin Nacional (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1974);Google Scholar and Mabry, Donald J., Mexico's Acción Nacional: A Catholic Alternative to Revolution (Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University Press, 1973).Google Scholar
84 Snow, Peter G., Argentine Radicalism: The History and Doctrine of the Radical Civic Union (Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 1965).Google Scholar
85 Alexander, Robert J., The Communist Party of Venezuela (Stanford, Calif., Hoover Institution Press, 1969);Google Scholar and Chilcote, Ronald H., The Brazilian Communist Party: Conflict and Integration, 1922–1972 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1974).Google Scholar
86 Wayland-Smith, Giles, The Christian Democratic Party in Chile: A Study of Political Organization and Activity With Primary Emphasis on the Local Level (Cuernavaca, Mexico, Centro Intercultural de Documentación, 1969).Google Scholar
87 Williams, Edward J., Latin American Christian Democratic Parties (Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1967).Google Scholar
88 I have not included studies which provide excellent coverage of individual parties but do not purport to be in depth party analyses. E.g. see Gil, Federico G., Political System of Chile (Boston, Houghton Muffin, 1966);Google Scholar and Scott, Robert E., Mexican Govern ment in Transition (Urbana, University of Illinois, 1964).Google Scholar
89 Schmitter, Philippe C., ‘New Strategies for the Comparative Analysis of Latin American Politics,’ p. 93.Google Scholar
90 Latin American materials in major U.S. data banks are outlined in Tyler, William G. (ed.), Data Banks and Archives jor Social Science Research on Latin America (Gainesville, Fla., Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, 1975).Google Scholar
91 Ibid., pp. 83–110.
92 See Ward, Robert E. in Pye, op. cit., 1975, p. 42. He illustrates his point with the concept of voter identification.Google Scholar
93 All published by the M.I.T. Press in Cambridge under the general title of The Politics of Change in Venezuela, they are: Frank Bonilla and José A. Silva Michelena (eds.), A Strategy for Research on Social Policy (1967); Bonilla, The Failure of Elites (1970); Michelena, Silva, The Illusion of Democracy in Dependent Nations (1971).Google Scholar
94 See Turner, Frederick C., ‘The Study of Argentine Politics Through Survey Research,’ Latin American Research Review, Vol. 10 (Summer, 1975), pp. 73–116,Google Scholar for a report on the progress of the study. Alex Inkeles's project has not yet been fully reported while Wayne Cornelius pursues on-going research on urban politics in Mexico and elsewhere.
95 Baloyra, Enrique A. and Martz, John D., Political Attitudes in Venezuela: Societal Cleauages and Political Opinion (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1979).Google Scholar
96 Rae, Douglas W., The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1971).Google Scholar
