By Suzanne K. Flinchbaugh
If a modern-day Rip or Rita Van Winkle woke up today, having napped through the last several years, he or she might think that democracy movements were only recently born in the Middle East, what with the media’s hyper-focus on the region. But those of us who haven’t been napping know that democracy studies have been around far longer than the start of the Arab Spring. Indeed, if the Van Winkles want to understand the future of the Arab Spring—or, for that matter, democratization in Ukraine, Mali, Thailand—then they would be wise to dig into Latin American political science. And there is no better place to start than with JHUP’s Latin American social sciences offerings at this year’s LASA meeting in Chicago.
Bringing together robust scholarship in democratic transitions, political economy, civil society, social movements, and the rule of law, JHUP is proud of the depth of its Latin American list. Having published LA scholarship for over 25 years, JHUP’s list in this area of comparative politics provides significant insight into democratic movements around the globe. We publish book-length interrogations of topics that engage multiple fields, particularly security studies, civil military relations, and political economy, thus emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of politics. Our titles are appreciated by instructors teaching upper level division classes in LA politics, democratization studies, and comparative politics, as well as by policymakers focused on nascent democratic movements around the world.
To appreciate our list’s diversity, stop by the Association Book Exhibit at booth 319 to browse JHUP titles. Among our offerings:
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The completely updated fourth edition of Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America, edited by Jorge Domínguez and Michael Shifter, covers the themes of media, constitutionalism, the commodities boom, and fiscal management vis-à-vis governance, and also focuses on the region’s eight biggest governments.
• Be sure to look at Christopher Darnton’s Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America, a fascinating study of how the success or failure of LA foreign policy initiatives is influenced by bureaucratic and military background players.
• Masterfully weaving together civil military relations, peacekeeping, international socialization, and security studies, Arturo Sotomayor’s The Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper: Civil-Military Relations and the United Nations examines Argentine, Brazilian, and Uruguayan peacekeeping participation to consider how peacekeeping efforts impact, if at all, the assisting armed forces.
• Francisco González provides an in-depth look at the impact of financial crises in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile on democracy’s permanence in Creative Destruction? Economic Crises and Democracy in Latin America.
• Diego Abente Brun and Larry Diamond’s edited volume, Clientelism, Social Policy, and the Quality of Democracy, explores how political clientelism works and evolves in the context of modern developing democracies.
• Our co-publishing partner, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, offers Carlos de la Torre and Cynthia Arnson’s edited volume, Latin American Populism in the Twenty-first Century, which explains the emergence of today’s radical populism and places it in historical context, identifying continuities as well as differences from both the classical populism of the 1930s and 1940s and the neo-populism of the 1990s.
JHUP’s LASA exhibit will feature a great selection of other titles, including:
Participatory Institutions in Democratic Brazil, by Leonardo Avritzer
Latin America’s Struggle for Democracy, edited by Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner, and Diego Abente Brun
Military Politics and Democracy in the Andes, by Maiah Jaskoski
The Resurgence of the Latin American Left, edited by Steven Levitsky and Kenneth M. Roberts
Corrupt Circles: A History of Unbound Graft in Peru, by Alfonso W. Quiroz
Latin America and Global Capitalism, by William I. Robinson
Participatory Innovation and Representative Democracy in Latin America, edited by Andrew Selee and Enrique Peruzzotti
Toward a Society under Law, edited by Joseph S. Tulchin and Meg Ruthenburg
Associate Editor Suzanne K. Flinchbaugh acquires books in political science and public policy for the JHU Press. In Chicago, during LASA’s International Congress from May 21–24 at the Palmer House Hilton, browse books from JHUP at the Association Book Exhibit at booth 319. Use the LASA discount code HEYO to receive a 30% discount on all books featured in this blog post or mention this code when calling in your order at 1-800-537-5487. Read more about LASA and/or follow the JHU Press on Facebook and Twitter.
