Political Dilemmas and Policy Innovations in Latin America

DPI 463 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Latin America is the most violent region of the world and one of the most unequal. But it has also been home to countless policy innovations, from participatory budgeting to conditional cash transfers. This course will examine some of the profound political and social challenges facing the region alongside the novel policy responses leaders have enacted in an effort to resolve those problems. How have countries sought to address pressing challenges such as ending a decades-long armed conflict, ameliorating entrenched poverty and inequality, eradicating enduring racial and ethnic exclusion, reducing rampant crime and violence, and remedying democratic distrust and political polarization? Have the policy and institutional responses enacted by leaders - such as Colombia’s novel transitional justice processes, Mexico’s and Brazil’s massive conditional cash transfer programs, Brazil’s affirmative action polices and participatory budgeting institutions, and El Salvador’s mass incarceration strategy - been effective in addressing these problems and improving conditions for ordinary citizens? The answers to these questions are far from straightforward, and they continue to be the subject of ongoing political debates and societal contestation. In this course our objective will be to take a step back from highly fraught and contentious debates in order to examine policy problems from multiple angles. We will work together to (1) situate contemporary policy challenges within a broader historical and structural context in order to understand present-day tensions and contradictions; (2) apply a comparative lens to some of the key challenges posed by problems such as inequality, violence, and polarization by examining commonalities across different national contexts; (3) draw on empirical evidence and social science research to understand and evaluate the effectiveness and consequences of contested policy responses.