In recent years, the countries of Latin America have moved out from under the shadow of the United States to become active players in the international system. What changed? Why? And why did it take so long for that change to happen? To answer those questions, Joseph S. Tulchin explores the evolving role of Latin American states in world affairs from the early days of independence to the    More >

Amidst the many lamentations about the problems of democracy, Joe Foweraker turns his attention to specific questions: Is democracy incompatible with stark social inequalities? Why are so many democratic governments deemed unaccountable and beset by populist pressures? Perhaps most fundamentally, why does democratic theory have no answers to these questions? Foweraker argues that finding    More >

Fully revised and expanded to reflect more than a decade of new developments and data, the second edition of this widely acclaimed book presents an up-to-date, comprehensive portrait of the second largest Latino group in the United States. Edna Acosta-Belén and Carlos Santiago trace the trajectory of the Puerto Rican experience from the early colonial period, through a series of waves of    More >

During Hugo Chávez's presidency, Venezuelan society underwent a sudden—and vicious—split between the Chavistas and the Opposition. What accounts for the extreme intensity of the split? How did differences so quickly become irreconcilable? What role did the media play? Answering these and related questions, Ana Mallen and María Pilar García-Guadilla explore how    More >

Latin America has recently experienced a powerful resurgence of populism, a phenomenon that has had an outsized influence on the region's politics. What explains this resurgence? And what is distinctive about this new populist era? Answering these questions, Robert Barr offers a refined conceptualization of populism and an intriguing explanation of its recent electoral successes across the    More >

Vicente Fox's 2000 election to the presidency in Mexico marked the end of more than 70 years of rule by the PRI, overturning what some observers referred to as "the perfect dictatorship." Since then, there has been much debate about the reasons for the PAN's successful challenge to decades of authoritarian rule. Patricia Olney makes a rich, nuanced contribution to that debate,    More >