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A provocative and controversial look at Latin America as it stands at a crossroads, this book analyzes the complex economic and social roots of the debt crisis and evaluates the prospects for new development strategies for the 1990s. Dr. Wiarda begins by placing the regional economic crisis in the larger context of technological change, political upheaval, and the international economy. He then explores new choices and realities in inter-American relations and the role international lending agencies can take to assist Latin America in meeting the challenge of the next decade. The author suggests that'smokescreens and mirrors'have obscured the true nature of the crisis and, as a result, have skewed the policy debate.

Much has occurred in the Dominican Republic since the first edition of this critically acclaimed profile was published ten years ago: Democratic government has become more firmly established, if no less contentious, and the fragile economy, though still the definitive element in Dominican life, has benefited from changes in global trade patterns and corporate investment. Yet the Dominican Republic remains a nation mired in poverty and social tension. As the country heads toward the quincentennial of Columbus's landing in the New World, there is both anticipation and apprehension as the citizenry looks back proudly to their heritage and forward to a future clouded by uncertainties. This edition examines the changing character of governance and the political changes that have returned Joaquin Balaguer to the presidency for an unprecedented sixth term. The economic transitions that have made the Dominican Republic an attractive site for foreign business and tourism are also addressed, along with the economic causes of urban and rural unrest and the emigration of Dominicans to Puerto Rico and the United States. Critical public policy issues such as energy, taxation, population control, and education are explored, together with the social and political conflicts created by debt, austerity, and fiscal reform. Finally, the authors analyze the Dominican Republic's relations with its neighbors and major trading partners, giving special emphasis to the impact of new global and regional ties. Throughout, they focus on the struggle to maintain democracy in the face of the inevitable dislocations caused by economic reform and modernization.

This book is used as an introductory text in courses or seminars in Latin American politics, Latin American development, comparative politics, Third World politics, transitions to democracy, globalization, politics of developing areas, and social change.

This book emphasizes the necessity of coming to grips with historic and contemporary corporatism in order to fully comprehend Latin American and Iberian development on its own terms and in its own sociopolitical context.

This integrated collection of original essays evaluates and assesses whether democracy is viable in Latin America and, if so, how and in what form. The authors examine the significance, for both Latin America and the United States, of the dominance of authoritarian political systems in most Latin American countries; explore the implications of asse

Since the appearance of the first edition of this text in 1974, the book has stimulated an ongoing debate about the nature of the Latin American development process. Although the essays discuss a wide range of historical, economic, political, and social issues, they are unified in arguing that the Latin American experience of development is subject to special imperatives of analysis and interpretation not generally offered in the Western literature on development and social change. Arguing that West ern models are often inappropriate when applied to Latin America, the authors explore alternative approaches to understanding the Latin American pattern of development and change. The third edition retains classic essays from earlier editions but has been extensively revised to take account of the dramatic changes in the region over the last ten years. Looking particularly at the challenges presented by redemocratization and the new pluralism, the book raises the question of whether a'distinct tradition'still remains. New readings discuss the implications of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, the changing role of the church, the process of democratization, and human rights issues and speculate on the permanence of Latin America's more pluralistic political structures.

This book is especially timely as Latin America is diversifying its international connections, Spain and Portugal are seeking to expand their interests and presence in Latin America, and U.S. policy toward both regions has become increasingly complex. Contributors trace the history of Iberian-Latin American relations from colonial times and then examine the cultural, economic, political, and strategic ties that currently exist between the two regions. Particular attention is focused on the impact of Iberian-Latin American relations on U.S. foreign policy. The book concludes with a section of country-specific case studies.

As?must? reading for anyone interested in comparative politics, this text is designed to address the theoretical developments and approaches important to the comparative study of political systems today. These include: developmentalism, dependency theory, corporatism, state society relations, political economy, public policy analysis, indigenous theories of change, rational choice, and the new institutionalism. This text sees the new diversity of approaches as healthy and invigorating. The diversity in comparative politics over the past two decades has been reflected in prior editions of this book. Whereas these separate approaches once may have been regarded as fragmentary, now scholars have come to regard the diverse lines of inquiry as lending complimentary tools of analysis to our complex modern world. The emerging methods of comparative study often provide?causeways? between previous?islands of theory.? In this new edition, all the main approaches to comparative politics are represented in chapter length treatment. Several contributors revisit the topics they addressed in the prior editions, e.g. Tony Smith on dependency analysis, Lawrence Graham on public policy, and Joel Migdal on state-society relations. Most significantly, the third edition introduces readers to new, provocative analyses such as Paul Adams on corporatism, Anthony Gill on political economy; Ronald Inglehart on political culture; Gerardo Munck on rational choice, A. H. Somjee on indigenous theory, and Frank L. Wilson on the new institutionalism. Introductory and concluding essays by editor Howard J. Wiarda integrate the book, placing the different approaches in perspective.

This book offers a region-wide overview of the patterns and processes of Latin American history, politics, society, and development. It provides a detailed country-by-country treatment and unique features of all Latin American countries.

For over thirty years, Latin American Politics and Development has kept instructors and students abreast of current affairs and changes in Latin America. Now in its ninth edition, this definitive text has been updated throughout and features contributions from experts in the field, including twenty new and revised chapters on Mexico, Central America,the Caribbean, and South America.

Universities in Decline examines the declining role of universities in policy generation and analyzes the increasing political influence of Washington-based institutions. This provocative new book identifies such Washington think tanks and policy shops as AEI, CSIS, and the National War College as the main generators of policy incentives.

Political Culture (defined as the values, beliefs, and behavioral patterns underlying the political system) has long had an uneasy relationship with political science. Identity politics is the latest incarnation of this conflict. Everyone agrees that culture and identity are important, specifically political culture, is important in understanding other countries and global regions, but no one agrees how much or how precisely to measure it. In this important book, well known Comparativist, Howard J. Wiarda, traces the long and controversial history of culture studies, and the relations of political culture and identity politics to political science. Under attack from structuralists, institutionalists, Marxists, and dependency writers, Wiarda examines and assesses the reasons for these attacks and why political culture went into decline only to have a new and transcendent renaissance and revival in the writings of Inglehart, Fukuyama, Putnam, Huntington and many others. Today, political culture, now updated to include identity politics, stands as one of these great explanatory paradigms in political science, the others being structuralism and institutionalism. Rather than seeing them as diametrically exposed, Howard Wiarda shows how they may be made complementary and woven together in more complex, multicausal explanations. This book is brief, highly readable, provocative and certain to stimulate discussion. It will be of interest to general readers and as a text in courses in international relations, comparative politics, foreign policy, and Third World studies.

Dispatches from the Frontlines analyzes some of the world's most contentious hotspots. It focuses on such compelling global issues as Third World development, the role of the state, corporatism, and foreign aid. Dispatches from the Frontlines is a thought-provoking book for anyone interested in foreign policy, comparative politics, and international affairs.

On the Boundaries focuses on the connections between international relations, comparative politics, and foreign policy. To many observers, international relations and comparative politics have recently lost focus. Both fields continually move away from foreign policy concerns. In this provocative volume, Howard J. Wiarda details where these fields have gone astray, indicates what must be done to correct their downward trajectories, and offers probing analyses of recent hot political topics that re-forge the links between international relations, comparative politics, and foreign policy.

Political culture refers to the basic values, ideas, beliefs and political orientations by which countries, societies, and whole regions are guided. The underlying belief systems that shape cultures and societies and cause them to behave in certain, often distinct ways. The puzzle or query that chiefly concerns this author is why the United States (US) and its foreign policy have such a hard time understanding cultures and societies other than their own. This provocative book argues that the US needs to end its attitudes of superiority and condescension toward other nations and cultures and redirect its foreign policy accordingly. After an introduction that sets forth the main theoretical and conceptual arguments, the next chapters explore all the main areas of the world. The Conclusion pulls all these themes together, analyzes the common patterns that emerge, and suggests new directions for U.S foreign policy.

The National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., is the apex of the American system of military Professional Military Education (PME) Schools. The War College has trained such leading foreign policy specialists as former National Security Director Brent Scowcroft, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and current National Security Director James Jones. Yet, despite its prestige, not all is right at the College. There is a festering conflict between the military brass who run the school and the civilian academics who teach there. The curriculum is outdated, the courses are old-fashioned, and the college failed completely to prepare a new generation of military leaders for guerilla terrorism, a-symmetrical warfare of the kind we are now facing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and democracy-promotion and national building. In Military Brass vs. Civilian Academics at the National War College: A Clash of Cultures, Howard J. Wiarda uses his first-hand experience to examine the conflict between the two cultures, military and civilian, that coexist uneasily at the College. He also explores the issues_tenure, academic freedom, research, teaching_that divide them. While this study focuses on the National War College, what Wiarda has to say about the tensions and'clash of culture'applies to all PME schools.

Think tanks have become increasingly important in American politics foreign policy. In the last thirty years think tanks have emerged as major actors on the political stage, comparable in influence to large interest groups, political parties, and government agencies. In the same time span these think tanks have replaced universities as the main source for new policy ideas and the background research and arguments to justify them. This book discusses think tanks in general but focuses specifically on the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) in Philadelphia. Though a smallish'tank,'FPRI has been enormously influential, feeding its ideas into government and policy debate even at the level of presidential politics. The author discusses FPRI within the context of the growing influence of presidential politics. The author discusses FPRI within the context of the growing influence of think tanks over public policy in general and foreign policy in particular.

Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) is one of the nation's premier institutions for research on foreign policy, comparative politics, security policy, and international relations. It has also been an incubator of presidential advisors on foreign policy_Bob Bowie, Mac Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski. In this insider and first-person book on WCFIA (formerly CFIA), Howard J. Wiarda explores Harvard's history and culture, the founding and development of WCFIA, and how this prestigious institution works. He examines the WCFIA seminar system, the fellows program, and the incredible flow of presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and defense ministers who flow through WCFIA on an everyday basis. He looks at the research agenda at WCFIA, how it influences foreign policy, and the'in'n outers'revolving door flow of WCFIA scholars and policy wonks into Washington policy-making at the highest levels. In the process the author provides revealing portraits of such eminent scholars and policy influentials as Gabriel Almond, Brzezinski, Stanley Hoffman, Sam Huntington, Kissinger, Joe Nye, Bob Putnam, Lucian Pye, Myron Wiener, and many others. This book is written in an engaging style and includes the author's own experiences at Harvard and WCFIA over a forty-year period. The book is part of a series by the author on'Universities, Think Tanks, and War Colleges: The Changing Pattern of Foreign Policy Influence.'

Conservative Brain Trust traces the rise, fall, and rise again of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI). More than that, it is the story of one of Washington's leading think tanks: what it's like to work there, how Washington works, and how AEI influences policy, including policy on the controversial Iraq War. This is a wide-ranging review of the Washington think tank world, focused particularly on AEI. The book is a social science and political study of the role of think tanks in Washington policy-making and, in part, a personal memoir of the author's adventures and perceptions in seeking to link academic research and American foreign policy. What emerges is a portrait of AEI as an influential, but also troubled, think tank with access to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Irreverent as well as analytic, the author recounts his adventures and experiences in the think tank and policy worlds.

American foreign policy is in severe crisis. The system and process are not working as they should. On one side we are beset by a seemingly uninformed policy, on the other by paralysis and gridlock. The sense is widespread that the American system of government is broken.It is tempting to attribute our present foreign policy malaise to a single cause, such as Congress, the president, or the Iraq War. All of these bear some responsibility, but Howard J. Wiarda argues that the crisis goes far deeper. The problem derives from the kind of society we have become over a forty-year period: more divided, fragmented, and dysfunctional. It is a social, economic, and cultural divide as well as a political one.What are the causes of these deep divisions and of the policymaking paralysis that they produce? Wiarda seeks answers by exploring the fragmentation of American political culture, foreign policy differences between the two major political parties, relations among the large foreign policy bureaucracies, and executive-legislative interactions. He also emphasizes the media's role in polarizing the debate, the foreign policy role of Washington's think tanks, and how social life in the nation's capital both reflects and reinforces preexisting divisions. This book will appeal to students and scholars of foreign policy, political science, and international affairs, as well as anyone interested in improving the American government.

The Dutch Diaspora is a comprehensive and personal study of the former colonial empire of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is considered one of the most successful societies and at one point was the world's largest empire_stretching from Japan to the United States. The author, Howard Wiarda, who grew up in western Michigan and is himself of Dutch descent, combines thorough scholarship with first-hand experience of travels to the far-flung former colonies. The study analyzes how colonies reacted to the ideological beliefs implanted by the Dutch settlers and how those colonies evolved in terms of cultural, religious, and political beliefs. For example, the Dutch in the seventeenth century brought Calvinism to South Africa and entrepreneurialism to New Amsterdam and Cura_ao and in the nineteenth century supported slave plantation systems in Indonesia and Suriname, but as time passed the evolution of the colonies was telling. The United States outgrew Great Britain in wealth and power, but while Calvinism declined in the Netherlands it remained vibrant and progressive in the American Midwest. In many ways, the former colonies adapted to modernization better than the mother country. The Dutch Diaspora is an insightful and accessible study of colonialism useful to upper-level undergraduates and all students and researchers of Dutch history.

This succinct overview of the political factors that condition social and economic development in Latin America is the perfect core text in courses on politics, government, social change, and transitions to democracy throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Beginning with an introduction to the field of comparative politics, this clear and complete text moves on to explore new, innovative directions in the field. Leading scholar Howard J. Wiarda explores its main approaches, including political development, political culture, dependency theory, corporatism, indigenous theories of change, state-society relations, rational choice, and the new institutionalism. Wiarda addresses many hot issues in the field: Can democracy and human rights be transplanted from one culture to another? Is civil society exportable? What works in the effort to develop the poorer nations and what doesn't? Where are we headed with such frontier research issues as comparative environmental policy, women's rights, and gay rights? The book concludes with a stimulating discussion of whether the great systems debates of the past (socialism vs. capitalism, democracy vs. authoritarianism) are now over and points to some of the next important study and research frontiers. Students, professors, and general readers will all find Comparative Politics current, provocative, and well written—a truly balanced overview.

Civil Society focuses on the processes and politics of dismantling'corporate'(state directed) economies and political systems in the Third World. Howard Wiarda explores how this separation would create a move toward civil societies of free associability and democracy, as well as the limits to and pitfalls of this approach. The book examines case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and includes such critical countries as South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt.

Wiarda provides a new edition of a pioneering exploration of Latin American political culture, the autoritarian tradition, and the recent transitions to democracy and the special meaning of that term in the Latin American context.The volume contains a provocative Introduction and Conclusion by the editor as well as essays by leading scholars of Latin American politics and history: Richard Morse, Octavio Paz, Glen Dealy, Peter Smith, and others. This is a classic collection, newly revised and updated.

What options are available now or in the future for students interested in a public policy career? How do they train, network, and advance in the field? Students, parents, professors, guidance counselors, and department chairs are often frustrated by the absence of a solid, readable book on policy careers and options. This book presents the career stories of twenty scholars and policy practitioners who have worked in Congress, the State Department, the CIA, Defense, international agencies, think tanks, the media, and major law firms—all of whom have been influential in shaping public policy—to give readers an accurate and realistic view of life outside the academic world.No other book provides this type of solid advice for young policy professionals and for older scholars considering career changes. As such, it is vital reading in guidance and department collections, and an essential addition to the personal bookshelves of individual students, scholars, and researchers.

Spain and Portugal have recently adopted European-style democratic and political systems. Yet their pattern of historical development is distinctive and, in many respects, their political systems still reflect unique features. In this provocative text Wiard and Mott analyze the special features of Spanish history: the Catholic tradition, seven centuries of Moorish rule, the Christian Reconquest, and the special nature of Spanish feudalism and nationalism. Building on these foundations, the authors analyze Spanish and Portuguese modern history, the regimes of Franco and Salazar, and the recent transitions to democracy. Successive chapters deal with class structure and interest groups, political parties and elections, the structure of the state and state-society relations, regional politics, and patterns of public policy.While becoming more European socially, culturally, and politically, these two Iberian political systems show also some remarkable continuities with the past, including notions of organic democracy, neocorporatism, and tensions between regionalism and centralism, democracy and authoritarianism, and religiousity and secularism. Students and scholars involved with European politics, comparative politics, Iberian Studies, and transitions to democracy will find this an accessible and provocative analysis.

Corporatism is the third great ideolgy of modern social and political organization and it is one of the main organizing concepts used in comparative political analysis. This study traces corporatism in history, analyzes its modern practice and shows the rise of corporatism in the US.