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Key Texts for Latin American Sociology comprises translations of key texts from the Latin American Sociology canon. It is the first book to curate and then translate these key texts into English, bringing together texts from leading sociologists in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Bolivia, and Uruguay, to provide comprehensive coverage of a wide range of issues in Latin American Sociology. By drawing attention to embedded issues such as development, inequalities, oppression and representation, the key texts approach sociology in its most authentic terms: as a means of understanding and committing to social change. The result of five years of collaboration between colleagues from 15 Latin American Countries, this volume was conceived at a workshop in Mendoza in 2013, where the scientific committee discussed the difference between "classics" and "key-texts" in Latin American sociology.

"Latin American Thinking in International Relations: Concepts Apart from Theory" published on by Oxford University Press.

Political scientists often describe party competition, political behavior or public preferences in left/right terms. Nevertheless, the usefulness of the concepts "left" or "right" is rarely explored. This study assesses whether the left/right continuum resonates with publics in developing Latin American democracies. Using data from the 2008 wave of the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), the authors measure variability in left/right self-placement in three Latin American countries, namely, Ecuador, Mexico, and Chile. Building on the approach developed by Alvarez and Brehm for public opinion in the United States, the authors explore (a) the extent to which voters in Ecuador, Mexico, and Chile possess predicable left/right positions and (b) whether predictability can be attributed to individual- and country-level characteristics. At the individual level, the authors show that variability decreases with political sophistication. At the country level, they find that a lower degree of programmatic party system structuration leads to higher levels of response variation. Mapping the variability in left/right preferences provides important insights into the structure of public opinion and contours of political behavior in Latin America and how they differ from those of other regions such as North America. In addition, this study brings to bear important new individual-level insights into recent political developments in the Latin American region, especially the so-called left turn in Latin American politics.

AbstractIs it domestic politics or the international system that more decisively influences foreign policy? This article focuses on Latin America's three largest powers to identify patterns and compare outcomes in their relations with the regional hegemon, the United States. Through a statistical analysis of voting behavior in the UN General Assembly, we examine systemic variables (both realist and liberal) and domestic variables (institutional, ideological, and bureaucratic) to determine their relative weights between 1946 and 2008. The study includes 4,900 votes, the tabulation of 1,500 ministers according to their ideological persuasion, all annual trade entries, and an assessment of the political strength of presidents, cabinets, and parties per year. The findings show that while Argentina's voting behavior has been determined mostly by domestic factors and Mexico's by realist systemic ones, Brazil's has a more complex blend of determinants, but also with a prevalence of realist systemic variables.

Tariq Ali, political activist and author, talked about an emergent challenge to neo-liberalism and the Washington consensus in Latin America. He discussed the democratic legitimacy of the Venezuelan regime and the failed attempts to topple Hugo Chavez whose Bolivarian Project provides an alternative social vision to that of the United States. He also talked about Chavez's indirect interventions in U.S. politics. He argued that what is happening in Latin America represents a growing crisis for the U.S. The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording of the talk given by the author. Those who download the audio file must have their own software for playing and listening.

AbstractThis article proposes a research agenda for the organization of the executive branch in Latin America by reviewing the literature on the U.S. and Latin American presidencies and outlining the research gap between them. The study finds that while strong, regionwide patterns have been established about cabinets in Latin America, research is lagging behind on the presidential center, presidential advisory networks, and their effects in policymaking. The article sets forth a series of research questions and suggests a combination of quantitative, social network, and case study strategies to address them.