Contemporary Mexico

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate

Dr. Pablo Paras This seminar will review the major trends and issues that have shaped Mexico in the last five decades. We will depart from the current state of affairs and discuss structural and cultural explanations for these processes. It is an interdisciplinary seminar that will include: (a) reading materials from history, economics, and political science, and (b) the use of public opinion survey data to complement the analysis and discuss government responsiveness. Topics to be discussed include the dual transition (economic + political), rule of law/justice system, security/violence, civil society, religion/values; and the bi-lateral relation with the United States. The analysis for each topic will have three components: discussion of relevant literature, analysis of survey data, and invited expert guest to have and in-depth discussion with students. Main textbooks to be used • Edmonds-Poli E, 1970, Shirk DA, 1971. Contemporary Mexican politics. Third ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield; 2015. • González González FE. Dual transitions from authoritarian rule: institutionalized regimes in Chile and Mexico, 1970-2000. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins U. Press; 2008. • Camp RA, Joseph A. O'Hare Fund. The Oxford handbook of Mexican politics. Oxford;New York;: Oxford University Press; 2011. • Castañeda, Jorge G. Mañana forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf; 2011. • Corchado A. Midnight in Mexico: a reporter's journey through a country's descent into the darkness. New York: The Penguin Press; 2014. • Pollock, Philip H. 2011. The Essentials of Political Analysis, CQ Press, Washington DC. Fifth Edition. • Selected short textbooks from SAGE ́s Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series Further readings will be assigned on BB according to the topic to be covered in each session.