Latin American Revolutions

Modern Latin American Revolutions, Second Edition, introduces the concept of consolidation of the revolutionary process -- the efforts of revolutionary leaders to transform society and the acceptance by a significant majority of the population of the core of the social revolutionary project. The second edition of this acclaimed book has been revised and updated to include new information on the cases of Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Grenada, assessing the extent to which each revolution was both institutionalized and consolidated. This edition also boasts expanded coverage on Che Gueavara's visionary leadership and an allnew section that addresses the future of revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Selbin argues that there is a strong link between organizational leadership and the institutionalization process on the one hand, and visionary leadership and the consolidation process on the other. Particular attention is given to the ongoing revolutionary process in Nicaragua, with an emphasis on the implications and ramifications of the 1990 electoral process. A final chapter includes brief analyses of the still unfolding revolutionary processes in El Salvador and Peru.

This study, for the first time, uses modern political economic theory (public choice theory, public goods theory, and game theory) to create a theoretical framework for comparative political analysis. This framework, which includes the nonindustrial world, treats both violence and democratic processes as normal methods of political competition. Deductive in nature, the theory redefines political variables according to their economic counterparts. Chaffee applies microeconomic theory to generate hypotheses and conclusions, using examples from Latin America to illustrate the efficacy of the framework.

An examination of Latin America as a social system with an analysis of social processes and structures reflecting a society in conflict and change.

After Fidel Castro's guerrilla war against dictator Fulgencio Batista triumphed on January 1, 1959, the Cuban Revolution came to be seen as a major watershed in Latin American history. The three decades following Castro's victory gradually marginalized Cuba from the Latin American mainstream. But, as long-time Cuba observer Thomas C. Wright shows, the Cuban Revolution owed its vast influence in Latin America to the fact that--most evidently in its early years--it embodied the aspirations and captured the imaginations of Latin America's masses as no other political movement had ever done.

At the start of the 1960s, revolution in the "Third World" challenged the established order, as discontent with the status quo fueled attempts to revoke colonialism and the strangleholds on power maintained by entrenched local oligarchies. This book examines the causes of revolution in Latin America in the sixties and the various responses crafted to stop it, in particular, the Alliance for Progress, a program which represented the best products of American developmental and counterinsurgency theory. Equally important, however, is an examination of the independent policies implemented by Latin American elites, policies often in direct opposition to those pursued by the U.S.