Storia, istituzioni e diritti dell'america latina

A.Y. 2025/2026
6
Max ECTS
40
Overall hours
SSD
SPS/05
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
In the context of the interdisciplinary education of the Master's programme, the Latin America's History, Institutions, and Rights teaching aims at providing students with the instruments and means necessary to understand aspects and dynamics of the complex political-institutional and socio-economic reality of contemporary Latin America, that will be analysed in their respective historical contexts and in the framework of interregional and international relations.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course the student will acquire the knowledge necessary to understand the political-institutional and socio-economic dynamics of contemporary Latin America, in particular, the season of progressive presidencies and the beginning of a season of alternating conservative and progressive governments and the emergence of radical parties of extreme right in many national realities. On the matter of rights, the student will acquire the knowledge connected to the processes that brought to the surfacing of some new rights in the last decades, such as rights of victims of dictatorships and civil wars and indigenous rights in relation to territorial claims, environmental protection and exploitation of natural resources.

Applying knowledge and understanding: the acquired knowledge will allow the student to analyse, comprehend, study and interpret the political and institutional processes and the socio-economic dynamics of the Latin American reality.
Single course

This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.

Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Lesson period
First trimester
Course syllabus
Course programme for ATTENDING STUDENTS:

The first lessons of the course concern the main phases of Latin America in XIX-XX century in order to provide the students the basic knowledge about the issue of the subject.
The second part of the course deals with the legacy left by the civic-military regimes of the 1970s-80s, the issues and challenges faced by democratic governments during the transitions to democracy and the entry into the new Millennium, that has been characterised from the rise of new political leaders and progressive parties (e.g., Chávez, Morales, Lula and Kirchner) whose the course will analyse the political and economical choices, social reforms and human rights protection in national and trans-regional dynamics. Finally, the current changes that have determined the crisis of radical governments and the beginning of a season of alternating conservative and progressive governments and the emergence of radical parties of the extreme right.
The last lessons analyse the actual dynamics in policy, economy and society (e.g., elections, migrations, peace process and indigenous rights in relation to territorial claims and environmental protection.). The students shall study the last actual events in recent journal articles and in the documents uploaded on the site MyAriel (section Contents, file Materials for attending students).

Course Programme for Non-Attending Students

The teaching materials will allow non attending students to analyze the political, economic and social developments and changes that characterized the last decades of Latin America's history. The legacy left by the civic-military regimes of the 1970s-80s, the issues and challenges faced by democratic governments during the transitions to democracy and the entry into the new Millennium, that has been characterised from the rise of new political leaders and progressive parties (e.g., Chávez, Morales, Lula and Kirchner) whose the programme will analyse the political and economical choices, social reforms and human rights protection in national and trans-regional dynamics. Finally, the current changes that have determined the crisis of radical governments and the beginning of a season of alternating conservative and progressive governments and the emergence of radical parties of the extreme right.
Even if non attending, students will be provided with the possibility to understand the political, institutional, social and economic dynamics and processes currently taking place (such as, elections, migratory phenomena, peace processes and indigenous rights in relation to territorial claims and environmental protection). This last part will require the reading of journal articles and other materials published on the course's website on the MyAriel platform, in the Contents section, folder material for non attending students.
Prerequisites for admission
A knowledge of Contemporary History and mostly of Latin America is required. The professor will retrace some its fundamental moments during the lessons, besides giving a bibliography for filling any eventual gap.
Suggested, not mandatory, propedeutics: Contemporary History and History and Institutions of Latin America (undergraduate).
Lessons will be in the first trimester.
Teaching methods
Beside online lessons there will be seminarial lessons and talks with experts, book presentation with autors about the topics covered.
Moreover bibliographical insights will be provided and reading newspapers, scientific magazines will be stimulated in order to to be accostumbred with the latinoamerican reality in general and in particular with the themes dealt during the course.
News will be an opportunity to reflect and deepen during the lessons.
Teaching Resources
References for the final examination:

For Attending Students - THE PROGRAMME WILL BE CONFIRMED AT THE FIRST LESSON
1. Nocera Raffaele - Angelo Trento, America latina, un secolo di storia. Dalla rivoluzione messicana ad oggi, Carocci, Roma, 2013. (COMPLETE READING)
2. Raffaele Nocera and Valerio Giannattasio (Eds.), Democrazie inquiete. Viaggio nelle trasformazioni dell'America latina, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Milano, 2017, Quaderni/17, e-book in https://fondazionefeltrinelli.it/schede/democrazie-inquiete-viaggio-nelle-trasformazioni-dellamerica-latina/. (COMPLETE READING)
3. De Giuseppe Massimo - La Bella Gianni, America Latina: le sfide del XXI secolo. Verso il terzo decennio, Rubettino 2020, 218 pp. (COMPLETE READING)
4. Documents provided by the professor during the lessons or uploaded on the site Ariel (Contents: Material for attending students). These documents complete the knowledge about actual facts not contained in the books.

FOR ANY OPTIONAL FURTHER READING, CONSULT THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SECTION ON THE MYARIEL SITE OF THE COURSE.
IN ADDITION:
1. Nocera, Raffaele - Paolo Wulzer, L'America latina nella politica internazionale. Dalla fine del sistema bipolare alla crisi dell'ordine liberale, Carocci, 2020.
2. Gardini Gian Luca, L'America latina nel XXI secolo. Nazioni, regionalismo e globalizzazione, Carocci, Roma, 2009.
3. De Giuseppe Massimo - La Bella Gianni, Storia dell'America Latina contemporanea, Il Mulino, 2019.
4. Tiziana Bertaccini, Le Americhe Latine nel XX secolo, Feltrinelli, 2014.

References for the final examination for Non-Attending Students
Written Test:
1. Nocera Raffaele - Angelo Trento, America latina, un secolo di storia. Dalla rivoluzione messicana ad oggi, Carocci, Roma, 2013. (COMPLETE READING)
2. Raffaele Nocera and Valerio Giannattasio (Eds.), Democrazie inquiete. Viaggio nelle trasformazioni dell'America latina, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Milano, 2017, Quaderni/17, e-book in https://fondazionefeltrinelli.it/schede/democrazie-inquiete-viaggio-nelle-trasformazioni-dellamerica-latina/ COMPLETE READING
3. De Giuseppe Massimo - La Bella Gianni (Eds.), America Latina: le sfide del XXI secolo. Verso il terzo decennio, Rubettino 2020, 218 pp. (COMPLETE READING)
4. Documents uploaded on the site Ariel (Contents: Material for NON attending students). The reading of these documents is essential as they finalize the knowledge about actual events not contained in the books.

FOR ANY OPTIONAL FURTHER READING, CONSULT THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SECTION ON THE MYARIEL SITE OF THE COURSE. IN ADDITION:
1. Nocera, Raffaele - Paolo Wulzer, L'America latina nella politica internazionale. Dalla fine del sistema bipolare alla crisi dell'ordine liberale, Carocci, 2020.
2. Gardini Gian Luca, L'America latina nel XXI secolo. Nazioni, regionalismo e globalizzazione, Carocci, Roma, 2009.
3. De Giuseppe Massimo - La Bella Gianni, Storia dell'America Latina contemporanea, Il Mulino, 2019.
4. Tiziana Bertaccini, Le Americhe Latine nel XX secolo, Feltrinelli, 2014.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The examination will be aimed at verifying that the attending and non-attending students have acquired the tools to understand, describe and interpret the political, institutional, economic and social dynamics of contemporary Latin America and that they have the ability to clearly express concepts / notions / institutions, accurately and with the correct terminology.

TO ATTENDING STUDENTS: there will be a written examination on a date dedicated to you. An eventual intermediate test may be scheduled, depending to the number of students attending.

TO NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS: the examination shall be written
Written examination: The test will be composed of 2 different parts: the first one consists in 50 closed questions with multiple-choice answers. Students will have to answer at least 36 of them correctly to score 18/30 (each correct answer equals 0.5 points). The second part of the examination entails a series of questions with open answer (4 questions). Students will choose 2 among the proposed topics. Each answer will be worth from 0 to 2,5 points.
Students must take both parts of the exam.

The examination will be aimed at verifying that the non-attending students have acquired the tools to understand, describe and interpret the political, institutional, economic and social dynamics of contemporary Latin America and that they have the ability to clearly express concepts / notions / institutions, accurately and with the correct terminology.
SPS/05 - AMERICAN HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours