Political Convergence in South America
(2010) STVK01 20101Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- This case study considers what appears to be a political convergence in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Four political transitions that have occurred in all three countries are studied: the military coups of 1964, 1973 and 1976, the transitions back to democracy, the implementations of liberal economic reforms, and the recent turns leftwards.
Three different types of explanations are presented, each representing a different view on the question of structure versus agency. These explanations build on theories of diffusion, theories of political cycles and the impact of external factors. Each type of explanation is then analysed separately, resulting in three different analyses.
I argue that diffusion seems to have the best explanatory... (More) - This case study considers what appears to be a political convergence in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Four political transitions that have occurred in all three countries are studied: the military coups of 1964, 1973 and 1976, the transitions back to democracy, the implementations of liberal economic reforms, and the recent turns leftwards.
Three different types of explanations are presented, each representing a different view on the question of structure versus agency. These explanations build on theories of diffusion, theories of political cycles and the impact of external factors. Each type of explanation is then analysed separately, resulting in three different analyses.
I argue that diffusion seems to have the best explanatory potential, although political cycles also deliver reasonable explanations, whereas the external factors studied – the US and the IMF – fail to give a satisfactory explanation on either transition.
In parity with the conclusions of Graham Allison’s Essence of Decision, the most important insight of this thesis is, however, the importance of the perspective for how we understand the problem. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1608381
- author
- Eriksson, Jonas LU
- supervisor
-
- Åsa Knaggård LU
- organization
- alternative title
- A Case Study of Synchronous Political Phases in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay
- course
- STVK01 20101
- year
- 2010
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- political cycles, diffusion, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, political convergence, external factors, synchronous political phases, Allison
- language
- English
- id
- 1608381
- date added to LUP
- 2010-06-30 16:54:47
- date last changed
- 2010-06-30 16:54:47
@misc{1608381, abstract = {{This case study considers what appears to be a political convergence in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Four political transitions that have occurred in all three countries are studied: the military coups of 1964, 1973 and 1976, the transitions back to democracy, the implementations of liberal economic reforms, and the recent turns leftwards. Three different types of explanations are presented, each representing a different view on the question of structure versus agency. These explanations build on theories of diffusion, theories of political cycles and the impact of external factors. Each type of explanation is then analysed separately, resulting in three different analyses. I argue that diffusion seems to have the best explanatory potential, although political cycles also deliver reasonable explanations, whereas the external factors studied – the US and the IMF – fail to give a satisfactory explanation on either transition. In parity with the conclusions of Graham Allison’s Essence of Decision, the most important insight of this thesis is, however, the importance of the perspective for how we understand the problem.}}, author = {{Eriksson, Jonas}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Political Convergence in South America}}, year = {{2010}}, }