Students of slavery and the plantation system long have realized that there were differences between the forms taken by these institutions in the New World colonies of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula and those of the Anglo-Saxon nations of northwestern Europe. Several attempts have been made to compare selected areas of Iberian and Anglo- American plantation societies in the hope of specifying the nature of the differences. Unfortunately, these comparisons, rooted at times in the best techniques of historical and, in cases, sociological analysis, have focused on the Spanish colonies—and most often on the Cuban case—as the example of the Iberian pattern, arid the southern part of the United States, or parts of the British West Indies, as representative of the Anglo-American form.

The fall of Salvador Allende's government on September 11, 1973, has given rise to debates over many issues, such as the role of the United States in bringing about the conditions that led to a military coup, the feasibility of a peaceful road toward socialism, and the existence or nonexistence of a democratic and national bourgeoisie in Chile (Valenzuela and Valenzuela, 1975). One issue remains relatively unexplored, however, namely, how much was the Soviet Union willing to aid the Popular Unity (UP) government in its quest for autonomy from the United States? This quest for autonomy was a paramount foreign policy goal because the basic program of Allende's coalition government, approved by the Communist, Socialist, Radical, Social Democratic, Movement for Unitary Popular Action, and Independent Popular Action parties, stated that the basic cause of Chile's poverty and inflation was their intimate economic ties with the United States. The resulting dependence brought about the underdevelopment of Chile and prevented the Chilean bourgeoisie from being truly nationalistic. These dependent ties with the United States would have to be broken for Chile to be capable of autonomous development.

The nomination of Carlos Andrés Peréz as the presidential candidate of Venezuela's Democratic Action party (Acción Democrática or AD) and his triumph at the polls in December 1988 are just the latest examples of the AD Labor Bureau's success in being on the winning side in electoral contests. AD-Labor's well-demonstrated political clout underscores the importance of the relations between the Labor Bureau and the AD organization. An examination of the interaction between the two is especially in order because AD has emerged as a leading Latin American member of the Socialist International (SI) with its social democratic doctrine which assigns the working class a major role in the party and in the gradual achievement of democratic socialism.

La atención médica es una de las áreas donde muchos han estimado que más cambios favorables a la población se han efectuado por el régimen que gobierna a Cuba desde 1959. Este artículo no va a entrar en un análisis de esos cambios ni pretende hacer un juicio sobre los mismos. Pero sí aspira a que la situación que existía anteriormente se conozca un poco mejor para que de esa forma el interesado en estas cuestiones tenga más elementos de juicio.

Es necesario destacar que el sistema de atención médica en Cuba hasta 1958 resultaba único, si se compara con los demás países de este hemisferio, por el predominio de instituciones no lucrativas que prestaban servicios médicos a sus asociados mediante el pago de cuotas muy modestas. Este sistema estaba tan enraizado en el país que aún hoy se notan amplios vestigios del mismo a pesar de los cambios que han tenido lugar.

The persistence of trade and exchange controls in developing countries is of growing concern among economic circles and has been dealt with in recent discussions and papers, both published and unpublished. In Latin America exchange practices have severely tested the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which represents the prevailing ideology of a liberal international monetary policy. The principles and activities of this institution have tended to conflict in many ways with the development efforts of Latin American countries—a fact that has not always been fully recognized due to the confidential nature of many of the Fund's actions. One important issue has been the problem of multiple exchange rates, which, in many Latin American countries, came to constitute an important instrument of the policy of industrialization through import substitution.

As the Miami Summit of Western Hemisphere heads of state concluded on 11 December 1994, excessive optimism — even euphoria — seemed to be everywhere in the air. For once, the United States and Latin America seemed to be in agreement on basic policy, rather than, as so often in the past, in each other's hair/face or at each other's throats. There was general agreement about the goals of democracy, free trade, and open markets; the vexatious Cuba issue had been skillfully shunted aside.

However, more than that, the Miami Summit appeared to augur a new era in US-Latin American relations based on consensus and a common agenda of human rights, democracy, transparency, the environment, government reform, social equity, and a free market environment.

October 1998 marked the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of Brazil’s most recent democratic constitution—and the debates about how to reform that same constitution have been going on just as long. The continuing efforts at constitutional reform in Brazil suggest the gravity of institutional choice in new democracies. The importance of “getting institutions right” is underscored, in political science, by the notion that institutional choices can undermine or solidify democratic rule.

If export orientation is a goal in a sustainable development strategy, this study argues that public interventions at the sectoral level in a variety of markets can produce economic reorientation that pursues international comparative advantage faster and at lower cost than free market forces can. Pervasive failures in information, credit, input, distribution, and insurance markets can render strictly market-based adjustment both slow and costly. Although Chile's export boom and high growth rates have been associated with its free market economic policies, this article, based on a comparison of the fruit, fish, and forestry sectors, contends that new forms of public intervention were crucial catalysts in shaping a sustained export response.

The election of Rómulo Betancourt as constitutional President of Venezuela for the 1959-1964 term marks a turning point in that country's political evolution and a high point in the tide of reform now sweeping Latin American toward stable constitutional government. The new president of Venezuela and the party he leads, Acción Democrática, represent the same type of reformist movement as those now flourishing in many other countries of Latin America. As a result, dictatorship in the spring of 1959 is confined to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Paraguay. The situation in Haiti is unclear, but in the other sixteen republics the governments are controlled by parties and leaders which are to a greater or lesser degree trying to get away from the past and seem to have the support of their populations in their efforts. This marks a great change from most of the past history of the Latin American Republics in which the population was ruled by dictatorial cliques dedicated to the preservation of a status quo which meant the perpetuation of poverty and backwardness for most of the Latin Americans.

Should the United States go to war with Cuba? If not, what should be the policy of the US government toward Cuba? What should be Cuban policies toward the United States and the Soviet Union? Should Cuba increase or decrease its worldwide commitments and should it emphasize formal or informal foreign policy instruments? These have been the central questions affecting US-Cuban relations during the past quarter century. This essay endeavors to address some of the aspects they raise for US-Cuban relations for the remainder of the decade.

The death of forbes burnham in August 1985 and the passing of power to Hugh Desmond Hoyte have produced dramatic changes in Guyana, South America's only English-speaking republic. Some of these have involved: (1) privatization of the public sector, (2) abolition of overseas voting, (3) negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), (4) rapprochement with the United States, plus (5) an agreement that observers — including former President Jimmy Carter and representatives from the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat—are being invited to oversee the upcoming elections scheduled for either August or September 1991.

Precipitated by domestic and international pressures, these changes have taken place within the context of a change in regimes as well, in which one dominant leader, Forbes Burnham, has been succeeded by another equally dominant, Desmond Hoyte.

This paper analyzes the conditions in which the governments of Argentina and Brazil founded security institutions in the early 1990s, while they were democratizing. It advances the hypothesis that international cooperation in the security field is often linked to the evolution of civil-military relations. Civilian leaders in both countries established institutions and sought international participation deliberately to achieve civilian control and gain leverage over the military establishment, which they sorely distrusted. The need to stabilize civil-military relations at home was therefore the prime motivating force behind the emergence of security institutions in the Southern Cone. Three mechanisms were at work: omnibalancing, policy handling, and managing uncertainty. These mechanisms are derived from three different schools of thought: realism, organizational-bureaucratic models, and theories of domestic political institutions. Besides explaining the sources of nuclear bilateral cooperation, this argument also serves as a critique of two prominent theories in international relations that attempt to explain cooperation and peaceful relations among democracies: neoliberal insti-tutionalism and democratic peace theory.

Aside from the United States, Germany is Latin America's .most important economic partner. Despite this fact, Germany has never appeared to have a very strong overall relationship with the region and, due to its postwar history, has never developed a true “Latin American policy.” For obvious reasons, Germany has given high priority to (1) relations with its Western neighbors and (2) its security relationship with the United States. As far as its policy towards the South goes, it has tended to concentrate on major actors, such as Egypt and India, and its relations with Brazil should be viewed in that context.

The absence of a defined policy does not mean that Germany lacks a visible profile in the region. The role and image it projects reflects a relationship that is much broader, and far more complex, than its economic and diplomatic activities in the region would indicate.

Public enterprise plays a key role in the economic development process in Latin America, both because of the region's cultural heritage, which has led people to look to central authority for leadership in promoting economic growth, and because of the accelerated pace of recent cataclysmic events to which only governments have had the power to respond.

Currently, Latin America is undergoing its worst economic setback in half a century, in which eight newly-elected democratic governments are struggling to regain control over their destinies. These governments face unprecedented planning and administrative problems as they move from the crisis-management phase of economic austerity programs to one of resumed growth. A central concern of these governments is, and will continue to be, the successful operations of major parastatal enterprises.

Space research and exploration are commonly considered the special province of the superpowers. The considerable financial resources and still greater technological capabilities required for programs of manned space flight and planetary investigation are widely assumed to be prerequisites for space research activity of any character. In fact, however, space research is richly varied, in objective and method as well as in material and financial requirements. Thus, it is possible for lesser powers and certain of the developing countries to participate in this newest area of human activity. The values to be achieved are not only scientific and technical but also political and economic. Tangible contributions can be made both to the domestic interests of such countries find to the space programs of major powers. The opportunities implicit in these facts were early recognized by the Latin American countries, particularly Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, and all are engaged in interesting, stimulating, and productive space activities.

In spite of the reestablishment of civilian democracy in Ecuador and Peru, military government continues to be the norm in Latin America. In recent years, many scholars have examined the rise of military regimes in the region in order to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of civil-military relations. Few analysts, however, have studied civil-military relations in the handful of nations where civilian government has persisted. The purpose of this analysis is, therefore, to contribute to a broader understanding of Latin American military behavior by attempting to explain the Colombian armed forces’ atypical obedience to civilian authority.

Diplomatic and economic relations between Latin American countries and the People’s Republic of China have become increasingly relevant for both sides, particularly in the areas of trade, investment, and scientific and technological cooperation. Relations have also intensified because of changes in the international balance of power; the PRC’s Third World policy is shaped by the friction between the PRC and the world’s great powers, including the United States. Competition from Taiwan for Latin American opportunities is another significant influence.

The title of my essay, invoking, as it does, the justifiably famous Japanese cinema verité production of Rashomon, might well strike a discordant note. My aim, however, is to clarify, not to confuse. The film describes a variety of eyewitnesses to a murder, each one of whom, infused with different motives, “saw” the event differently from the other eyewitnesses. This is little more than a modern-day version of Walter Lippmann's observations on the ideological, interest-laden nature of the formation of public opinion in modern society, but it serves us well in introducing the topic of this essay.

What I am suggesting with respect to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and what I hope to demonstrate, is that we are now experiencing a similar paradox in the sociology of knowledge.