In 1989 The Inter-American System will celebrate its centennial anniversary, tracing its lineage to the International Union of the American Republics formed at Secretary of State Blaine's Washington convocation in 1889. Over the years the mantle was passed, first, to the Pan American Union, and then to the system's present incumbent, the Organization of American States (OAS). It has been a century of unprecedented achievement and unremitting frustration, of great triumphs and repeated failures. Given the present state of the system, however, the major question is whether the system can endure, much less match the rhetoric and aspirations of its members, in its second century.

International cooperation is a political decision in search of a framework. The Organization of American States is the attempt to express and enhance that cooperation among the nations of the Western Hemisphere. It is, and can be, no better than the underlying relationships among the nations.

Research on the presidency in Latin America offers one of the most promising sources of contributions to be made to the study of comparative government. With the exception of a few articles in journals, and chapters on the presidency in political science texts and readers, no general work on the Latin American chief executive is to be found in English. Also lacking are general works on the presidency in individual countries. With more than 700 Latin American presidents in office since the twenty republics were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, investigation seems not only possible but desirable in building modest or middle-range theories of development and modernization in the behavior of Latin American chiefs of state. Given the fact of presidential domination of the political process throughout much, if not most, of the republican period in Latin America, the presidency is an obvious and important focus of study.

Venezuela has experienced significant economic development during recent decades, although rapid population growth has partially offset economic gains. During the five-year period 1969-1973, the gross national product increased at an annual rate of 5.0 percent, which, coupled with population growth, yielded real per capita increases of 2.6 percent annually. Relatively smooth transition in the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry in 1976 presents a favorable assessment for the economy during the next decade. Yet while there has been notable progress in conventional economic indicators, there have been less rapid improvements in education, nutrition, and health. This paper examines past trends in Venezuelan population growth within the context of general social and economic development. Because of the importance of fertility in affecting population growth, particular attention is paid to fertility trends.

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada
Lá sou amigo do rei
La tenho a mulher que eu quero
Na cama que escolherei
Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada

Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada
Aqui eu nao sou feliz

Em Pasárgada tem tudo
É Outra civilização
Tem um processo seguro
De impedir a concepção
Tem telefone automático
Tem alcaloide a vontade
Tem prostitutas bonitas
Para a gente namorar

— Lá sou amigo do rei —
Terei a mulher que eu quero
Na cama que escolherei
Vou-me embora pra Pasárgada

Published in 1957, to mark his seventieth birthday, the “Itinerário” gives a lucid account of Manuel Bandeira's biography, in which he carefully details the significant events of his long career. But the book has even greater value as a document which traces the poet's dual formation as man and as artist, the shaping of his artistic sensibility and consciousness of poetic mission.

La cuestión colonial fué comprendida por muy pocos políticos españoles del siglo XIX. Pi y Margall fué uno de ellos, si bien cuando llegó al poder no hizo nada. Prim fué otro. Según uno de sus biógrafos, “pensó en conceder la autonomía para después llegar a la independencia, y, cuando pensaba ya en triunfar, librado a nuestro país del cáncer que le consumía … aconteció el vil asesinato de que fué víctima.”1 El tercero fué Rafael María de Labra (1840-1918), a quien nadie excedió en señalar los vicios y pecados de la colonización española.

Verdaderamente sorprende hoy el olvido en que se tiene a un hombre que dedicó lo mejor de su vida a la defensa de los intereses antillanos. Porque América — hay que decirlo — fué su obsesión, no sólo durante los días de la colonia sino después, cuando ya perdidos los últimos restos del imperio español se dedicó a cultivar la intimidad americana y a fomentar la unión espiritual de España con las repúblicas hispanoamericanas.

Portuguese, a relative newcomer to most college and university curricula, may possibly have been taught in the United States as early as the close of the seventeenth century in a school belonging to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of New York City. It seems likely that the early records kept in Portuguese over several decades were written by those who received their training in the language in New York City. Instruction in Portuguese in college was first offered by a Frenchman, Father Peter Babad of the Society of St. Sulpice. Just when the priest began teaching Portuguese at St. Mary's College in Baltimore, Maryland, is not precisely known, but in 1816 he had a class in it under the auspices of the Department of Classical Languages.

The question of state insolvency has been a recurring problem in modern history. Defaults have plagued investors and damaged many nations' credit on international money markets. Other nations have suffered due to investor anxieties resulting from defaults by their neighbors. Politicians, diplomats, financiers, and investors have differed greatly in their proposed solutions to the problems of national fiscal failure. The experience of Mexico in its postrevolutionary era is a classic example of the myriad problems faced by those who assist in the financial rehabilitation of the distressed nation, as well as by those who seek to protect investors.

The first half-century after Mexico won its independence was characterized by almost constant domestic strife, frequently humiliating international relations, and a tendency toward fiscal irresponsibility. It was not until Porfirio Díaz seized the presidency from Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada in 1876 that Mexico experienced a degree of domestic tranquility which earned it the tolerance begrudgingly granted by powerful states to their weaker but stable brethren.

In the transition from military rule to democracy, the government of Augusto Pinochet bequeathed to Chile a unique electoral law by which all legislative seats are contested in two-member districts. A key implication of this rule is that in order to secure legislative majorities, coalitions have to put their strongest candidates in the most precarious electoral list positions. This generates a divergence of interests between coalitions and politicians. Chile's largest coalition, the Concertación, has resolved the dilemma by providing appointed posts to unsuccessful congressional candidates who accept personal political risk on the coalition's behalf. This study argues that this insurance system has provided the critical glue to hold the coalition together since Chile's transition to democracy in 1990. Recent changes in the electoral environment could threaten the Concertación's control over the appointed posts that have sustained this informal institution. This could jeopardize the Concertación's cohesion during the process of negotiating coalition candidate lists for the 2005 legislative elections.

Comparative political economists often divide Latin American labor markets into those with secure employment (insiders) and those without it (outsiders). Yet this division misses an increasingly important class of contract workers, who hold formal labor contracts but often lack labor stability, welfare benefits, and organizing rights. When do unionized and contract workers share preferences and engage in joint organizing? And when do their efforts result in policy change? Drawing on case studies of Chile and Peru, I argue that unionized workers mobilize contract workers when they see their own membership under threat and when they share physical workplaces with contractors. Labor coalitions succeed in policy reform when they leverage divisions within the business community and upcoming elections to build support. This article thus pushes scholars to move beyond dichotomies of formal versus informal workers and study how contract workers matter for collective action and labor policy outcomes.