Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Map 1 Latin America
- Map 2 Per capita gross domestic products 1987, measured in 1986 U.S. dollars. (Source: Inter-American Development Bank, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 1988, p. 540.)
- Part I Understanding Latin American politics
- 1 The Latin American predicament
- 2 The rules of the Latin American game
- 3 Players – I
- 4 Players – II
- 5 The stakes in the game
- Part II The political games played in Latin America
- Appendix: Tables
- Index
2 - The rules of the Latin American game
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Map 1 Latin America
- Map 2 Per capita gross domestic products 1987, measured in 1986 U.S. dollars. (Source: Inter-American Development Bank, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 1988, p. 540.)
- Part I Understanding Latin American politics
- 1 The Latin American predicament
- 2 The rules of the Latin American game
- 3 Players – I
- 4 Players – II
- 5 The stakes in the game
- Part II The political games played in Latin America
- Appendix: Tables
- Index
Summary
Military dictators, democrats, and communists all governed somewhere in Latin America during the past decade. It is hard to find more political diversity in such close proximity anywhere. To make sense of it, we must find ways to generate coherent and convincing explanations of the ways Latin Americans behave. In particular, we need to know what government means to them, why some of them disagree so intensely on many fundamental political and economic issues, and how they resolve disputes that are so passionate and profound.
A political game
One way to begin our inquiry is to study politics as if it were analogous to a game. The game idea is helpful not because politics is primarily recreational; obviously it is not. Politics affects the most fundamental aspects of human life, sometimes cruelly. What makes the game metaphor valuable is the way it helps us see politics as a dynamic process involving contests among people with different ideas about government and its purpose. It directs us to examine the rules followed, both formal and informal, and to study players and how they collaborate and compete with one another.
Politics is part of social life. It derives in part from a need to resolve conflicts among people who cannot resolve all of their disagreements spontaneously to everyone's satisfaction. Even in what appear to be the most orderly societies disagreements arise over everything from ways to assure personal safety to the amount of taxes that one must pay.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Latin American Development , pp. 24 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990