The Military Dictatorships of the Southern Cone 4206-FH111

1.Introduction
Southern Cone and its characteristics; the Latin American caudillismo; the 19th century dictatorships; the creation of professional armed forces, the Prussian and British influences; relations between Latin American and European armies (Italian, German).
2. Anti-communism and the National Security DoctrineCold war; the communist threat; „new professionalism”; „subversives”: Tupamaros, Montoneros, ERP, etc.; the guerrilas' origins and objectives; the role of the U.S. (School of the Americas).
3. The theory of the breakdown of the democratic regimes and the new type of dictatorshipThe politological perspective of Juan Linz; legitimacy, efficacy and effectiveness; party system; polarization of society; Guillermo O'Donnell's concept of bureaucratic-authoritarian regime.
4. Brazil: The first caseThe fall of the democracy; the 1964 coup; the first case of the „new dictatorship”; institutional changes (institutional acts); economic politics; opposition (legal and illegal); repressions; internal differences in the armed forces; linha dura; distensão; return of the democracy.
5. Uruguay: civil-military collectivismThe specificity od Uruguay and its politics (batllismo, collective executive, ley de lemas); the crisis of the 1960s; 1967 presidential elections; pachequismo; road to the dictatorship; 1971 elections; the Bordaberry's administration and the self-coup; the constitutional referendum; liberalization; The Boiso Lanza pact; the return o the democracy.
6. Pre-Pinochet ChileThe Alessandri's government; Alliance for Progress; USA and the Chilean politics; the 1964 elections and the Frei's administration; Unidad Popular; the 1970 elections; USA attitude and the FUBELT Project; the Allende's democratic socialism; the economical situation; political crisis and the 1973 coup d'etat.
7. Chile under Pinochet: repressions and economyRepressions and the human rights violations; National Stadium, Villa Grimaldi, Operation Colombo and the „caravan of death”; Operation Condor (the assassinations of Letelier and Prats); new constitution and the institutionalization of the regime; the Chile-U.S. Relations (Kissinger, Carter, Reagan); opposition; „chilean miracle” - truth and myth.
8. Chilean democracy and the dictatorship's legacy.The 1988 referendum; the 1990 elections; the consitutional reforms; the contemporary Chilean society and Pinochet – are the old divisions still valid?; the Pinochet controversy in Poland (debate).
9. Argentina in the 1960s and the 1970s.„Argentinian Revolution” and the bureaucratic-autoritarian regime; the political situation after the dictatorship; the social unrest; the Perón's return; the Isabel Perón's presidency; the guerrilla terrorism and the state terrorism (the Ezeiza massacre; Montoneros and ERP, Tacuara and the Triple A); the Tucuman rebellion and the beginning of the „dirty war”; the 261/1975 decree.
10. The National Reorganization ProcessThe coup of 24th March 1976; human rights violations – tortures, „disappeared”, ESMA; can we talk about genocide?; German, French and U.S. Influences; the role of the Argentinian Catholic Church in comparison with the Chilean and Brazilian Church; The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
11.The Falklands War and the junta's fallBackground; the Beagle conflict and the plans of Argentino-Chilean war in 1978; the mixed signals from the USA; the war; junta agrees to relinquish power; the 1982 elections.
12. Paraguay: the relic of the pastThe 1954 coup; the one-party-state of the emergency; traditional caudillismo; anti-communism; Operation Condor; the Paraguayan-U.S. relations; the succession issue; the coup of general Rodriguez and „democratization”.
13. Reckoning with the pastNegotiated democracy; the self-amnesty laws; the commissions of truth (CONADEP, the Rettig Commission, the Valech Commission); The Trial of the Juntas in Argentina; the carapintadas rebellion; the amnesties (Ley de Obediencia Debida, Ley de Caducidad, the Menem's pardons); the reclamation of the stolen children; the return to the reckoning; the trials in Argentina and Uruguay.
14.The experience of the dictatorships in cultureThe dictatorships and culture; the cultural politics of the military regimes. Literature („dictator novel”); music (Victor Jara, Mothers of the Disappeared); cinema (a screening of a film's part – Crónica de una fuga / Missing / La Historia Oficial – and the discussion about the films seen by students).