Course Information

Law and Democracy in Latin America

Professor Daniel Brinks
Classroom: GAR 3.116
M-F: 10-11:30 p.m.
Office: MEZ 3.128
Office hours: Mon (12-2); Wed (3-4)
Email: danbrinks@gov.utexas.edu

You can access the Wiki following this link: Course Wiki.

Subject matter of the course: This course explores many of the challenges to the rule of law across Latin America, and their connection to democracy. We will begin by examining the relationship between law and democracy, then look at a series of issues that illustrate the strength or weakness of the rule of law in the region. Rather than focusing on one country at a time or a few countries in depth, we will use events and systems in various countries as illustrations of important themes. We will then look at the possible consequences of these challenges for democracy in the region, and possible solutions.

The readings are a collection of recent research on these issues and require the students to engage critically with the readings. We will test authors' claims against the evidence they present, challenge the logic of their arguments, and question their conclusions. To do this effectively, students must come to class prepared. It is likely that I will use pop quizzes, if it looks like students are not finding the time to do the readings before class.

By the end of the semester you will have acquired some basic information about Latin American legal systems, and some basic concepts about the different ways the law works in that part of the world. More importantly, however, you will have a greater understanding of what a robust democracy should look like, and where different countries fall short. You should be able to engage in a discussion about the role courts and laws do play, should play and can play in the (democratic) political systems of Latin America, and its potential for improvement.

Most of the material for the course is available from this website, so we will rarely use Blackboard, except for grades and similar issues. This course also makes extensive use of a course Wiki (described more fully in the syllabus). You can access the Wiki following this link: Course Wiki.

Class Wikipedia of Political Concepts

A Wiki is a web page that many people can edit, and it comes with its own discussion forum. ItÕs very easy to use, and allows for the collective insights of many people to be brought together into a single location. Wikipedia - the huge online encyclopedia - is made entirely of Wikis which any registered user can edit and change.

In this class we will all collaborate on a class Wiki that will eventually read like our own course encyclopedia or course book. This Wiki will be our collective knowledge base, presenting all the various topics of the course in an easy-to-use format and useful in preparing for the midterm and final. Much of our classroom time will be geared to activities whose results can be incorporated into the Wiki. My hope is that you will do a sufficiently thorough job on the Wiki that all the questions on the tests can be drawn from it.

Organization of the Wiki and start up

i. We will work on the project in class. We will take some time early in the semester and as we go along to look at what we are producing, set up various pages and otherwise organize and comment on the project.

ii. The project will cover all the main concepts of the course: The study guide questions on each reading will provide a starting point, but you should take special care to include discussions and definitions of relevant terms on each page. Definitions of democracy, the state, inequality, and the like are examples.

iii. The Wiki should incorporate and refine (some minimal additional research is expected) the results from our class discussions and special activities on each of the class units. People assigned to a particular reading are expected to contribute the bulk of the content in that section of the Wiki, though everybody is expected to contribute to the whole. The course website has a lot of information that is relevant to the readings, and you are encouraged to start (and, if appropriate, end) your research there.

iv. Every entry in the Wiki should have a real world component. Ideally, you would find a current news story that illustrates, questions, or somehow reflects on the themes and questions raised by the reading. At minimum, you should include an example from the reading in the entry, to clarify or exemplify what you are discussing.

Working on the Wiki

We will observe the following principles to work on the Wiki:

i. Individual and collective responsibility. Each person will be assigned to create the post for one reading or set of readings, and to edit the post for a different set of readings. The entire class is responsible for posting comments to the text, up to the moment when we will no longer be reviewing the text (i.e., until the test that covers that section of the readings).

ii. Continuous drafting. A Wiki is only as good as the sum of its edits. The more edits a Wiki has, the closer it gets to the truth: it slowly accumulates the collective wisdom of the group and gets rid of (most) errors. To ensure that we have a quality product at the end of the semester, you should be working on it on a regular basis, starting the second week of the semester, posting edits and comments, adding images, etc. You can go in to the page to which you were assigned as often as you wish. The post will be graded at the end of the semester. In the grade, I will take into consideration whether the page was posted and then ignored, or updated with relevant information several times.

iii. Use of Discussion Forums. Each page in the Wiki has a discussion forum at the bottom; use these to hash out disagreements, if any. The person revising the post may wish to explain the changes here, and incorporate any comments that may be there. You should check the discussion forums every time you work on the Wiki.

iv. Sourcing. Sourcing in a Wiki is done through adequate hyperlinking to external sources and through listing offline references (as in a regular paper). You are expected to cite sources for your claims, and to link to them, as much as possible. Plagiarism, it should go without saying, is unacceptable. We will abide by the University's Honor Code.

Grading the Wiki

Your work on the Wiki will count for 25% of your grade and will consist of two components, a posting and a revision of someone elseÕs posting.

I will grade each posting according to the following four criteria: a) does it adequately and accurately summarize the reading? b) does it include an element of critical reflection on the reading? c) does it include an interesting and pertinent real world example? d) is it very nicely done (e.g., because it is beautifully written, has an unusually interesting example, draws an especially insightful conclusion, raises a devastating criticism of the reading or the professor's lecture, or includes a really cool multimedia element)?

I will grade the editing contribution according to two criteria: a) does it contribute substantively to the original post? b) does it correct any errors or omissions in the original post? (the fewer errors in the original, the more I will expect a substantive contribution).

Extra credit opportunity: You will also have the opportunity to earn extra credit by answering questions your fellow students post in the Discussion box for a particular reading. If, as you do the readings or prepare for a test, you are completely baffled by something, and the course Wiki is no help at all, post the question on the Wiki. Anyone answering your question to your satisfaction by posting an answer on the Wiki or updating the Wiki entry to answer your question gets 2 points of extra credit on the Wiki grade. I will award the credit any time the Wiki reflects an apparently sincere question, an apparently helpful (and accurate) answer, and a reply saying "Thanks, that was helpful" or words to that effect (if you answered the question, it may not hurt to copy the question and answer into an email and send it to me, with a subject header saying "assistance for extra credit"). Maximum points for any individual student over the course of the semester: 10. More than one student can earn 2 points for answering the same question, if, in my opinion, each answer contributes something substantive. The points will be added to your Wiki grade.

Personal adjustment (discretionary). Since the essence of a Wiki is community involvement and collaboration, at the end of the semester I will read over the entire Wiki and decide whether an (upward) adjustment to everyoneÕs Wiki grade is warranted, based on the excellence of the Wiki as a whole. It is in your interest, therefore, to post comments and corrections to other peopleÕs postings.

Evaluation: Your grade in this course will be determined according to the following formula:

25% Wiki
20% Test 1
20% Test 2
20% Test 3
15% in-class presentation proposing a solution to at least one of the problems we discussed in class

The results of the pop quizzes, if any, will be weighted so that they represent about 10% of the testing scores and averaged into the midterm and final exam scores.Required Books:
A Course Packet is available from the Jenn's at 2200 Guadalupe (Guadalupe and 22d, lower level). No books are required.