Terms and Definitions

This is a glossary of some basic terms commonly used in the study of Latin American history. If you have any suggestions, comments, or additions to this list, please email Marc Becker at mbecker@ilstu.edu.

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic theory which stresses that control of the means of producing economic goods in a society should reside in the hands of those who invest the capital for production. Private ownership and free enterprise is supposed to lead to more efficiency, lower prices, better products. Adam Smith popularized this theory in his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations.

Communism

An economic theory which stresses that the control of the means of producing economic goods in a society should reside in the hands of those who invest their labor for production. In its ideal form, social classes cease to exist, there is no coercive governmental structures, and everyone lives in abundance without supervision from a ruling class. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels popularized this theory in their 1848 Communist Manifesto.

Conservativism

Political conservatives in Latin America have traditionally been associated with the Catholic Church and have supported the rights of large landholders (hacendados).

Democracy

Democracy is a political system which has many different meanings and can take different forms. It is often incorrectly used as a synonym for capitalism. Fundamentally, it means a government of, by and for the people.

• Economic Democracy: An idea that people should have equal access to and say in the distribution of the wealth and resources of a country.
• Electoral Democracy: The idea "that, to be legitimate, government authority must derive from periodic free, fair, broadly particpatory, and genuinely contested elections."⁽¹⁾
• Representative Democracy: A system whereby people select others to represent their interests in government rather than having direct influence or say over such decisions.

Dependency

"A situation in which the economy of certain countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is subject."⁽²⁾

• Dependency Theory "assumes that Latin American underdevelopment cannot be understood without reference to the international capitalist system," and, in fact, is a result of that system.⁽³⁾

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is a social construction that indicates identification with a particular group which is often descended from common ancestors. Members of the group share common cultural traits (such as language, religion, and dress) and are an identifiable minority within the larger nation-state. In Latin America, it often refers to Indians and Africans, although perhaps everyone has some type of ethnic identity.

Fascism

"A philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism." (From The American Heritage Dictionary)

Globalization

"Globalization refers in general to the worldwide integration of humanity and the compression of both the temporal and spatial dimensions of planetwide human interaction." It "has aggravated many of the region's most chronic problems--such as the pronounced degree of economic exploitation and social inequality that have characterized Latin America since it came under European colonial domination in the sixteenth century."⁽⁴⁾

Guerrillas

"A member of an irregular military force operating usually in small, independent groups capable of great speed and mobility." (From The American Heritage Dictionary)

Imperialism

The practice of one country extending its control over the territory, political system, or economic life of another country. Political opposition to this foreign domination is called "anti-imperialism."

Latin America

A geographic and cultural region comprised of 18 Spanish-speaking countries, Brazil, and Haiti, or generally the areas which Spain and Portugal colonized in the Americas.

Liberalism

A 19^th-century political idea which championed individual rights, civil liberties, and private property. In Latin America, it also opposed the Catholic Church's extensive control over society (anti-clericalism) and favored an end to special privileges (fueros) for military and clerical members.

Nationalism

Close identification with the concerns of a particular country or nation.

Neocolonialism

The state of poor, third-world countries which enjoy formal political independence, but continue to remain economically dependent on rich, industrialized countries.

Neoliberalism

"The policies of privatization, austerity, and trade liberalization dictated to dependent countries by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as a condition for approval of investment, loans, and debt relief."⁽⁵⁾

Revolution

"...means an alteration in the personnel, structure, supporting myth, and functions of government by methods which are not sanctioned by prevailing constitutional norms. These methods almost invariably involve violence or the threat of violence against political elites, citizens, or both . . . and a relatively abrupt and significant change in the distribution of wealth and social status."⁽⁶⁾

Socialism

An "economic, social and political doctrine which expresses the struggle for the equal distribution of wealth by eliminating private property and the exploitative ruling class. In practice, such a distribution of wealth is achieved by social ownership of the means of production, exchange and diffusion."⁽⁷⁾

Totalitarianism

The government is in the hands of a minority who often rule through military might and extreme political repression. The Chilean government under General Pinochet (1973-1990) is an example of a totalitarian government.

Notes

1. Jorge I. Domínguez and Abraham F Lowenthal, eds., Constructing Democratic Governance: South America in the 1990s, An Inter-American Dialogue book (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 5.

2. Brazilian scholar Theotonio dos Santos quoted in Benjamin Keen, A History of Latin America, 5th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), x.

3. Jan Knippers Black, ed., Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise; A Multidisciplinary Introduction (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984), 3.

4. Richard L. Harris, "The Global Context of Contemporary Latin American Affairs," in Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America, eds., Sandor Halebsky and Richard L. Harris (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), 279, 80.

5. Keen, xi.

6. Thomas Greene quoted in John A. Booth, The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution, Second edition, revised and updated (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), 2.

7. Rius, Marx for Beginners (New York: Pantheon Books, 1976), 152.