INTL 4380: Latin American Politics - Class 2 Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering core political, economic, demographic, and historical terms from Class 2 of Latin American Politics.

Latin America

A region primarily comprising countries south of the United States that were colonized by Spain, Portugal, or France.

Latin-Based Languages

A language family derived 90-95% from Latin, which includes French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and Spanish.

Colonial Institutional Heritage

The societal framework brought by Latin colonizers (Spain, Portugal, and France), characterized by Catholicism, monarchy, and hierarchical social orders, contrasting with British influence which brought Protestantism and Parliamentary democracy.

Mestizaje

The widespread process of racial mixing initiated during early colonization due to a military campaign structure and an initial lack of European women.

Mestizo

A socioracial category defined as the offspring of White European and Indigenous parents.

Mulatto

A socioracial category defined as the offspring of White European and Black parents.

Three-Race System

A socioracial framework illustrating the racial hierarchy and mixing between White Europeans, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved Africans in Latin America.

Pardos

A racial classification in Brazil denoting individuals of mixed racial background, constituting $45.3\%$ of the population in the 2022 census.

Racial Fluidity

Status as an indigenous person is often cultural and linguistic

Limited Democracies

Political systems prevalent between independence and the 1970s/1980s where voting rights were strictly restricted to male property owners.

Middle-Income Trap

An economic condition where countries reach average per capita yearly incomes between $\$5,000$ and $\$15,000$ but face difficulties transitioning from cheap labor economies to high-wage, high-tech innovative economies.

Rentier States

Countries whose national revenues depend heavily on exporting natural resources rather than diverse domestic production and taxation, such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru.

School of the Americas

A military training institution established in Panama in 1946 to extend U.S. influence and combat leftist or communist movements, training figures such as Manuel Noriega, Omar Torrijos, Leopoldo Galtieri, and Hugo Banzer Suárez.

Washington Consensus

A set of ten market-based economic policy recommendations aimed at development, including fiscal discipline, tax reform, trade liberalization, privatization, deregulation, and secure property rights.