Reviewed in The Americas © 1952.
Extract from the author’s preface:
Two principal objectives were constantly in mind in the planning and preparation of this book of materials on the problem and nature of government in Latin America. It was felt that a book of this kind should attempt to explain why governments in that area – be they those of Argentina or El Salvador, Brazil or Bolivia – all show these same common characteristics. What factors have conditioned Latin American political organization so that one encounters, almost everywhere, and at any time, strong executives, weak congresses and courts, and little or no local home rule? In what ways have geography and climate, colonial history and institutions, and economic organization and problems set the mold? Are contemporary factors of any significance in changing the patterns outlined by the mold of the past? A second goal might be indicated by this query: What are the directions in which government in present-day Latin America is traveling? Are the revolutions or political upheavals of the present time to be written off as “just another Latin American revolution” or do they presage really basic changes in the location, transfer, and use of political power? The editor of this book believes that fundamental and highly significant new trends are discernable, shifts which are evidenced by changes in the social content of the newer constitutions, by realignments in the political party pattern, by the broadening base of government even in the dictator countries, and, above all, by the rapidly expanding functions of government in Central and South America and in the Caribbean. The remarkable expansion of such activities as education and public health, and the interest of governments in economic diversification are trenchant with the potentiality of political change.
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