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Course 1:
Democratic Consolidation in Chile: Advances and Future Challenges
Lecturer:
Prof. Dr. Paulina Astroza
Prof. Dr. Beatriz Larraín
Prof. Dr. Jeanne Simon
(University of Concepción, Chile)
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, the students will be able to:
- analyse the decisions made by the principal political actors involved in democratic consolidation process
- contextualize the foreign and public policies of the Chilean government within the international context before, during and after the military dictatorship.
- analyse the challenges of re-establishing representative democracy after a dictatorship, especially with respect to human rights violations and social policy
- analyse the tensions and challenges of the Chilean economic model, Growth with Equity
- explain the dynamic of social movement challenges to democratically elected governments in Chile in the last 10 years.
Contents:
Democratic Consolidation in Chile: Advances and Future Challenges
The aim of this course is to critically analyse the consolidation of representative democracy in Chile after 17 years of a repressive military dictatorship and the neoliberal transformation of Chilean society and economy. Chile, a small country in South America, chose a distinctive path to democratic consolidation within an international community of states.
The Chilean path to democracy presents distinctive characteristics that reflect an interesting mix of neoliberal economic policies with a commitment to democratic consolidation and human rights. This course will trace the path chosen, asking students to reflect on the limited options available for developing countries in Latin America from a global perspective.
The course is organized in three parts. The first part, presents the historical background to the democratic transition and consolidation process. In the second part, students will apply political science theory and concepts to study and explain the dynamics and interrelations involved with transitional justice issues as well as the reestablishment of democratic institutions and the position of Chile within the international system. In the third part, students will analyse the challenges that Chile now faces due to its path of democratization. These challenges include both its external relations as well as internal political dynamics, including the emergence of new political forces that are challenging the elite consensuses established in the first period of democratic transition.
1.1. Historical background: Chilean Democracy and Neoliberal Military Dictatorship
Chile lived 17 years in a military bureaucratic authoritarian regime that implemented one of the most orthodox neoliberal policy regimes, radically transforming internal political, economic and social structures as well as its relations with the International Community. Indeed, although Chile had opted in the mid-1980s for unilateral opening abroad as strategy, radically transforming the Latin American model of development (import substitution model), human rights violations had resulted in the rejection of international community of states. In this first part, we consider the historical elements that are critical for understanding Chilean democracy in the last 27 years, with emphasis in the decisions made by the political opposition to the military dictatorship.
1.2. Democratic Transition period: 1990 – 2006
The democratic transition period corresponds to the first three Concertation governments and the reinsertion of Chile into the international community after its previous isolation. Thus, one of the objectives of the first democratically elected government in 1990 was to reinsert the country into the international community of state. This international reintegration should be at the same time coordinated with its process of democratic transition, recognition of human rights violations and economic development policies, presenting important transformations as well as continuations with the previous authoritarian regime. The students will analyse and debate the path chosen by the Chilean centre-left, including the decision of the centre-left to maintain neoliberal economic policies, strengthening the State’s presence in social issues.
Moreover, successive democratic governments maintained the foundations of the so-called "open regionalism" model, signing treaties and agreements with other countries and regions as well as many human rights treaties. The students will also analyse the government’s decisions to establish free trade agreements and strengthen international institutions as part of their foreign policy.
1.3. Consolidation, Tensions and Challenges to Elite-led democracy: 2006-2016
At present, Chile is one of the countries with the most international free trade agreements, creating important challenges in its international political relations at the regional and global levels. Furthermore, its position in the American continent, and especially in Latin America, has been challenged and redefined within changing international and regional contexts, where Chile’s links with large regional blocks has created challenges to adapt to changing realities. For instance, with Europe thus presents an interesting evolution throughout the decades and is currently in a process of negotiations for modernize it.
At the same time, the Chilean government also faces important internal challenges with the growing emergence of social movements that challenge elite consensus on Chilean democracy, questioning their legitimacy. The roots of these conflicts will be traced to unexpected results of globalization, public policies and the economic model. The students will analyse the emergence of new political forces that question neoliberal social and environmental policies.
Forms of teaching:
Seminar
Course prerequisites:
None
Forms of examination:
Seminar paper (length: depending on study regulations (“Studienordnung”)
Target groups:
MA students from different disciplines, Incoming Erasmus+ students
Time schedule:
Friday, 25th May 2018: 14:00-19:00
Saturday, 26th May 2018: 10:00-17:00
Friday, 1st June 2018: 14:00-19:00
Saturday, 2nd June 2018: 10:00-17:00
Registration:
grahn@geschichte.uni-siegen
Course 2:
Title: Democracy and South Caucasus
Lecturer:
Prof. Dr. Ketevan Gurchiani
Prof. Dr. Oliver Reisner
(Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia)
Contents:
Memory in Georgia and the Caucasus
The study of memory has been one of the major growth fields in research over the last two decades or so, not just in History but also in related disciplines of Anthropology, Sociology, Literature, and Psychology. In this week, we will apply some of the interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the formation of individual and collective memories, and we will apply them to investigate the ways in which historians, politicians, and ordinary citizens have made use of different forms of memory, commemoration, and forgetting in their everyday practice in Georgia.
1) Introduction & Defining Collective Memory (the Georgian Example)
2) Georgian Collective Myths at Work
3) Memory of Stalinism in Cinema
4) Collective Memory Based Int. Identity Conflicts – Russia & Georgia
5) Conflicting Memories – Time as Factor for Reconciliation
Selected Bibliography (downloads)
Film on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tywrNMVXAZ8
Christensen, Julie: Abuladze's Repentance and the Georgian Nationalist Cause, in: Slavic Review 50 (1991) 1, pp. 163-175. URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0037-6779%28199121%2950%3A1%3C163%3ATARATG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-71992
THEISSEN, Gunnar: Supporting Justice, Co-existence and Reconciliation after Armed Conflict: Strategies for Dealing with the Past, in: Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation (2004) http://www.berghof-handbook.net/documents/publications/theissen_handbook.pdf
KHINCHAGASHVILI, Shota: Post-Soviet Georgian Nationalism in the Context of Social Memory and Collective Trauma Theories. Unpublished MA thesis, Ilia State University, 5 September 2008;
JAVAKHISHVILI, Jana et al. (eds.): Myths and conflict in the South Caucasus. London: Int. Alert, 2013. Vol. 1: Instrumentalisation of historical narratives; http://cisr.ru/files/publ/Caucasus_2013_Myths_Vol1_EN1.pdf; Vol. 2: Instrumentalisation of Conflict in Political Discourse. http://www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/publications/Caucasus_2013_Myths_Vol2_EN.pdf (one chapter each)
A training manual in critical thinking promoting understanding of conflict-related myths and their impact at societal and individual levels. http://www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/Caucasus_MythsTrainingManual_EN_2013.pdf
Forms of teaching:
Seminar
Course prerequisites:
None
Forms of examination:
Seminar paper (length: depending on study regulations (“Studienordnung”)
Target groups:
MA students from different disciplines, Incoming Erasmus+ students
Time schedule:
Friday, 29th June 2018: 14:00-19:00
Saturday, 30th June 2018: 10:00-17:00
Friday, 6th July 2018: 14:00-19:00
Saturday, 7th July 2018: 10:00-17:00
Registration:
grahn@geschichte.uni-siegen