“Apocalyptic” and “integrated”? Notes about the development of Latin American Political Science

Abstract

Academic development in Latin America faces challenges typical of Third World countries: the excessive influence of the political regime, the insufficient financial resources, the absence of clearly established professionalization patterns, among others. Political Science, as one of the younger social science disciplines have not been oblivious to these challenges. The Latin American cases –various of them reviewed in this volume– account for the diversity and heterogeneity of the development of the discipline and the impact of the North American academy as an inevitable reference - for better or for worse - for the reflection of the future of political science in the region.