ABSTRACT
Over the past half century, the countries of Latin America-and of the developing world more generally-have confronted changes far more convulsive than those experienced in the more settled political systems of post-war Western Europe and the United States. The latter, to be sure, have also faced profound changes, not only in their pre-war histories, but in more recent decades as well; the evolution and enlargement of the European Union is but one example. Even so, there is little in the developed countries that can match the tumultuous events and deep social problems that Latin Americans have experienced over the past 50 years: among them, foreign interventions, revolutions, repression, and successive waves of e orts to establish and consolidate democratic regimes.
