GOV 328L Final: GOV 328L review for final
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GOV 328L: Introduction to Latin American Government and Politics
Review for Exam #3
I. Urbanization and the environment
Urbanization
o Causes and consequences
● more/better jobs in cities
● dynamic sectors in urban areas
● commercialization of agri - privatization & tech pushed people out of
countryside
● Passing on land by inheritance--plots kept getting subdivided smaller and
smaller
● Better edu/healthcare in cities
● Gov jobs are centered in cities
● Informal sector - unregulated; people don’t pay taxes, no occupatn’l regulations
- food vendors, sweatshops, black market, etc.
o Mega-cities with high crime rates
● only 1 in 1950 - Buenos Aires
● ex: CDMX, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Lima - some of largest cities in world
● CDMX - from 2M to 20M+
● Metropolitan area - lgst cities - ⅓ of country’s population
● poor live on periphery, unlike US, oft on side of mtns - precarious during
earthquakes
● Megacities such as Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Rio, Bogota, Buenos Aires. Some
account for more than 40% of the countries population.
● Rates of homocides went high in the 1980's.
● Demographic and economic causes of violence
- Latin american demographics have a young and urban population.
- While this explains an increase in crime, it does not explain the DRAMATIC
increase starting in the 80s
- 80s debt crisis
- Increase poverty and inequality & the rise of the informal sector.
- Expansion of the Drug Trafficking which took place in the 80s
■ drug turf wars and also, illegal biz--therefore, courts unavailable to
settle disputes - violence is the only option
■ The debt crisis caused sharp increases inequality. The expansion of
drug trafficking played a big role in rise of violence too. Business
disputes cannot go to police or courts so violence is how disputes are
resolved.
- Proliferation of Firearms which have come from the U.S
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Political consequences of the increased violence
● Increase fear and declining social trust for people
- Paranoia from the poor
- Have caused the creation of gated communities for middle and upper class.
● Slowed economic progress
- Businesses close early
- College education slowed down with no classes
- Biz spend money on security they could spend on other sectors of economy;
Have to spend more on protection instead of other things and people do not want
to work at night.
- Economic cost of 1-2% GDP
● Undermined the rule of law
- Increase police violence
- Lynching of people suspected of crime (even w/out evidence or wrong person)
- Police not even following the laws anymore.
● Shaped political campaigns in some countries
- Law and order campaigns on the municipal level.
- And on national level in Col. and MX where there are lg cartels
Biological wealth: size, climates, geography, natural resources
● o “Superlatives:” biggest, largest, longest geographical features
○ Contains environmental resources
○ World's largest tropical rainforest (Amazon)
○ World driest desert (Atacama desert)
■ Peru and Chile
○ World largest River not in length but in volume (Amazon river)
■ Great for Transportation.
■ Latin america has 30% of earth's surface water that runs to oceans.
○ Worlds largest swampland: Pantanal - Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia
○ World's longest mountain range: Andes
○ World’s largest tropical forest and river: Amazon
○ Environmental features
■ Plant diversity of over 180,000 species of plants
■ Very large animal diversity richest diversity of animals, amphibians and reptiles. And
very large bird diversity, parallelled only by Asia
■ 40-60% of world’s plant & animal species.
○ Environmental Resources
■ 23 percent potential cropland
■ 23 percent forestry resources
■ 20 percent of renewable energy
Environmental Crisis
Contemporary challenges of deforestation, water, climate change, pollution (causes: population growth)
● Erosion and Desertification
○ Deforestation
■ 30 yr period of 770 thousand sq mile deforestation
■ Increases of slash and burn agriculture, because of population increases.
■ Logging, farmin
■ Raising cattle
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● Needs large area of land
○ Water shortages
■ Haiti and Peru have problems with water. Water located away from population areas
○ Global warming
■ tropical countries
■ hotter is more noticeable
○ Reduction of the ozone layer
■ chile and argentina fall in ozone hole
○ Extinction of plants and animals.
○ Very little original vegetation left in some regions
■ mostly invasive species.
○ 15-20% of species extinct
○ Very little preservations
○ Not huge funding for it. And this problem is by region
○ Exceptions - Chile & Costa Rica
○ Pollution
■ They have a good energy system
■ Mostly hydroelectric & natural gas
■ But still have a waste management problem
● History of environmental degradation: environmental legacy of the Conquest
○ Indigenous Population and the environment.
■ Cause extinction of some of the great mammal life.
■ Domestication of some animals
■ Minimal impact on environment
○ European conquest
■ Environmental catastrophe
● spread of flora and fauna
● cattle, pigs, sheep, horses defected original plants
● European crops have spread through the region
● Extractive industries (mining)
● monoculture agriculture
○ Population growth in the 20th century caused environmental stress.
■ 1900 74 million, 1960 165 mil, 2016 630 mil 9 percent of world population
■ Environmental health hurt by population.
■ Strain on natural resources
○ Industrialized countries have contributed to the problems.
■ Hard Demand for Latin American Products
■ U.S (Western world - industrialized countries, not just US - 20% of world’s
pop) consumes 80 percent of world resources
Impacts of development: agriculture, cattle, extractive industries, infrastructure projects, energy sources,
fishing, environmental movements
● Urbanization
● urban sprawl has led to people to settling in natural environments
● population increases have led to increases of need for resources
● they don't have access to sanitation services and water.
● sewage problem to the environment.
● Cities create lots of air pollution due to high traffic travel rates
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Document Summary
Gov 328l: introduction to latin american government and politics. Review for exam #3: urbanization and the environment. Dynamic sectors in urban areas commercialization of agri - privatization & tech pushed people out of countryside. Passing on land by inheritance--plots kept getting subdivided smaller and smaller. Informal sector - unregulated; people don"t pay taxes, no occupatn"l regulations. Food vendors, sweatshops, black market, etc: mega-cities with high crime rates ex: cdmx, sao paulo, bogota, lima - some of largest cities in world. Metropolitan area - lgst cities - of country"s population. Poor live on periphery, unlike us, oft on side of mtns - precarious during earthquakes. Megacities such as mexico city, sao paolo, rio, bogota, buenos aires. Some account for more than 40% of the countries population. Rates of homocides went high in the 1980"s. Latin american demographics have a young and urban population. While this explains an increase in crime, it does not explain the dramatic increase starting in the 80s.
