HOWARD J. WIARDA is Professor of Political Science and the Leonard J. Horwitz Professor of Iberian and Latin American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He has published extensively on Iberian and Latin American issues.MARGARET MACLEISH MOTT is Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Marlboro College in Vermont.

• Preface Introduction: Interpreting Latin America's Politics on It's Own Terms by Howard J. Wiarda and Margaret Macheish Mott The Political Culture Framework Patterns of Continuity in Latin American Society: Political and Historical Perspectives by Roland H. Ebel Two Cultures and Political Behavior in Latin America by Glen Caudill Dealy Historical Factors The Latin American Tradition by Roland H. Ebel and Raymond Taras Spanish American Past: Enemy of Change by Donald E. Worcester Science, Technology, and Hispanic America by Irving A. Leonard Claims of Political Tradition by Richard M. Morse Historical Determinants of the Latin American State: The Tradition of Bureaucratic-Patrimonialism, Corporatism, Centralism, and Authoritarianism by Howard J. Wiarda Politics and Social Change The Tradition of Higher Laws in Latin America by Margaret MacLeish Mott Latin America and Democracy by Octavio Paz From El Cid to El Hugo: The Hero and the Mystique of Liberation in Latin America by Dolores Moyano Martin Latin America's Magical Liberalism by Tina Rosenberg The News About Religion in Latin America by Daniel Levine Foreign Policy Implications On Democracy and Democratization by Peter H. Smith Consensus Found, Consensus Lost: Disjunctures in U.S. Policy Toward Latin America in the New Millennium by Howard J. Wiarda Conclusion Suggested Readings Index About the Contributors