Deck 13: Neoliberalism and Its Discontents, 1980-2015

Question 1

Ronald Reagan's foreign policy in the 1980s included all of the following EXCEPT

A) Active US support for anti-communist revolutions or resistance movements in areas already under Soviet control.
B) Aggressive suppression of left-wing and radical movements in Latin America.
C) Increasing US defense spending, especially on high technology, in an effort to make the Soviet Union follow suit.
D) Pushing allied Latin American dictators to hold elections in order to prove that capitalism could defeat communism at the ballot box.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which statement is FALSE?

A) The spiritual and temporal influence of the Catholic Church in Latin America weakened significantly in the decades leading up to 1960.
B) Latin America was the most heavily Catholic region of the world in the mid-twentieth century.
C) The Second Vatican Council was hostile to ecumenism (collaboration with other Christian denominations and other faiths).
D) Until the mid-1960s, Catholic Mass was celebrated in Latin, not in local vernacular languages.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following statements about "Christian base communities" (CEBs) is FALSE?

A) They were Bible study-based communities in which ordinary believers would come together to reflect and apply Catholic scriptures to their everyday lives.
B) They trained Catholic villagers for economic self-sufficiency and self-defense.
C) They helped bring many middle-class Catholics into greater contact with and understanding of the injustices and inequalities of their societies.
D) Right-wing Central American governments viewed them as breeding grounds for Communist insurgency.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following was NOT a key guiding ideology of the Sandinista-led government that came to power upon the resignation of Tachito Somoza in 1979?

A) Marxist theory and the Cuban Revolution
B) Scandinavian democratic socialism
C) Anti-American anti-imperialism
D) Catholic Liberation Theology

Question 5

People of indigenous and African descent on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast supported the Sandinista government because it granted them greater cultural and linguistic autonomy.

Question 6

Which of the following statements about women, feminism, and the Sandinista Revolution is FALSE?

A) The Sandinista candidate became the first woman in Latin America to be freely elected president in her own right.
B) Female soldiers had made up almost a third of the Sandinista combat forces.
C) The Sandinistas' 1969 Manifesto asserted ambitious goals and policies for women's advancement in education and the workforce.
D) Young Sandinista women played leading roles in the revolution's healthcare and educational outreach to the poor.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about the situation in El Salvador prior to the outbreak of the civil war in El Salvador in 1979 is FALSE?

A) The country was the most densely populated in Latin America, and one of the poorest.
B) The FMLN threatened a wave of assassinations against political and military figures unless their demands were met.
C) The impending victory of a centrist, reformist presidential candidate had been blocked by the military in 1972, seemingly closing off the possibility of peaceful reform.
D) The closing of the border with Honduras a decade earlier had serious adverse economic consequences for El Salvador.

Question 8

Which of the following statements about Archbishop Óscar Romero is FALSE?

A) He called on government security forces to disobey orders to commit atrocities or other crimes.
B) He was distrusted by the FMLN for his principled opposition to all violence and his failure to condemn the government's Catholic supporters.
C) The government killed a dozen mourners attending his funeral.
D) Opposition from Salvadoran conservatives has prevented him from being recognized for his sacrifices by the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Question 9

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A) The United States government provided military assistance to the Guatemalan government and armed forces, including to units that carried out war crimes.
B) The conflict in Guatemala was the deadliest of the Central American wars, killing some 100,000 people and displacing over 1 million.
C) The Guatemalan government labelled the entire Mayan population "internal enemies of the state," and over 80% of those killed in Guatemala's conflict were Maya.
D) When opposition activists occupied the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City, the Guatemalan army responded by burning the embassy down with the occupiers and hostages inside.

Question 10

Maya language and culture was largely wiped out in Guatemala during the armed conflict and remains suppressed in the country today.

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a key component of the economic ideology of "neoliberalism?"

A) Allowing national central banks to set monetary policy independently of the wishes of elected governments.
B) Removing barriers to the international movement of goods, capital, and people.
C) Using the growing regulatory powers of the state to try to promote industrial development.
D) Privatizing state-owned assets and cutting employment and spending by the public sector.

Question 12

Which of the following statements about the Falkland/Malvinas islands is FALSE?

A) They were claimed by Argentina in the 1820s but had been occupied by Britain since 1833.
B) Their population is British by descent and citizenship.
C) Once strategically important, their geopolitical significance had declined by the 1980s.
D) The discovery of valuable minerals there in the 1970s reawakened the long-dormant conflict between Britain and Argentina.

Question 13

Which of the following was NOT an aspect of the economic policy of the later years of Brazil's military dictatorship?

A) The replacement of state-led development policy with a private sector-focused model.
B) The pursuit of energy independence by reducing reliance on imported oil.
C) The growth of an automobile-manufacturing industry.
D) Borrowing extensively on international markets with variable interest rates.

Question 14

Brazil's first civilian president after the end of the military dictatorship had been a longtime opponent of the military regime.

Question 15

After stepping down as president of Chile, Augusto Pinochet remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces and was immune from prosecution as an appointed senator for life.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about the Latin American debt crises is FALSE?

A) The new democratic governments in the region in the mid- and late-1980s lacked the political will to cut spending and impose other austerity measures.
B) High oil prices in 1979 caused a rise in interest rates, which raised the cost of borrowing in Latin America
C) Rather than borrowing money to invest in development projects, Latin American governments were often borrowing simply to make payments on their earlier loans.
D) While Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil had relatively small debt burdens, international lenders had the most leverage over smaller Latin American borrowers.

Question 17

Which of the following is not true of BOTH Carlos Saúl Menem and Alberto Fujimori?

A) They both left office disgraced and unpopular after being successful early in their presidencies.
B) They both dissolved Congress and governed autocratically.
C) They both faced credible accusations of corruption.
D) Both were children of immigrants who campaigned as populists.

Question 18

While most Latin American governments allow ready access to contraceptives, abortion remains generally illegal except in cases of rape or where the pregnancy puts the mother's life or health at risk.

Question 19

Which of the following statements about Mexico in the 1970s is FALSE?

A) Rising oil revenues allowed the government to raise spending on subsidies and public works.
B) Unemployment increased as the industrialization program lost momentum.
C) The government accumulated a large amount of foreign-owned debt at variable interest rates.
D) Discontent with the PRI in the wake of the Tlatelolco massacre led the party to lose the presidency for the first time since the Revolution.

Question 20

Which of the following statements about Mexico's economy in the wake of NAFTA is FALSE?

A) Imports of Canadian- and US-grown maize and other agricultural commodities drove many Mexican farmers out of business.
B) The volume of trade between Mexico and the US did not actually increase.
C) The profile of Mexican manufacturing labor changed, from stable, secure, well-paid union labor toward non-unionized, less secure, and less well-paid work.
D) The changes wrought by NAFTA and globalization on Mexico's economy undermined key bases of support and funding for the PRI.

Question 21

Which of the following statements about the Medellín and Cali cartels is FALSE?

A) Pablo Escobar was elected to a position in the Colombian legislature.
B) In contrast to the Cali cartel, Pablo Escobar's spending on social, recreational, and housing support for the poor of Medellín helped win him local support and protection.
C) The cartels had long-term partnerships with the FARC and ELN, supporting them against the government and the self-defense forces organized by local ranchers.
D) The cartels' principal smuggling route was to Florida, first mostly by air, and later also by sea.

Question 22

The ideas of Peruvian economist and urban theorist Hernando de Soto

A) Were attractive because they conformed to neoliberal ideology by requiring little public investment in infrastructure or social programs.
B) Have succeeded in helping millions of Latin Americans accumulate capital by buying and selling their once-untitled urban properties.
C) Blamed Latin American urban dwellers' cultural backwardness as the principal cause of the problem of urban poverty and informality.
D) Met with resistance from the US and World Bank because of their author's association with the Fujimori dictatorship.

Question 23

The "informal" economy in Latin America represents a small but growing percentage of the overall economy.

Question 24

Which of the following statements about hydroelectric power in Latin America is FALSE?

A) Hydroelectric power is particularly attractive in Latin America because the region generally lacks coal deposits that could otherwise be used to generate electricity.
B) The expansion of hydroelectric power has resulted in deforestation and the displacement of indigenous peoples.
C) Reliance on hydroelectricity makes Latin America's electricity generation particularly vulnerable to disruption due to climate change.
D) Environmental concerns have made the World Bank reluctant to fund dam projects in Latin America, leaving the projects to rely on national governments and private investors.

Question 25

Carlos Andrés Pérez's second presidency (1988-1992) was similar to the "bait-and-switch populist" phenomenon of several other Latin American presidencies in the neoliberal era.