IBERO-AMERICAN HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY

As part of the core curriculum of the Master’s Degree Program in History, this course contributes to the educational process by examining, through comparative analysis, the historical dynamics that have shaped the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America in the contemporary era. In fact, the course aims to provide students with a critical and comparative understanding of the processes of legitimacy-building in 20th-century authoritarian regimes across the Iberian and Ibero-American worlds, integrating historical and political science approaches. In particular, it seeks to understand the ways in which different regimes construct and maintain legitimacy, ranging from ideological to functional and institutional forms. To achieve these objectives, the course compares state structures, political actors, and the social bases of these regimes, without neglecting the role of international and transnational connections in the various historical contexts of the 20th century.

1. Knowledge and Understanding
The course provides tools for an advanced understanding of authoritarian regimes in the Iberian and Latin American contexts: identifying the main forms of authoritarianism in the region under study, explaining the different models and mechanisms for establishing legitimacy, and recognizing the role of institutions in authoritarian regimes.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding:
By the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge that can be applied in accordance with the competencies listed below:
- ability to apply interpretive categories, such as bureaucratic authoritarianism or corporatism, to specific historical cases;
- ability to conduct comparative analyses across different national and transnational contexts;
- ability to interpret and analyze different discursive constructions, such as political or cultural ones, as well as a wide variety of institutional sources;
- ability to apply acquired historical knowledge to the comparative analysis of Ibero-American historical experiences.

3. Making judgements
- Ability to apply acquired knowledge in comparing different historiographical models, in independently identifying research questions consistent with the scholarly debate, and in evaluating the limitations, implications, and potential of the sources used, with an emphasis on critical analysis of the relationship between consensus and repression and on differentiating between constructed and perceived legitimacy.

4. Communication skills:
Be able to
- articulate, based on complex analyses grounded in multiple historiographical texts, both orally and in writing, the fundamental issues of the course.
- adapt one’s communication style to seminar and research contexts;
- structure written papers according to academic standards;
To achieve this objective, the course also includes group presentations, written exercises, and critical presentations (voluntary).

5. Learning skills:
Be able to independently use the core bibliography to develop further research paths, identify and utilize new sources and tools, and integrate different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives.

Basic knowledge of contemporary history.

1. The State, Authoritarianism, and Legitimacy
2. The Construction of Regimes of Truth
3. Institutions and Legitimacy in Iberian Regimes: The Construction of Consensus
4. Latin American Authoritarianisms: The Military State, Technocracy, and Political Legitimacy
5. Comparative Models: Structures, Actors, and Sources of Legitimacy in Iberia and Latin America
6. Crises of Legitimacy, Transitions, and Institutional Continuity

Guidance on how to use the bibliography will be provided in the course introduction

Hal Brands. Latin America’s Cold War. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2010.
Alexandra Barahona de Brito, Carmen González Enríquez, and Paloma Aguilar, eds. The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Luis Beneduzi, Los vestigios del concepto de “guerra justa” del autoritarismo militar brasileño en el discurso bolsonarista sobre el enemigo, Confluenze. Rivista di Studi Iberici e Iberoamericani, v. 17, 2025, pp. 109-132.
Luis Beneduzi, L’uso ideologico del concetto di “guerra giusta” nei regimi argentino e brasiliano. Strategie della repressione e della soppressione dei diritti individuali, Giornale di Storia Contemporanea, v. 1, 2023, pp. 69-90.
Julián Casanova, Carlos Gil Andrées. Twentieth-Century Spain: A History. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
António Costa Pinto, Aristotle Kallis (ed.), Rethinking Fascism and Dictatorship in Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Barbara Geddes, Joseph Wright, Erica Frantz, How Dictatorships Work. Power, Personalization, and Collapse, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Federico Finchelstein, From Fascism to Populism in History, University of California Press, 2017.
Paul H. Lewis. Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America: Dictators, Despots, and Tyrants: Dictators, Despots, and Tyrants. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

For all students:
Written exam, lasting a maximum of 2 hours (50% of the final grade), and oral exam, lasting approximately 30 minutes (50% of the final grade): Students must demonstrate the ability to critically analyze—including through comparative analysis and in relation to different historical periods—the emergence and structuring of authoritarian regimes in the Iberian and Latin American worlds, with special attention to how these regimes established their legitimacy vis-à-vis the societies in question, without neglecting the historiographical debate on the subject.

Attending students may choose, IF THEY PREFER, an ALTERNATIVE assessment process throughout the ENTIRE semester:
1. participation in the seminars that are part of the course curriculum, as well as in other proposed educational activities (20%);
2. 90-minute written exam (30%): the student must demonstrate the ability to critically analyze, including through comparative analysis and in relation to different historical periods, the emergence and structuring of authoritarian regimes in the Iberian and Latin American worlds, with special attention to the ways in which they constructed their legitimacy vis-à-vis the societies in question, without neglecting the historiographical debate on the subject.
3. oral group presentation on an in-depth topic agreed upon with the professor: students must demonstrate the ability to analyze the various aspects of authoritarian regimes discussed in class and in the required readings in a practical manner (20%).
4. Submission of a short paper (approximately 2,500 words), agreed upon with the professor during the semester, that applies the content discussed in class to the analysis of various types of sources in case studies (30%) (Due one week before the exam).

The final grade will be determined based on the following criteria:
- Knowledge of theoretical concepts (40%)
- Ability to critically analyze theoretical concepts (20%)
- Clarity and confidence in presentation (10%)
- Mastery of specialized terminology and appropriate use of language (15%)
- Ability to discuss topics independently and in a well-structured manner (15%)
The maximum possible score is 30/30. Honors may be awarded for excellent performance in all of the above categories.

Lectures, seminars, workshops on reading texts and documents, a guided viewing of a film related to the topics covered in the course, and an oral presentation.

Non-attending students are asked to contact the professor to agree on the required readings for the exam.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development