Books by John D. Martz

Among Latin-American nations, Colombia offers a unique opportunity for a study in comparative governmental methods and institutions. In 1958 Colombia initiated an extraordinary political experiment in controlled democracy: the two traditional parties agreed on absolute parity of representation from national to local level. This is a study of that experiment. Originally published in 1962.

In this well-balanced review of major expositions of political thought and ideology in Latin America, attention is focused on the independence period - the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Intellectual trends and schools of social and philosophical thought are traced, and representative individuals and their writings are examined in detail.