Education
Smith obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Politics, Latin America from Columbia University in 1966.
Smith obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Politics, Latin America from Columbia University in 1966.
He has been president of the Latin American Studies Association since 1989 and has also been director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (1989–2001) and director of Latin American Studies (1994–2001) at University of California, San Diego.
Smith has been the president of the Latin American Studies Association as well as being the consultant to the Ford Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Publications Some of his publications include: Politics and Beef in Argentina: Patterns of Conflict and Change (1969) Argentina and the Failure of Democracy: Conflict among Political Elites, 1904-1955 (1974) Labyrinths of Power: Political Recruitment in Twentieth-Century Mexico (1979) Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U.S.-Latin American Relations (1996. 2nd edition, 2000) Democracy in Latin America: Political Change in Comparative Perspective (2005) Modern Latin America, co-authored (1984), now in its eighth edition (2013) Drug Policy in the Americas, edited (1992) Latin America in Comparative Perspective: New Approaches to Methods and Analysis, edited (1995) NAFTA in the New Millennium, edited (2002) East Asia and Latin America: The Unlikely Alliance, edited (2003) Promises of Empowerment: Women in Asia and Latin America, edited (2004).