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Colonial legacy and the post-independence period -- Political regimes and democratic stability -- Guerrillas and revolutions -- US-Latin American relations -- Latin American presidentialism -- Legislatures in Latin America -- Elections and electoral rules -- The judiciary -- Political culture -- Corruption -- Civil liberties and press freedom -- Income inequality, poverty, and the gender gap.

This book improves understandings of how and why clientelism endures in Latin America and why state policy is often ineffective. Political scientists and sociologists, the contributors employ ethnography, targeted interviews, case studies, within-case and regional comparison, thick descriptions, and process tracing.

"In Latin America and beyond, societies are deeply unequal, the poor are marginalized, and states face continuous fiscal shortages and real or potential political instability. In this context, democracy functions imperfectly. It intermeshes with clientelism, with the incongruous result that clientelism not only erodes, but also accompanies and supplements democratic processes. Armed with evidence of these complex interactions, this book improves understandings of how and why clientelism endures and why state policy is often ineffective. Political scientists and sociologists, the contributors employ ethnography, targeted interviews, case studies, within-case and regional comparison, thick descriptions, and process tracing. They write from political economy and institutionalist as well as principal-centered and agent-centered perspectives"--

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1. The Study of Latin American Politics -- 2. Tensions in the Class Structure: From Social Mobilization to Autonomous Organization -- 3. Actors and Coalitions -- 4. Violence and Revolution -- 5. Military Interventionism -- 6. Socialist Labor Parties: The Early Experience -- 7. Varieties of Populism and Their Transformative Tendencies -- 8. A Modeled Historical Sequence: Argentina, 1938-2000 -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Latin America has been one of the critical areas in the study of comparative politics. The region's experiments with installing and deepening democracy and promoting alternative modes of economic development have generated intriguing and enduring empirical puzzles. In turn, Latin America's challenges continue to spawn original and vital work on central questions in comparative politics: about the origins of democracy; about the relationship between state and society; about the nature of citizenship; about the balance between state and market.