Falling behind: explaining the development gap between Latin America and the United States

In 1700, Latin America and British North America were roughly equal in economic terms. Yet over the next three centuries, the United States gradually pulled away, and today the gap is huge. Why did this happen? Was it culture? Geography? Economic policies? Natural resources? Differences in political development? The question has occupied policymakers and scholars for decades, and the debate remains intense. In Falling Behind, Francis Fukuyama, acclaimed author of The End of History and America at the Crossroads, gathers together some of the world's leading scholars on the subject to explain th

The historical context -- Two centuries of South American reflections on the development gap between the United States and Latin America / Tulio Halperin Donghi -- Looking at them: a Mexican perspective on the gap with the United States / Enrique Krauze -- Explaining Latin America's lagging development in the second half of the twentieth century: growth strategies, inequality, and economic crises / Jorge I. Domínguez -- The politics of underdevelopment in Latin America -- Does politics explain the economic gap between the United States and Latin America? / Adam Przeworski and Carolina Curvale -- The role of high stakes politics in Latin America's development gap / Riordan Roett and Francisco E. González -- Institutional factors in Latin America's development -- Institutions and the Latin American equilibrium / James A. Robinson -- Do defective institutions explain the development gap between the United States and Latin America? / Francis Fukuyama -- Why institutions matter: fiscal citizenship in Argentina and the United States / Natalio R. Botana