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Saylor argues that commodity booms and coalitional politics are central to understanding the state building variation within and across Latin America and Africa. He shows how resource booms can trigger the provision of new public goods and institutional strengthening and thus help countries expand their state capacity. But these possibilities hinge on coalitional politics, as seen through six cases

Two trends stand out in contemporary political science. Some researchers are assembling ever-better global datasets (e.g., Coppedge et al. 2019), while others are conducting sophisticated experiments and other micro-level analyses within single countries (Pepinsky 2019). Alongside these trends, the 2018 volume Comparative Area Studies: Methodological Rationales and Cross- Regional Applications (Ahram, Köllner, and Sil) underscores the vitality of small- and medium-N case study research. Most notably, the volume advocates for cross-regional research. This symposium seeks to extend a burgeoning dialogue regarding the virtues, promises, and challenges associated with comparative area studies (Sellers 2019).

Scholars of the 'resource curse' increasingly agree that strong institutions can help countries avoid the pitfalls associated with abundant natural resource wealth. This paper argues that certain political coalitions can serve a similar function in the context of weak institutions. To explicate this argument, this paper examines how international commodity booms regularly create credit demand that surpasses available supply, often impelling exporters to seek government assistance with obtaining credit. Four case studies illustrate how coalitional politics dictated governmental responses to such demands. Where exporters were members of the ruling coalition (Chile and Argentina), their needs sparked credit sector reform and government help to access credit. Where exporters were excluded from political power (Colombia and Nigeria), government policy hindered their economic goals. These findings suggest that the resource curse may pivot on coalitional politics in important respects. The paper concludes by assessing this possibility with respect to strategies that are commonly proposed to help developing countries manage their natural resource wealth. Adapted from the source document.