Policymaking in Latin America: How Politics Shapes Policies (David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Harvard University)

What determines the capacity of countries to design, approve, and implement effective public policies? To address this issue, this book builds on the results of a comparative study of political institutions, policymaking processes, and policy outcomes in eight Latin American countries. The volume benefits from both micro detail on the intricacies of policymaking in individual countries and a broad cross-country interdisciplinary analysis of the process in the region. The country studies demonstrate a deep knowledge of the specific historical dynamics and idiosyncratic structural factors at play in each case, while focusing on the effects of political institutions as viewed through a common analytical lens founded in game theory and institutional analysis. This book should become a staple on the syllabus of any class on Latin American politics or institutional politics and important background reading in many classes on development economics. Political institutions, policymaking, and policy: an introduction / Pablo T. Spiller, Ernesto Stein, and Mariano Tommasi -- Who's who in the PMP: an overview of actors, incentives, and the roles they play / Carlos Scartascini -- Political institutions, policymaking processes, and policy outcomes in Argentina / Pablo T. Spiller and Mariano Tommasi -- On the road to good governance: recovering from economic and political shocks in Brazil / Lee J. Alston [und weitere] -- Political institutions, policymaking processes, and policy outcomes in Chile / Cristóbal Aninat [und weitere] -- Political institutions and policy outcomes in Colombia: the effects of the 1991 constitution / Mauricio Cárdenas, Roberto Junguito, Mónica Pachòn -- Veto players, fickle institutions, and low-quality policies: the policymaking process in Ecuador / Andrés Mejia Acosta [und weitere] -- Policymaking in Mexico under one-party hegemony and divided government / Fabrice Lehoucq [und weitere] -- Political institutions, policymaking processes, and policy outcomes in Paraguay / José Molinas [und weitere] -- Political institutions and policymaking in Venezuela: the rise and collapse of political cooperation / Francisco Monaldi [und weitere]