About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCambridge University Press

ISBN-101108702333

ISBN-139781108702331

eBay Product ID (ePID)10038545078

Product Key Features

Number of Pages376 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NamePolitics of Institutional Weakness in Latin America

Publication Year2020

SubjectAmerican Government / General

TypeTextbook

AuthorSteven Levitsky

Subject AreaPolitical Science

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight18.4 Oz

Item Length8.9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

Reviews'With this book, some of the best scholars in comparative politics hit a home run. The book is both a major contribution to institutional analysis and the best substantive overview of contemporary Latin American politics that I have read in many years.' James Mahoney, Northwestern University

TitleLeadingThe

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal320.98

Table Of Content1. Theorizing weak institutions; 2. When (electoral) opportunity knocks: weak institutions, political shocks, and electoral reforms in Latin America; 3. The stickiness of 'bad' institutions: constitutional continuity and change under democracy; 4. Presidential crises in Latin America; 5. Coercion gaps; 6. Aspirational laws as weak institutions: legislation to combat violence against women in Mexico; 7. The social determinants of enforcement: integrating politics with limited state capacity; 8. A multilevel approach to enforcement: forest protection in the Argentine Chaco; 9. What/whose property rights? The selective enforcement of land rights under Mexican liberalism; 10. Imported institutions: boon or bane in the developing world? 11. Social origins of institutional strength: prior consultation over extraction of hydrocarbons in Bolivia; 12. Conclusion.

SynopsisAnalysts and policymakers often decry the failure of institutions to accomplish their stated purpose. Bringing together leading scholars of Latin American politics, this volume helps us understand why. The volume offers a conceptual and theoretical framework for studying weak institutions. It introduces different dimensions of institutional weakness and explores the origins and consequences of that weakness. Drawing on recent research on constitutional and electoral reform, executive-legislative relations, property rights, environmental and labor regulation, indigenous rights, squatters and street vendors, and anti-domestic violence laws in Latin America, the volume's chapters show us that politicians often design institutions that they cannot or do not want to enforce or comply with. Challenging existing theories of institutional design, the volume helps us understand the logic that drives the creation of weak institutions, as well as the conditions under which they may be transformed into institutions that matter., Political scientists agree that 'institutions matter', but we still know little about when and why or how we would know. Drawing on experiences from Latin America, this volume offers a new conceptual and theoretical framework for understanding when institutions are strong or weak and how different types of weakness matter.