Democracy, political partisanship, and state capacity in Latin America

State Capacity in Latin America

State capacity is exceptionally low in Latin America, even when compared to other former colonies. This paper analyzes four possible factors that could potentially explain this troubling feature: political inequality, economic inequality, interstate conflict and civil war. With the exception of external war, these variables have a negative effect on state-building in models where the accumulati...

Democracy and Social Spending in Latin America

Business Elites and Democracy in Latin America :

The discussion focuses on three themes. One is the divergence between positions of business associations and concerns of individual entrepreneurs regarding several determinants of investment. Another issue is under what conditions economic growth can be achieved under democracy; why market reforms have generated little private investment in many cases, and which government policies and politica...

Economic Crisis and Democracy in Latin America

While the world is focused on the economic impact of the financial and credit meltdown, what might be its impact on politics? In well-established democracies, probably not more than elections lost by incumbent parties seen as having mismanaged the economy.Butwhat of consolidatingdemocracies that predominate in thedevelopingworld, where some forecasts expect the crisis to hit the poor especially...

ICT's for Democracy in Latin America?

Should Latin American governments concentrate their efforts in improving efficiency, transparency and accountability or should they also aim to increase the participation of citizens in decision-making? Is there a risk of reinforcing inequality through the promotion of ICT's for democracy in countries with a considerable digital divide? Is there a risk of reinforcing populism, clientelism and c...