Latin American Politics and Society

Gerardo L. Munck grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. His books include Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies (with David Collier; 2022); A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap: Democracy and State Capacity in Latin America (with Sebastián Mazzuca; 2020); and Measuring Democracy: A Bridge Between Scholarship and Politics (2009). He worked on Democracy in Latin America (2004), a United Nations Development Programme report. His awards include the Frank Cass Prize for Best Overall Article in Democratization in 2016, and the Award for Conceptual Innovation in Democratic Studies in 2003. Juan Pablo Luna grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay, and is Professor of Political Science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and Associate Researcher with the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data. His books include Latin American Party Systems (with Kitschelt, Hawkins, Rosas, and Zechmeister; Cambridge, 2010); Segmented Representation, Political Party Strategies in Unequal Democracies (Oxford, 2014); The Resilience of the Latin American Right (with Rovira-Kaltwasser; Johns Hopkins, 2014); En vez del optimismo. Crisis de representación política en el Chile actual (Catalonia, 2017); and Political Parties and Diminished Subtypes (with Rosenblatt, Piñeiro, and Vommaro; Cambridge, 2021).

• Preface; Introduction: Latin American politics and society; Part I. A Historical Overview: 1. The state and state capacity; 2. Nation building, race, and ethnicity; 3. Political regimes and democracy; 4. Development models and socioeconomic welfare; Part II. Problems of Democracy in a Democratic Age: 5. Democracy and the quality of democracy: the never-ending quest; 6. Political inclusion and institutional innovations: women, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and ordinary people; 7. Political parties and the citizen–politician link: the persistent crisis of representation; Part III. Civil Rights as a Problem for Democracy: 8. The protection of civil rights: a pending task for democracies; 9. Transitional justice: responses to past human rights violations; 10. High-level corruption: public officials against the public interest; 11. The new violence: homicides, drugs, and the state; Part IV. Social Rights as a Problem for Democracy: 12. Social rights in law and reality: the dilemmas of democracy in unequal societies; 13. Sustainable development and neoextractivism: growth, the environment, and social action; 14. Basic social inclusion and social policy: CCTs as a poverty reduction policy; 15. Unequal democracies: the paradox of political equality and social inequality; Conclusion: 16. Latin America in perspective: lessons and prospects; Appendix. A timeline of Latin America; Glossary; References; Index.

'This book is impressive in scope and depth. It offers an introduction to Latin America for those unfamiliar with the region and a novel perspective for specialists – one centered on inequality and state weakness as conditioning factors for the attainment of full citizenship and for regime-level dynamics. Especially impressive is how the authors integrate cutting-edge scholarship across disciplines, a wealth of easy-to-interpret empirical data, and images that capture key ideas visually. Comparisons around topical themes offer frameworks for thinking through pressing questions, and invite inquiry into individual cases. Support materials for instructors are pedagogically careful and creative. This book will profoundly shape how we teach about Latin American politics in the years to come.' Santiago Anria, Dickinson College