Regime transitions often raise expectations for sweeping policy change-yet those expectations are not always realized. Focusing on the mechanisms linking regime type and policy, Policy in Transition explains how, and under which conditions, policy changes are likely to occur after a regime transition. Whether policies change depends on how the transition reshapes the space for contestation and on the visibility of the policy in question. This finding argument is supported through an in-depth comparative historical analysis of the evolution of housing and financial policies across regime types changes in Argentina and Brazil since the 1960s. Drawing on extensive archival materials, public records, historical media, and interviews with key actors, the book studies policymaking across different authoritarian and democratic regimes providing nuanced insights into the relationship between political regimes and policy change.
Emilia Simison is a Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on the comparative political economy of policymaking and policy change. She is the co-author of Lawmaking under Authoritarianism (CUP, 2026).
1. Transitions and policy change; 2. Analyzing the relation between regime type and policy; 3. Space for contestation across regime types in Argentina and Brazil; 4. High visibility: the role of elections, competition, and mobilization; 5. Low visibility: all (interest groups) welcome; 6. If there is a lot of screaming: economic crises, mobilization, and change; 7. Great expectations, great disappointments?; 8. References; 9. Appendix: Annotated primary sources; Index.