Leslie E. Anderson is a University of Florida Research Foundation Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. She is a scholar of democracy, popular politics and protest, and democratic development. Professor Anderson is also the author of The Political Ecology of the Modern Peasant: Calculation and Community and Learning Democracy: Citizen Engagement and Electoral Choice in Nicaragua, 1990–2001 (with Lawrence C. Dodd), in addition to multiple journal articles.

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Creating Social Capital: People I Have Known: The Human Face of Popular Politics: 2. Creating 'we': Sandinismo and bridging social capital; 3. Creating 'us' and 'them': Peronism and bonding social capital; Part II. An Empirical Examination of the Argument: 4. A tale of two neighborhoods: social capital in Nicaragua and Argentina; 5. Political capital in Nicaragua and Argentina: political activism and political values; 6. Political capital in Nicaragua and Argentina: democratic institutions and procedures; Part III. Making Democracy Work Without Social Capital: Institutional Capital: 7. If you build it they will come; 8. Conclusion.

“This book provides a masterful analysis of political development in the cases of Argentina and Nicaragua. The analysis links citizen participation and institutional development in a novel way that shows how mass movements can establish enduring patterns of relationships between citizens and the state. The writing demonstrates the great depth of Leslie E. Anderson’s knowledge of the two countries and the strength of her command of the political and historical literature on them.” – Lisa Baldez, Dartmouth College