Challenging the State: Crisis and Innovation in Latin America and Africa

Description

The 1980s and 1990s posed great challenges to governments in Latin America and Africa deeply affected by economic and political crises that weakened their ability to encourage economic development and provide for effective governance. Using case studies of Mexico and Kenya this book shows how a decade of deep and sustained crisis also became a decade of innovations in ideas, policy directions, political coalitions, and government institutions. Merilee Grindle argues that political leadership and structures of political power, while frequently part of the problem of underdevelopment, are also part of the solution in building more efficient, effective and responsive governments.

"She presents considerable statistical and other data to flesh out her account of recent history...The story she tells, and the mix of data, will make a useful resource for upper-division undergraduate collections." Choice "This carefully researched, admirably structured, persuasively argued book is a welcome addition to the literature on the comparative study of state power. In addition to its interest to scholars, this book has the added advantage of lending itself well to classroom use for advanced undergraduates and graduate courses, and its admirable...cross-regional comparative nature addds to its methodological interest." Leonardo A. Villalon, Political Science Quarterly "...an interesting and wide-ranging piece of work yielding many insights for economists, historians, or political scientists interested in state-society-economy relations." Nicoli Nattrass, International Journal of African Hist. Studies