Business Politics and the State in Twentieth-Century Latin America

by Ben Ross Schneider

Overview

Ben Schneider's comparative historical analysis of the incorporation of business into politics in Latin America examines business organization and political activity over the last century in five of the largest and most developed countries of the region. Schneider's explanation for why business became better organized in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico than in Argentina and Brazil, lies neither in economic characteristics of business nor broader political parameters, but rather in the cumulative effect of state policy actions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521836517
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/23/2004
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Ben Ross Schneider is Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. Schneider's articles and other publications focus on a range of issues in Latin American politics and development including privatization, democratization, regional integration, corporate organization, and market-oriented reforms. He is the author of Politics within the State (1991), and co-editor of Business and the State in Developing Countries (1997, with Sylvia Maxfield) and Reinventing Leviathan (2203, with Earlene Ross Fowler). He has received fellowships and research funding from the Tinker Foundation, the Searle Foundation, the Heinz Foundation, and the Fulbright Program.

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction and Arguments: 1. Patterns of business politics in Latin America; 2. States and collective action; Part I. Cases and Comparisons: 3. From state to societal corporatism in Mexico; 4. From corporatism to reorganized disarticulation in Brazil; 5. Business in Columbia: well organized and well connected; 6. Consultation and contention in the making of cooperative capitalism in Chile; 7. Business associations in Argentina: fragmented and politicized; Part III. Conclusions and Implications: 8. Economic governance and varieties of capitalism; 9. Democracy and varieties of civil society; Appendices.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume will be of interest to students of Latin American politics as well as those concerned with democracy or the lack of it in developing nations. Recommended." R.J. Alexander, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, CHOICE

"This volume is a valuable addition to the extensive and disparate bibliography on business associations, state-business relations, collective action, corporatism, and civil society. One of its major achievements is that it will help to redirect research on these topics." - Carlos Davila

"Schneider's book displays meticulous research and an excellent command of both theory and data. It represents the first serious effort to compare business associations' behavior across very diverse countries in a systematic and theoretically sound fashion. The main thesis is straight-foward, well argued, and consistently supported throughout. The book's breadth and scope make it a majorly scholarly accomplishment that any future work on the subject will need to confront." - Luigi Manzetti, Southern Methodist University

From the Publisher