Institutions Count: Their Role and Significance in Latin American DevelopmentAlejandro Portes, Lori D. Smith What leads to national progress? The growing consensus in the social sciences is that neither capital flows, nor the savings rate, nor diffuse values are the key, but that it lies in the quality of a nation’s institutions. This book is the first comparative study of how real institutions affect national development. It seeks to examine and deepen this insight through a systematic study of institutions in five Latin American countries and how they differ within and across nations. Postal systems, stock exchanges, public health services and others were included in the sample, all studied with the same methodology. The country chapters present detailed results of this empirical exercise for each individual country. The introductory chapters present the theoretical framework and research methodology for the full study. The summary results of this ambitious study presented in the concluding chapter draw comparisons across countries and discuss what these results mean for national development in Latin America. |
Contents
A Conceptual Reanalysis | 1 |
Institutional Change and Development in Chilean Market Society | 60 |
A Thick Institutionalist Analysis | 85 |
Politics the State and Institutions | 113 |
The Uneven and Paradoxical Development of Mexicos Institutions | 130 |
The Comparative analysis of the role of Institutions | 167 |
Investigators | 191 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actors administration adpostal aerocivil airport Alejandro Alejandro Portes argentina BCBa Bogotá Buenos Aires bureaucracy causal chapter Chile Chilean civil aviation clientelism Colombia Colombian institutions Comparative Analysis conceptual contribution to development Corasa culture developmental DGaC DIan Dirección Dominican republic Economic Sociology edited elite external allies framework functions global HGMGG hospital immunity to corruption innovation insti Institutional Adequacy institutional change institutional quality institutional studies institutionalism Institutions and Development internal islands of power Latin American Institutions meritocratic Mexican Mexico City modernization national development neoliberal norms operated organizational organizations outcome path dependence percent personnel political Portes postal service Princeton University proactivity project Latin American public health system reform rodríguez role rules santiago santiago stock Exchange scores sector SEPOMEX social structure society stock exchange Tax Agency tax authority technological flexibility tion tional transformation Truth Table University of Chile University Press Wormald