Business Politics and the State in Twentieth-Century Latin America

The first systematically comparative and historical analysis of the incorporation of business into politics in Latin America.

Ben Ross Schneider (Author)

9780521836517, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 August 2004

336 pages, 6 tables
23.7 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.566 kg

"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

This is the first systematically comparative and historical analysis of the incorporation of business into politics in Latin America, examining business organizing and political activity over the last century in five of the largest, most developed countries of the region. Why did business end up better organized in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico than in Argentina and Brazil? The explanation for the surprising cross-national variations lays neither in economic characteristics of business nor broader political parameters, but in the cumulative effect of actions of state actors. The book also considers the consequences of these differences in organization and finds that stronger encompassing associations offer government officials opportunities for concerted policy making with business that can enhance policy implementation. The strong hand of the state in organizing business has important implications not only for theories of collective action, but also for our understanding of civil society and its potential to promote democratization.

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.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ], Political economy [KCP], Development studies [GTF]