Challenging the State
Crisis and Innovation in Latin America and Africa

This book examines the development of Latin America and Africa in the face of challenging political and economic crises.

Merilee S. Grindle (Author), Ellen Comisso (Associate editor), Peter Hall (Associate editor), Joel Samuel Migdal (Associate editor)

9780521559195, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 February 1996

256 pages
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.477 kg

"...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

The 1980s and 1990s posed great challenges to governments in Latin America and Africa. Deep economic crises and significantly heightened pressure for political reform severely taxed their capacity to manage economic and political tasks. These crises pointed to an intense need to reform the state and redefine its relationship to the market and civic society. This book examines the paradox of states that have been weakened by crisis just as their capacity to encourage economic development and provide for effective governance most needs to be strengthened. Case studies of Mexico and Kenya allow the author to analyse the opportunities available for political leadership in moments of crisis, and the constraints on action provided by leadership goals and existing political and economic structures. She argues that while leaders and political structures are often part of the problem, they can also be part of the solution in building more efficient, effective, and responsive states.

1. Challenging the state: a decade of crisis
2. Crisis and the state: evidence from Latin America and Africa
3. Crisis and breakdown in Mexico and Kenya
4. Imposing state authority
5. Managing the economy
6. Administering the public good
7. Responding to society
8. States of change.

Subject Areas: Political structure & processes [JPH]