Hybrid Regimes within Democracies
Fiscal Federalism and Subnational Rentier States

A cutting-edge description of subnational democracy combined with a ground breaking explanation for why some regions are much less democratic than others.

Carlos Gervasoni (Author)

9781316510735, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 November 2018

308 pages, 28 b/w illus. 30 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

'… Hybrid Regimes within Democracies … offers a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between the distribution of fiscal resources to provincial governments in Argentina and the variation in the quality of democracy across the country's twenty-two subnational units … this outstanding book is highly relevant and recommended read for those interested in exploring the impact of fiscal federalism on democratic politics and the institutional challenges related to improving the quality of democracy beyond the national level of government.' Helder Ferreira do Vale, Democratization

From the racially segregated 'Jim Crow' US South to the many electoral but hardly democratic local regimes in Argentina and other federal democracies, the political rights of citizens around the world are often curtailed by powerful subnational rulers. Hybrid Regimes within Democracies presents the first comprehensive study of democracy and authoritarianism in all the subnational units of a federation. The book focuses on Argentina, but also contains a comparative chapter that considers seven other federations including Germany, Mexico, and the United States. The in-depth and multidimensional description of subnational regimes in all Argentine provinces is complemented with an innovative explanation for the large differences between those that are democratic and those that are 'hybrid' - complex combinations of democratic and authoritarian elements. Putting forward and testing an original theory of subnational democracy, Gervasoni extends the rentier-state explanatory logic from resource rents to the more general concept of 'fiscal rents', including 'fiscal federalism rents', and from the national to the subnational level.

Part I. Description: The Anatomy and Evolution of Subnational Regimes: 1. Defining and measuring subnational regimes
2. The subnational democracy index: trends in provincial regimes (1983–2015)
3. Expert survey evidence: the many dimensions of subnational democracy
Part II. Explanation: The Causes of Subnational Regimes: 4. On the rentier effects of fiscal federalism on subnational regimes
5. Fiscal federalism, subnational rentierism, and hybrid provincial regimes in Argentina
6. The determinants of provincial regimes in Argentina
Part III. Comparison: Subnational Regimes around the World: A Comparative Perspective: Levels of subnational democracy in seven federations and one unitary country
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4]