Understanding Institutional Weakness
Power and Design in Latin American Institutions

Offers a new, more systematic and theoretically grounded, understanding of the concept and causes of weak institutions.

Daniel M. Brinks (Author), Steven Levitsky (Author), Maria Victoria Murillo (Author)

9781108738880, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 June 2019

75 pages
23 x 15.3 x 0.4 cm, 0.21 kg

This Element introduces the concept of institutional weakness, arguing that weakness or strength is a function of the extent to which an institution actually matters to social, economic or political outcomes. It then presents a typology of three forms of institutional weakness: insignificance, in which rules are complied with but do not affect the way actors behave; non-compliance, in which state elites either choose not to enforce the rules or fail to gain societal cooperation with them; and instability, in which the rules are changed at an unusually high rate. The Element then examines the sources of institutional weakness.

1. Introduction
2. Defining institutions
3. Institutional weakness
4. Accounting for institutional weakness
5. The persistence of institutional weakness in Latin America
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4]