State and Nation Making in Latin America Spain: Volume 1: Republics of the Possible

The growth of institutional capacity in the developing world has become a central theme in twenty-first-century social science. Many studies have shown that public institutions are an important determinant of long-run rates of economic growth. This book argues that to understand the difficulties and pitfalls of state building in the contemporary world, it is necessary to analyze previous efforts to create institutional capacity in conflictive contexts. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the process of state and nation building in Latin America and Spain from independence to the 1930s. The book examines how Latin American countries and Spain tried to build modern and efficient state institutions for more than a century - without much success. The Spanish and Latin American experience of the nineteenth century was arguably the first regional stage on which the organizational and political dilemmas that still haunt states were faced. This book provides an unprecedented perspective on the development and contemporary outcome of those state and nation-building projects.

This book analyzes how developmental states contributed to economic prosperity, sometimes with spectacular success, and sometimes with less brilliant results. In 1960, Latin America and Spain had the same level of economic and social development, but, in just twenty years, Spain raced ahead. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the design and implementation of developmental state policies in both regions and examines the significant variance in success between Latin America and Spain. The second volume in a trilogy, this collection of studies on state institutions in Latin America and Spain covers the period 1930-1990 and focuses on the successes and failures of the developmental states. This book assumes a wide social science perspective on the phenomenon of the developmental state, focusing on the design, creation and management of public institutions, as well as the creation of national projects and political identities related to development strategies.