Originally published: Monthly Review Press, 1967.

The question of development is a major topic in courses across the social sciences and history, particularly those focused on Latin America. Many scholars and instructors have tried to pinpoint, explain, and define the problem of underdevelopment in the region. With new ideas have come new strategies that by and large have failed to explain or reduce income disparity and relieve poverty in the region. Why Latin American Nations Fail brings together leading Latin Americanists from several disciplines to address the topic of how and why contemporary development strategies have failed to curb rampant poverty and underdevelopment throughout the region. Given the dramatic political turns in contemporary Latin America, this book offers a much-needed explanation and analysis of the factors that are key to making sense of development today.

`This excellent textbook provides students of Latin America with a rich and deep analysis of the processes and outcomes of globalization, past and present. Diversity and difference are explored using vivid and detailed country profiles. A strength of this textbook is its ability to explain complex issues in a way that is engaging and informative. It provides conceptual frameworks for students to engage in independent analysis of the complexities of global forces as they impact on, and interact with, the "local" in different contexts. It also, however, engages with the issues of crucial importance for the lived realities of Latin American people- poverty, development, the state and resistance under changing political, economic and ideological conditions. An essential buy for serious students of Latin America′ - Anne Boran, Chester College, University of Liverpool `This is an outstanding textbook which will appeal to a wide audience but especially those wishing to understand contemporary Latin America.... I have been studying Latin America for over 40 years and wish I could have written such a lucid and engaging book′ - Dr Crist[ac]obal Kay, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague Introduction to Latin America provides a completely new introduction to the political, social and economic forces shaping this essential region of undergraduate study today. It is the first textbook to place Latin America within a genuinely global context and introduce the debates and impact of globalization, neoliberalism, democratization, and the environment. It fully reviews the traditional literature in the postwar period (such as modernization or dependency theory) to demonstrate the way in which Latin America has often been misunderstood and introduces more recent theorizing to consider the longer-term prospects for equitable and sustainable development. Encorporating maps, case study boxes, summary exhibits, and guides to further reading, Introduction to Latin America will be an essential text for all students of Latin America across politics, international studies, geography, sociology and development studies.

Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of women are unable to participate in paid work. The majority of the population out of the labor market is women between the ages of 24 and 45. This is the largest share of the available pool of unused human capital countries have, and where mothers of young children are concentrated. This book argues that more and better childcare constitutes a fundamental policy option to improve female outcomes in the labor market, but countries need to pay particular attention to the design and features of such services. First-rate educational programs will be useless if children are not enrolled or do not attend formal education centers. A large program expansion will be wasted if parents cannot enroll their children because they are unable to reach the center, don’t trust its quality, if the program is too expensive, or if work and care schedules are not compatible. Through an integrated framework applied to each country and an overview of the existing evidence, this book addresses the why and what questions about policy relevant instruments to achieve female labor participation. Parts I and II of the book lay out the motivation for Latin-American and Caribbean countries to act depicting their current situation both in terms of women’s labor participation and the use and provision of childcare services. Moreover, this book tackles the how question contributing to the incipient evidence about factors affecting the take-up of programs and demand for childcare services and other informal care arrangements. Part III of the book explores how to improve services and implement more and better formal, center-based care arrangements for young children. It looks at international benchmarks, discusses different experiences and proposes specific actions to solve potential inequalities in access to childcare.

Students and scholars of both Latin American politics and comparative politics will find The Resilience of the Latin American Right of vital interest.

Interdisciplinary research study of politics, social change, economic development, and underdevelopment, comprising both a general theoretical analysis and a case study of Latin America - covers political power, political participation, elites, systems analysis of political systems, conflict, the alternatives of dependence or autonomy, etc. Bibliography pp. 181 to 188, references and statistical tables.

What determines the capacity of countries to design, approve and implement effective public policies? To address this question, this book builds on the results of case studies of political institutions, policymaking processes, and policy outcomes in eight Latin American countries. The result is a volume that benefits from both micro detail on the intricacies of policymaking in individual countries and a broad cross-country interdisciplinary analysis of policymaking processes in the region.