Debt, Development, and Democracy: Modern Political Economy and Latin America, 1965-1985 Book

In the 1970s and 1980s the countries of Latin America dealt with their similar debt problems in very different ways--ranging from militantly market-oriented approaches to massive state intervention in their economies--while their political systems headed toward either democracy or authoritarianism. Applying the tools of modern political economy to a developing-country context, Jeffry Frieden analyzes the different patterns of national economic and political behavior that arose in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela. This book will be useful to those interested in comparative politics, international studies, development studies, and political economy more generally. "Jeffry Frieden weaves together a powerful theoretical framework with comparative case studies of the region's five largest debtor states. The result is the most insightful analysis to date of how the interplay between politics and economics in post-war Latin America set the stage for the dramatic events of the 1980s."--Carol Wise, Center for Politics and Policy, Claremont Graduate School

Foreign Affairs

In this jewel of a book Frieden systematically compares how and why Latin America's five largest debtors—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela—differed in their approaches to development policy choices, paths of political development and responses to the debt crisis of the 1980s.... Clear and cogent.