Abstract
This chapter surveys more than half a century in the development of state organization in twenty formally sovereign republics of Latin America.1 As a historical survey rather than an exercise in abstract theory it pays close attention to the particularities of individual cases and analyzes them in a comparative context. Specific aspects of state organization—territorial control, public employment, fiscal capacity, scope of economic regulation, and accountability to citizens—are singled out. The aim is to isolate the main long-run trends in state organization in Latin America since 1930, and to formulate some generalizations about their determinants.
This chapter is a condensed and slightly updated version of my “State Organisation in Latin America” in: Leslie Bethell (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin Americax. Volume VI. Part 2. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994): 3–98.
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Chapter 2 Latin American State Organization
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Re ections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991), p. 47.
Steve Topik, “The Economic Role of the State in Liberal Regimes: Brazil and Mexico Compared 1888–1910” in: Joseph L. Love and Nils Jacobsen (eds.), Guiding The Invisible Hand: Economic Liberalism and the State in Latin America History (New york Praeger, 1988), p. 139, which contrasts with the arguments of Trindade and Uricoechea above. Chileans would certainly contest the claim that Brazil built the first “nation-state” in South America.
General Enrique Peñaranda, Mensaje al H. Congreso Ordinario de 1943 (La Paz: Boletin del Congreso Nacional, 1942–1943), pp. 151–154.
Kenneth Grieb, Guatemalan Caudillo (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1979), p. 4 passim.
Peter Flynn, Brazil: A Political Analysis (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979), p. 105. The rollback of the Brazilian state in the late 1980s and early 1990s was much slower than elsewhere. For more details see my “State Organisation,” op. cit.
Sergio Miceli, Intelectuais e classe dirigente no Brasil, 1920–45 (Rio de Janeiro: DIFEL, 1979), especially chapter 3.
Lawrence Graham, Civil Service Relbrm in Brazil: Principles Versus Practice (Austin, TX: Texas University Press, 1968), pp. 27–28.
Maria do Carmo Campello de Souza, Estado e partidos politicos no Brasil: 1930 a 1964, (Sào Paulo: Alfa-Omega, 1983) p. 97.
Luciano Martins, Estado capitalistes e burocracia no Brasil pos-1964 (Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1985), p. 43, and pp. 196–197.
Guillermo O’Donnell, “On the State, Various Crises, and Problematic Democratisations,” CESDE Working Paper (University of Bologna), 1992, pp. 9–10.
Merle Kling, “Taxes on the External Sector: An Index of Political Behaviour in Latin America,” Midwest journal of Political Science 3 (2), 1959: 127–150.
For a seminal treatment of state command over resources and taxation see: Joseph A. Schumpter, “The Crisis of the Tax State,” in: A. Peacock, et al., (eds.), International Economic Papers: Translations Prepared for the International Economic Association (New York: Macmillan Press, 1954): 5–38.
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© 2006 Laurence Whitehead
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Whitehead, L. (2006). Latin American State Organization. In: Latin America: A New Interpretation. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403977229_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403977229_3
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