Political Science / Political Economy

Globalization and the Future of the Welfare State focuses on the effects of globalization and free trade on social welfare policies in a variety of developing countries in Asia and Latin America.

The Left’s Dirty Job compares the experiences of recent socialist governments in France and Spain, examining how the governments of Franois Mitterrand (1981-1995) and Felipe Gonzalez (1982-1996) provide a key test of whether a leftist approach to industrial restructuring is possible. Taking the unusual position that these governments’ policies were generally similar to those in European countries, this study provides insight into these important socialist governments.

This volume breaks new ground by systematically exploring the linkages among the historical legacies of large landholding patterns, agrarian class relations, and authoritarian versus democratic trajectories in Latin American countries. The essays address questions about the importance of large landownders for the national economy, the labor needs and labor relations of these landowners, attempts of landowners to enlist the support of the state to control labor, and the democratic forms of rule in the twentieth century.

Kuo correlates the contrasting economic evolutions of Taiwan and the Philippines as the product of government and industry relations, by presenting case studies of leading industries in the two nations.

George Grayson examines the influence of oil and the oil sector both within Mexican society and in its relations with other nations, as he traces the development of the oil industry from its beginnings in 1901 up until the 1980s.

Sixteen essays discuss authoritarianism and corporatism in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.