Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T14:56:17.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Latin American Politics and the Subnational Comparative Method: Vertical and Horizontal Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2020

Kent Eaton Open the ORCID record for Kent Eaton [Opens in a new window]
Kent Eaton*
Affiliation:
Kent Eaton is a professor in the Department of Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz.
*
[email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Decentralization has triggered widespread use of the subnational comparative method in the study of Latin American politics. Simultaneously, it has created challenges for this method that deserve careful attention. While subnational governments after decentralization can often be treated as potentially autonomous policy jurisdictions, their autonomy is also subject to new constraints and incursions, which may limit scholars’ ability to treat them as relatively independent units. By taking stock of the vibrant literature that has emerged in recent years, this article explores three major challenges that complicate the use of the subnational comparative method. Two are vertical in nature: how to theorize national causes of subnational variation, and how the varied linkages between subnational governments and transnational actors can be conceptualized in work that compares subnational units. The third challenge is horizontal, referring to interactions between governments at the same subnational level that can either enhance or subvert autonomy.

Keywords

decentralizationsubnationalautonomy
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 62 , Special Issue 3: The Subnational State in Latin America , August 2020 , pp. 149 - 172
Copyright
© University of Miami 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflict of interest: author declares none.

References

Abrucio, Fernando. 1998. Os barões da federação. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo.Google Scholar
Alberti, Carla. 2017. Communities of Smugglers: Controlling Transnational Violence in the Andes. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, August 31–September 3.Google Scholar
Alves, Jorge. 2015. (Un?)Healthy Politics: The Political Determinants of Subnational Health Systems in Brazil. Latin American Politics and Society 57, 4: 119–42.Google Scholar
Alves, Jorge, and Gibson, Christopher. 2019. States and Capitals of Health: Multilevel Health Governance in Brazil, Latin American Politics and Society 61, 1: 54–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arce, Moisés. 2014. Resource Extraction and Protest in Peru. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arretche, Marta. 2000. Estado federativo e políticas sociais. São Paulo: Revan. Avritzer, Leonardo. 2002. A participação em São Paulo. São Paulo: Editora Unesp.Google Scholar
Baiocchi, Gianpaolo. 2005. Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Basset, Yann, Juan Carlos Guerrero, Cerón, Karen, and Pérez, Andrés. 2017. La política local en Riosucio (Chocó): ¿un caso de autoritarismo subnacional? Colombia Internacional 91: 45–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batlle, Margarita. 2009. Distribución territorial de los apoyos territoriales en América Latina. Análisis Político 67: 3–20.Google Scholar
Behrend, Jacqueline, and Whitehead, Laurence, eds. 2016. Illiberal Practices: Territorial Variance Within Large Federal Democracies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Binder, Alberto. 2004. Policías y ladrones: la inseguridad en cuestión. Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual.Google Scholar
Bonvecchi, Alejandro. 2008. Políticas sociales subnacionales en países federales: Argentina en perspectiva comparada. Desarrollo Económico 48, 190–91: 307–39.Google Scholar
Borges, André. 2016. Subnational Hybrid Regimes and Democratization in Brazil: Why Party Nationalization Matters. In Behrend and Whitehead 2016. 162–96.Google Scholar
Felipe, Burbano de Lara. 2014. La revuelta de las periferias: movimientos regionals y autonomías políticas en Bolivia y Ecuador. Quito: FLACSO Ecuador.Google Scholar
Olmeda, Cruz, Juan. Forthcoming. La unión hace la fuerza: la política de la (in)acción colectiva de los gobernadores en Argentina, Brasil y México. Mexico City: El Colégio de Mexico.Google Scholar
Cyr, Jennifer. 2017. The Fates of Political Parties: Institutional Crisis, Continuity, and Change in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Cayeros, Alberto. 2006. Federalism, Fiscal Authority, and Centralization in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Rioseco, Diego. 2016. Blessing and Curse: Oil and Subnational Politics in the Argentine Provinces. Comparative Political Studies 49, 14: 1930–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickovick, Tyler. 2014. Foreign Aid and Decentralization: Limitations on Impact in Autonomy and Responsiveness. Public Administration and Development 34, 3: 194–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickovick, Tyler, and Eaton, Kent. 2013. Latin America’s Resurgent Centre: National Government Strategies After Decentralisation. Journal of Development Studies 49, 11: 1453–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dillinger, William, and Webb, Steven. 1999. Fiscal Management in Federal Democracies. Policy Research Working Paper 2121. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Došek, Tomáš. 2016. Los caminos divergentes a nivel subnacional de los sistemas de partidos más institucionalizados. In Partidos políticos y elecciones: representación política en América Latina, ed. Tuesta, Fernando. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 231–52.Google Scholar
Duquette-Rury, Lauren. 2014. Collective Remittances and Transnational Coproduction: The 3x1 Program for Migrants and Household Access to Public Goods in Mexico. Studies in Comparative International Development 49: 112–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durán-Martínez, Angélica. 2018. The Politics of Drug Violence: Criminals, Cops, and Politicians in Colombia and Mexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eaton, Kent. 2011. Conservative Autonomy Movements. Comparative Politics 43, 3: 291–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, Kent. 2017. Territory and Ideology in Latin America: Policy Conflicts Between National and Subnational Governments. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, Kent. 2020. Bogotá’s Left Turn: Counter-neoliberalization in Colombia. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 44, 1: 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Encinas, Daniel, et. al. 2016. Democracia y territorio en países unitarios: una agenda de investigación pendiente. Lima: Jurado Nacional de Elecciones.Google Scholar
Escobar-Lemmon, Maria. 2001. Fiscal Decentralization and Federalism in Latin America. Publius 31, 4: 23–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faguet, Jean-Paul. 2013. Decentralization and Popular Democracy: Governance from Below in Bolivia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Falleti, Tulia. 2010. Decentralization and Subnational Politics in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenwick, Tracy. 2016. Avoiding Governors: Federalism, Democracy, and Poverty Alleviation in Brazil and Argentina. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Flamand, Laura. 2009. La Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores en México. ¿Cómo resolver un problema de acción colectiva? In Nuevas tendencias en la teoría y en la práctica de la administración y de las políticas públicas, ed. María del Carmen Pardo. Mexico City: El Colegio de México. 1–35.Google Scholar
Flom, Hernán. 2016. Police, Politicians, and the Regulation of Drug Trafficking in Latin America. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Fohrig, Alberto, and Pomares, Julia. 2004. La reforma policial desde las teorías del cambio institucional. In Participación ciudadana y reformas a la policía en América del Sur, ed. Frühling, Hugo and Candina, Azun. Santiago: Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo. 230–58.Google Scholar
Freidenberg, Flavia, and Suárez-Cao, Julieta, eds. 2014. Territorio y poder: nuevos actores y competencia política en los sistemas de partidos multinivel en América Latina. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.Google Scholar
Fukasaku, Kiichiro, and Hausmann, Ricardo. 1999. Democracia, descentralización y déficit presupuestarios en América Latina. Washington, DC: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.Google Scholar
Garman, Christopher, Haggard, Stephen, and Willis, Eliza. 2001. Fiscal Decentralization: A Political Theory with Latin American Cases. World Politics 53, 2: 205–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gervasoni, Carlos. 2010. A Rentier Theory of Subnational Regimes: Fiscal Federalism, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in the Argentine Provinces. World Politics 62, 2: 302–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
———. 2018. Subnational Democracy and Fiscal Federalism Rents: Argentina’s Provincial Hybrid Regimes in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, Edward L. 2013. Boundary Control: Subnational Authoritarianism in Federal Democracies. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Giraudy, Agustina. 2015. Democrats and Autocrats: Pathways of Subnational Undemocratic Regime Continuity Within Democratic Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giraudy, Agustina, and Pribble, Jennifer. 2019. Rethinking Measures of Democracy and Welfare State Universalism. Regional and Federal Studies 29, 2: 135–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giraudy, Agustina, Moncada, Eduardo, and Snyder, Richard. 2019a. Subnational Research in Comparative Politics: Substantive, Theoretical, and Methodological Contributions. In Giraudy et al. 2019b. 3–54.Google Scholar
Giraudy, Agustina, Moncada, Eduardo, and Snyder, Richard, eds. 2019b. Inside Countries: Subnational Research in Comparative Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldfrank, Benjamin. 2011. Deepening Local Democracy: Participation, Decentralization, and the Left. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Goldfrank, Benjamin, and Schrank, Andrew. 2009. Municipal Neoliberalism and Municipal Socialism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33, 2: 443–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González, Lucas. 2016. Presidents, Governors, and the Politics of Distribution in Federal Democracies: Primus Contra Pares in Argentina and Brazil. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grindle, Merillee. 2007. Going Local: Decentralization, Democratization, and the Promise of Good Governance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gustafsson, Maria-Therese. 2016. Private Conflict Regulation and the Influence of Peasant Communities over Natural Resources. Latin American Research Review 51, 2: 86–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbers, Imke. 2015. Taxation and the Unequal Reach of the State: Mapping State Capacity in Ecuador. Governance 28, 3: 373–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbers, Imke, and Matthew, C. Ingram. 2019. Politics in Space: Methodological Considerations for Taking Space Seriously in Subnational Research. In Giraudy et al. 2019b. 57–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, Patrick. 2001. Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa, and Porto Alegre. Politics & Society 29, 1: 131–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrera, Verónica. 2017. Water and Politics: Clentelism and Reform in Mexico. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooghe, Liesbet, and Marks, Gary. 2001. Multi-level Governance and European Integration. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Hooghe, Liesbet, and Marks, Gary. 2016. Community, Scale, and Regional Governance: A Postfunctionalist Theory of Governance. Volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, Margaret, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lankina, Tomila, Libman, Alexander, and Obydenkova, Anastassia. 2016. Authoritarian and Democratic Diffusion in Post-Communist Regions. Comparative Political Studies 49, 12: 1599–1629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lima, Luciana, and Viana, Ana. 2011. Descentralização, regionalização e instâncias intergovernmentais no Sistema Único da Saúde. In Regionalização e relações federativas na política de saúde no Brasil, ed. Viana. Rio de Janeiro: Contra Capa. 1–30.Google Scholar
Lucardi, Adrián. 2016. Building Support from Below? Subnational Elections, Diffusion Effects, and the Growth of the Opposition in Mexico. Comparative Political Studies 49, 14: 1855–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luna, Juan Pablo. 2014. Segmented Representation: Political Party Strategies in Unequal Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maira, Luís, ed. 2010. La política internacional subnacional en América Latina. Buenos Aires: Libros del Zorzal.Google Scholar
McNulty, Stephanie. 2011. Voice and Vote: Decentralization and Participation in Post-Fujimori Peru. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Meseguer, Covadonga, and Aparicio, Francisco. 2012. Migration and Distributive Politics: The Political Economy of Mexico’s 3x1 Program. Latin American Politics and Society 54, 4: 147–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moncada, Eduardo. 2016. Cities, Business, and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Montambeault, Francoise. 2011. Overcoming Clientelism Through Local Participatory Institutions in Mexico. Latin American Politics and Society 53, 1: 91–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montero, Alfred. 2001. Shifting States in Global Markets: Subnational Industrial Policy in Contemporary Brazil and Spain. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Montero, Alfred. 2012. A Reversal of Political Fortune: The Transitional Dynamics of Conservative Rule in the Brazilian Northeast. Latin American Politics and Society 54, 1: 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niedzwiecki, Sara. 2018. Uneven Social Policies: The Politics of Subnational Variation in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otero-Bahamón, Silvia. 2019. Subnational Inequality in Latin America: Empirical and Theoretical Implications of Moving Beyond Interpersonal Inequality. Studies in Comparative International Development 54, 2: 185–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pacheco, Alberto. 2008. El desempeño de la Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores: una instancia de concertación institucional en vías de institucionalización. In Estudios sobre desempeño asociativo, ed. Puga, Cristina and Luna, Matilde. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 80–98.Google Scholar
Pezzola, Anthony. 2018. The Deep Roots of Protectionism in the Southern Cone: Constituent Interests and Mercosur’s Common External Tariff. Latin American Politics and Society 60, 4: 69–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pino, Juan Federico. 2017. Entre democracias y autoritarismos: una mirada crítica al studio de la democracia en Colombia y Latinoamérica. Colombia Internacional 91: 215–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ponce, Aldo, and McClintock, Cynthia. 2014. The Explosive Combination of Inefficient Local Bureaucracies and Mining Production: Evidence from Localized Societal Protests in Peru. Latin American Politics and Society 56, 3: 118–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Post, Alison. 2014. Foreign and Domestic Investment in Argentina: The Politics of Privatized Infrastructure. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pribble, Jennifer. 2015. The Politics of Building Municipal Effectiveness in Chile. Latin American Politics and Society 57, 3: 100–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Restrepo, Darío. 2015. Procesos de descentralización en Bolivia y Colombia. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.Google Scholar
Rich, Jessica. 2013. Grassroots Bureaucracy: Intergovernmental Relations and Popular Mobilization in Brazil’s AIDS Policy Sector. Latin American Politics and Society 55, 2: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, and Arbix, Glauco. 2001. Strategies of Waste: Bidding Wars in the Brazilian Automobile Sector. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25, 1: 134–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1970. Concept Misinformation in Comparative Politics. American Political Science Review 64, 4: 1033–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiavon, Jorge. 2006. La proyección internacional de las entidades federativas: México ante el mundo. Mexico City: Instituto Matías Romero.Google Scholar
Smulovitz, Catalina. 2015. Legal Inequaltiy and Federalism: Domestic Violence Laws in the Argentine Provinces. Latin American Politics and Society 57, 3: 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Richard. 2001a. Politics After Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Richard. 2001b. Scaling Down: The Subnational Comparative Method. Studies in Comparative International Development 36, 1: 93–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Richard, and Durán-Martínez, Angélica. 2009. Does Illegality Breed Violence? Drug Trafficking and State-sponsored Protection Rackets. Crime, Law and Social Change 52, 3: 253–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soifer, Hillel. 2016. Regionalism, Ethnic Diversity, and Variation in Public Good Provision by National States. Comparative Political Studies 49, 10: 1341–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, Celina. 1997. Constitutional Engineering in Brazil. New York: St. Martin’s Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, Celina. 2016. The Rise and Fall of Illiberal Politics in the Brazilian State of Bahia. In Behrend and Whitehead 2016. 197–229.Google Scholar
Stoner-Weiss, Kathryn. 1997. Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional Governance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Suárez-Cao, Julieta, Batlle, Margarita, and Wills-Otero, Laura. 2017. El auge de los estudios sobre la política subnacional latinoamericana. Colombia Internacional 90: 15–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugiyama, Natasha Borges. 2013. Diffusion of Good Government: Social Sector Reforms in Brazil. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Szwarcberg, Mariela. 2013. Building a Following: Local Candidates’ Political Careers and Clientelism in Argentine Municipalities. Latin American Politics and Society 55, 3: 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tendler, Judith. 1997. Good Government in the Tropics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Trejo, Guillermo, and Ley, Sandra. 2018. Why Did Drug Cartels Go to War in Mexico? Subnational Party Alternation, the Breakdown of Criminal Protection, and the Onset of Large-Scale Violence. Comparative Political Studies 51, 7: 900–937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trejo, Guillermo, and Ley, Sandra. 2019. Multilevel Partisan Conflict and Drug Violence in Mexico: When Do Criminal Organizations Attack Subnational Elected Officials? In Giraudy et al. 2019b. 181–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Cott, Donna Lee. 2008. Radical Democracy in the Andes. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veliz, Claudio. 1980. The Centralist Tradition of Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wampler, Brian. 2007. Participatory Budgeting in Brazil: Contestation, Cooperation, Accountability. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Ward, Peter, Rodríguez, Victoria, and Mendoza, Enrique, eds. 1999. New Federalism and State Government in Mexico: Bringing the States Back In. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Warner, Mildred, and Gerbasi, Jennifer. 2004. Rescaling and Reforming the State Under NAFTA: Implications for Subnational Authority. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28, 4: 858–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weitz-Shapiro, Rebecca. 2014. Curbing Clientelism in Argentina. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wibbels, Erik. 2005. Federalism and the Market: Intergovernmental Conflict and Economic Reform in the Developing World. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, Eliza, Garman, Christopher, and Haggard, Stephan. 1999. Decentralization in Latin America. Latin American Research Review 34, 1: 7–56.Google Scholar