Description
Book SynopsisFocuses attention on the increasingly important role of subnational governments in implementing economic policies. Alfred Montero challenges the view that the effects of decentralization are positive or negative uniformly and can be explained by reference to the influence of national political institutions.
Trade Review“This book contributes to the new literature on the economic responses of subnational governments to the pressures of global integration. Through carefully researched comparative studies of regional governments in Brazil and Spain, Montero offers an original explanation for the varying capacities of governments to form the cooperative ties with private producers essential for conducting effective industrial policy. In a highly complex and deeply subtle argument, the author demonstrates how interregional and intraregional competitions influence the willingness of politicians to delegate the authority competent bureaucrats need to foster local economic development. An inspired combination of informed theory and methodological sophistication makes this book a model of how to do comparative politics.”
—Eliza Willis,Grinnell College
“A theoretically ambitious, empirically rich study of regional economic policy in Brazil and Spain. Using case studies based on extensive field research, Alfred Montero demonstrates how political factors such as elite competition can affect economic development. An important contribution to the emerging literature on subnational political economy.”
—W. Rand Smith,Lake Forest College
“This is an important book. Based on extensive research on Brazil’s and Spain’s subnational governments from the 1970s to the 1990s, Alfred Montero develops a number of relevant contributions to the field of comparative political economy, not to mention to the knowledge of those countries’ recent politico-economic trajectories.”
—Eduardo Gomes Latin American Politics and Society
Table of ContentsContents
List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction: The Political Origins of Synergy
2. Dual Transitions in Spain and Brazil
3. Remaking Industrial Policy in Minas Gerais
4. Designing Reindustrialization in the Principado de Asturias
5. Populist Government and Industrial Policymaking in Rio de Janeiro and Andalusia
6. Conclusions: Shifting States in Comparative Perspective
Appendix A: Spanish Interviews
Appendix B: Brazilian Interviews
Bibliography
Index
