State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain: Republics of the Possible.

The growth of institutional capacity in the developing world has become a central theme in twenty-first-century social science. Many studies have shown that public institutions are an important (some would argue the most important) determinant of long-run rates of economic growth. This book argues that to understand the difficulties and pitfalls of state building in the contemporary world, it is necessary to analyze previous efforts to create institutional capacity in conflictive contexts. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the process of state and nation building in Latin America and Spain from independence to the 1930s. The book examines how Latin American countries and Spain tried to build modern and efficient state institutions for more than a century – without much success. The chapters discuss key processes and challenges of state building. To what extent do historical legacies determine the capacity and reach of states? What are the obstacles to and paths toward the effective consolidation of public authority? How can states best design and create the institutions meant to provide the basic services now associated with citizenship? How can we put together notions of community that include diverse groups and cultures within a single identity, while also respecting the integrity of particular traditions? The Spanish and Latin American experience of the nineteenth century was arguably the first regional stage on which the organizational and political dilemmas that still haunt states were faced. This book provides an unprecedented perspective on the development and contemporary outcome of those state and nation building projects.

Miguel A. Centeno is Chair of the Sociology Department and Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. He has published many articles, chapters and books, the most recent of which are Global Capitalism (2010) and Discrimination in an Unequal World (2010). He has served as the founding director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and as master of Wilson College. Centeno has been a Fulbright scholar in Russia and Mexico. He has also been a visiting professor in Buenos Aires, Seoul and Spain. In 1997 he was awarded the Presidential Teaching Prize at Princeton University.

Agustin E. Ferraro is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Salamanca, Spain. He was visiting professor at Princeton University for the Spring Term 2011. He won the 2009 award of the Spanish National Institute for Public Administration for his research on state reforms and public policy in Latin America. As a Humboldt Scholar from 2001 to 2003, he worked at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Hamburg and at the London School of Economics and Political Science.