Avoiding Governors
Federalism, Democracy, and Poverty Alleviation in Brazil and Argentina
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Notre Dame Press
Published:15th Oct '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In Avoiding Governors, Tracy Beck Fenwick investigates the interplay of federalism and poverty alleviation strategies in Brazil and Argentina, revealing critical insights into conditional cash transfer programs.
In Avoiding Governors, Tracy Beck Fenwick delves into the complexities of poverty alleviation strategies in Brazil and Argentina, focusing on the significant role that federalism plays in shaping these initiatives. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs), tracing their origins and evolution within the unique political landscapes of these two countries. Through extensive field research and empirical analysis, Fenwick highlights how domestic factors influence the effectiveness of these programs, ultimately revealing the intricate dynamics of governance at multiple levels.
One of the critical insights presented in Avoiding Governors is that the success or failure of CCTs is largely determined by broader institutional, structural, and political variables, rather than merely the technical design of the programs themselves. Fenwick challenges conventional views of Brazilian federalism by demonstrating how local municipalities have played a pivotal role in the success of the Bolsa Familia program, enabling its implementation across various territories. In contrast, the author examines the situation in Argentina, where insufficient structural and political incentives have hindered the sustainability of CCTs focused on human capital investments.
By emphasizing the importance of local governance, Fenwick argues that municipalities can either support or obstruct the national government's efforts to deliver targeted social policies. This nuanced perspective reveals a complex intergovernmental relationship characterized by power struggles among various levels of government and their constituents. The book ultimately enriches the discourse on poverty alleviation in Latin America, offering valuable insights into the interplay of federalism and social policy.
"This carefully crafted study offers us critical insights on how institutional design affects both governing elites and the poor. It deserves a broad audience among policy makers, academics, and activists." —Nancy Bermeo, Nuffield Chair of Comparative Politics, University of Oxford
"Tracy Beck Fenwick makes a compelling argument about the conditions that either facilitate or retard one of the most important social policy innovations of the contemporary period, which is the turn toward the use of conditional cash transfers to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Her core interest in how different levels of government interact in the provision of social services has become a question of great import. With respect to the recent literatures on decentralization, federalism, and subnational governments in Latin America more generally, Avoiding Governors is by far the most sophisticated attempt yet to integrate municipal governments more directly into the theoretical frameworks we use to study intergovernmental relations.” —Kent Eaton, University of California, Santa Cruz
"This book puts into stark relief an argument that has only been made implicitly so far: that governors are to be avoided if federal governments in Latin America are to successfully put forth antipoverty policies. The question or pursuit is well stated: to examine why Brazil and Argentina had differing outcomes from similarly designed CCTs. The answer the author provides is that differences in federalism are key: While the setup in Brazil is such that the federal government can bypass governors, the national government in Argentina does not have the opportunity within its federal system to truly bypass the provinces and put through national policy in an equitable fashion throughout the territory. Rather, municipalities in Argentina are captured by the provincial level." —Wendy Hunter, University of Texas at Austin
“Fenwick’s very useful book compares the implementation of anti-poverty programs in Brazil and Argentina. . . Fenwick also makes the interesting (and counterintuitive) argument that the extreme party fragmentation in Brazil may have actually been an advantage there.” —Choice
“Fenwick’s book is a superb example of the power of political science to offer penetrating insights by coordinating the nuances of policy, history, and institutional configuration.” —Hispanic American Historical Review
ISBN: 9780268070595
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 18mm
Weight: 567g
296 pages