Governance in the Americas

Decentralization, Democracy, and Subnational Government in Brazil, Mexico, and the USA

Robert H. Wilson, Peter M. Ward, Peter K. Spink, and Victoria E. Rodríguez
with Marta Ferreira Santos Farah, Lawrence S. Graham, Pedro Jacobi, and Allison M. Rowland

From the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies

Governance in the Americas, a multidisciplinary volume, offers important new insights about decentralization, federalism, and democratic change in the three largest federal nations in the Americas: Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Originating in a major research project conducted by teams in each of the three countries, this study contributes significantly to our understanding of how representative and participatory democracy is being constructed at state and local levels in the recently emerged democracies of Brazil and Mexico, and is being recast and sustained in the United States. The contributors evaluate the performance of subnational governments, as these societies become more genuinely decentralized, and as new actors and managerial routines create and implement public policy. The authors challenge the criticism of “exceptionalism” in the United States, seeking instead to understand the points of convergence and divergence among the three countries as each seeks to improve the effectiveness and public accountability of its policy-making processes.

Collaborators include Marta Ferreira Santos Farah, Lawrence S. Graham, Pedro Jacobi, and Allison M. Rowland.

Robert H. Wilson is Mike Hogg Professor of Urban Policy and associate dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Peter M. Ward is the C. B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico Relations and professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Peter K. Spink is professor of public administration and government in the School of Business Administration, Getulio Vargas Foundation, São Paulo.

Victoria E. Rodríguez is vice provost and dean of graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the Ashbel Smith Professor of Public Affairs.

“This book is ambitious in scope, synthesizing political patterns in three of the hemisphere’s largest countries and most complex economies, discussing a multitude of subnational actors and institutions in each of these countries, and covering broad stretches of time in each country.” —Kent Eaton, University of California, Santa Cruz