Critical juncture and legacies: state formation and economic performance in Latin America

• Main Author: Mazzuca, Sebastián
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2017
• Subjects: qualitative methods; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1145421

In South America, income per capita, the standard measure of material prosperity, is five times larger than in tropical Africa but five times smaller than in the advanced economies of the North Atlantic. If we applied the distinction that economists usually draw between geography and politics—as opposite fundamental factors of long-run development—a simple but powerful picture about the division of the causal labor would emerge. Geography would explain why South American economies are ahead of the African ones, whereas politics would explain why they are behind those of the United States and Western Europe. All relevant geographic factors in South America, including proportion of fertile land, number of navigable rivers and disease environment, are far superior to those in Africa. By contrast, political factors, including state capac-ity, types and stability of public institutions, viable political coalitions, and social and economic policies, are far inferior in South America to those in Western Europe and North America.