This book provides a theory of the logic of survival of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), one of the most resilient autocratic regimes in the twentieth century. An autocratic regime hid behind the facade of elections that were held with clockwise precision. Although their outcome was totally predictable, elections were not hollow rituals. The PRI made millions of ordinary citizens vest their interests in the survival of the autocratic regime. Voters could not simply throw the 'rascals out of office' because their choices were constrained by a series of strategic dilemmas that compelled them to support the autocrats. The book also explores the factors that led to the demise of the PRI. The theory sheds light on the logic of 'electoral autocracies', among the most common type of autocracy and is the only systematic treatment in the literature today dealing with this form of autocracy.

The paper utilizes a new dataset on civil liberties covering 20 Latin American and 28 post-communist countries from 1977 to 2003. It is shown that, despite the overall trend in the direction of more liberal regimes in both regions, significant intraregional and interregional disparities existed in this period. The communist regimes were characterized by a stable and severe repression of all civil liberties to a higher degree than other autocracies. Consequently, their collapse initiated a very sudden and steep improvement in the level of civil liberty. In comparison, the Latin American wave was more gradual, uneven and modest; the patterns of repression were more diverse, and the average respect for the specific liberal rights was higher across the period. After the Cold War, however, the gap decreased and the Latin American countries became more homogeneous while the group of former communist countries turned more heterogeneous.

The paper also identifies some regional similarities. The liberal rights were practically respected in the same order throughout the period, i.e., freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and independent courts. Moreover, semi-liberal regimes often constituted a plurality in both regions after 1991. Finally, both Latin American and post-communist countries faced tendencies towards a greater gap between the respect for self-government and civil liberty, respectively, and increasing sub-regional homogeneity.

All in all, the paper provides a comparative account of regime changes that answers some research questions in itself. More important, though, the revealed patterns also suggest hypotheses and propositions that may help explain the regional and country specific similarities and differences found.

This book explores the politics of fiscal authority, focusing on the centralization of taxation in Latin America during the twentieth century. The book studies this issue in great detail for the case of Mexico. The political (and fiscal) fragmentation associated with civil war at the beginning of the century was eventually transformed into a highly centralized regime. The analysis shows that fiscal centralization can best be studied as the consequence of a bargain struck between self-interested regional and national politicians. Fiscal centralization was more extreme in Mexico than in most other places in the world, but the challenges and problems tackled by Mexican politicians were not unique. The book thus analyzes fiscal centralization and the origins of intergovernmental financial transfers in the other Latin American federal regimes, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. The analysis sheds light on the factors that explain the consolidation of tax authority in developing countries.

Educational policy around the world has increasingly focused on improving aggregate student achievement as a means to increase economic growth. In the last two decades, attention has focused especially on the importance of achievement in science and mathematics. Yet, the policy commitments involved have not been based on research evidence. The expansion of cross-national achievement testing in recent decades makes possible longitudinal analyses of the effects of achievement on growth, and we carry out such analyses here. Regression analyses appear to show some effects of science and mathematics achievement on growth, but these effects are due mainly to the inclusion of the four "Asian Tigers" and are not consistent over time. These empirical findings call into question educational policy discourse that emphasizes strong causal links between achievement and growth.