Download or read book Reinventing Leviathan written by Ben Ross Schneider and published by University of Miami Iberian Studies Institute. This book was released on 2003 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars and development practitioners agree that developing countries urgently need cohesive administrative reforms to consolidate new market economies, promote sustainable development, and improve social welfare. Reinventing Leviathan provides extensive comparative research on the political processes that facilitate or block efforts designed to improve administrative performance. Studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Hungary, Mexico, and Thailand highlight distinctive patterns of reform, tracing the process from the prereform position of the bureaucracy to the design of reform packages and the contentious politics of implementation. The authors use a common framework to assess the relative importance of political institutions, international influences, social groups, and reform strategies. They relate their core findings both to practical policy debates and to broader theoretical discussions in the social sciences.