Mariano Tommasi

The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina: Sketch of the Framework and Implications

The authors have two purposes in this book, and they succeed admirably at both. They develop a general model of public policy making focused on the difficulties of securing intertemporal exchanges among politicians. Their model enables them to derive a series of empirical propositions about the conditions under which policies are likely to be volatile, rigid, or high quality. They combine the tools of game theory with Williamson’s transaction cost theory, North institutional arguments, and contract theory to provide a general theory of public policy making in a comparative political economy setting. They also undertake a detailed study of Argentina, using statistical evidence when and where it is available to complement their nuanced account of institutions, rules, incentives, and outcomes. They manage to make comprehensible the reasons for Argentina’s seeming inability to design and implement high-quality public policies over a sustained period of time. If the book does nothing else (and it does a lot more), it would be required reading based just on the empirical material and its interpretation.

The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina: Acknowledgments

Part I. An Intertemporal Approach to Policymaking: 1. Sketch of the framework and implications 2. A theory of intertemporal political cooperation Part II. The Workings of Political Institutions, Policymaking, and Policies in Argentina: 3. Congress, political careers, and the provincial connection 4. Federalism, Argentine style 5. The Supreme Court 6. The bureaucracy 7. The nature of public policies in Argentina.

The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina: Index

Part I. An Intertemporal Approach to Policymaking: 1. Sketch of the framework and implications 2. A theory of intertemporal political cooperation Part II. The Workings of Political Institutions, Policymaking, and Policies in Argentina: 3. Congress, political careers, and the provincial connection 4. Federalism, Argentine style 5. The Supreme Court 6. The bureaucracy 7. The nature of public policies in Argentina.