Book Review. Local Government in Latin America
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-162X(199608)16:3<289::AID-PAD1875>3.0.CO;2-3 |
| Author | J. A. CHANDLER |
| Published date | 01 August 1996 |
| Date | 01 August 1996 |
Book
reviews
289
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN LATIN AMERICA
R.
A.
Nickson
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, Colorado, 1995, 316 pp.
Nickson observes that ‘Local government in Latin America remains a highly neglected area of
study’ and, to re-assert its importance, has provided a book that outlines the basics of local
government within the mainland Americas south of the United States. The study covers
18
states and provides both individual profiles of the local government systems within each of
these nations and also a comparative overview of these systems. The work is carefully
structured and is divided into sections on the history, legal status, structure and functions,
finance, internal organization, citizen participation and prospects of the systems under
consideration.
The book is predominantly of value as a source of basic information on systems of local
government in Latin America and will be of considerable use as a source of reference. The
study remains consistent in its attention to structural and procedural issues and presents,
therefore, an easily accessible check list of the major features necessary for developing an
understanding of local government in Latin America. Given the number of countries to be
covered, each chapter cannot possibly provide much analytic detail on the systems of local
government but anyone wishing to gain an overview of, for example, the extent to which
mayors are directly elected or the impact of property taxes on any municipal system in Latin
America, will be able to use this study as a very accessible source.
The study does not, however, advance far beyond the point of description of structures and
processes. In the opening chapters comparison amounts to little more than cataloguing the
extent to which a particular issue, for example establishing training institutions for municipal
employees, is practised throughout the continent. Thus, there is no attempt to develop any
socio-economic or organizational theories of governance in the study. Those who may wish to
use examples drawn from Latin American experience to illuminate the theories of, perhaps,
neo-Marxist, rational choice or organizational theorists of intergovernmental relations will
have to use the material to adapt to their theories rather than find ideas that argue for
or
against
a
particular theoretical standpoint.
Given the need and aims
of
this book, the lack
of
an organizing theoretical standpoint is by
no means
a
disadvantage since it results in a work that is easily approachable and presents a
clear set
of
data that can be used in other studies. There is, however, a problem in this
predominantly descriptive approach in that little attention is given to important issues
concerning the development of local government in Latin American regimes that occur on an
informal level. Andrew Nickson refers not infrequently, for example, to patron client politics
but never details the extent to which each system may be shaped by party politics, class,
kinship or business links, let alone clandestine revolutionary groups or drug cartels. There
appears to be a level of political substructure and sociological underpinning to the systems
that is lacking in this study, which therefore presents for certain regimes an appearance of
stability, and the pre-eminence of the rule of law, that may not be warranted by the more
turbulent reality.
Despite this qualification, the work is to be recommended as a valuable source of
information and any student of comparative political systems will find it a useful and
frequently used reference. It should, therefore, appear in any library of comparative politics
and local governance.
J.
A. CHANDLER
Policy Research Centre, Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University
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