Privatization South American Style. By Luigi Manzetti. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 373p. $74.00.

Abstract

Luigi Manzetti fills an important gap in the literature on market reforms in Latin America by providing a comparative analysis of privatization in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. He engages the literature on economic reform in developing countries by focusing on the implementation of this single policy and complements a burgeoning scholarship on the economics of privatization in the region. The main contribu- tion lies in underlining the relevance of political factors for explaining the success of privatization policies. The "South American" style, he suggests, reinforces the view of those who, like John Williamson and Stephen Haggard ("The Political Conditions of Economic Reform," in Williamson, ed. The Political Economy of Reform, 1994) and Guillermo O'Donnell ("Delegative Democracy," Journal of Democracy 5 [January 1994]: 53­69), associate the rapid implementation of market reforms with the concentration of executive au- thority at the expense of the checks and balances of liberal democracies.