'The best comparative analysis of technocratic policy from any region of the world. Students of Latin America, country experts, scholars on democracy, and anyone interested in the politics of knowledge need to read this book. Theoretically acute and empirically rigorous.' Miguel Angel Centeno, Musgrave Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton University, New Jersey 'Drawing on hundreds of interviews with ... Read morepoliticians and policy makers, and careful analysis of the governance of the economy and the health sector in Colombia and Peru, Eduardo Dargent provides a welcome reorientation of political science toward the outputs of policy in this exploration of the striking subnational variation in state capacity.' Hillel Soifer, Temple University, Philadelphia 'This path breaking book offers a serious challenge to theorists who have long argued that technocrats derive their power from other actors, including politicians, businesses and international financial institutions. This is first-rate comparative politics research, with eye-opening implications.' Kent Eaton, University of California, Santa Cruz 'A much-needed study of the power and limitations of technocrats in Latin American democracies … a major contribution to comparative research on state reform and policy making.' Steven Levitsky, Harvard University, Massachusetts 'In a brilliantly crafted comparative analysis, Eduardo Dargent develops a persuasive theoretical framework that explains the relative autonomy of technocrats. The rich evidence from the economic and health policy issue areas in Peru and Colombia robustly support his arguments.' Eduardo Silva, Lydian Chair Professor of Political Science, Tulane University, Louisiana 'Eduardo Dargent breaks with the dominant idea that technocrats are almost entirely subordinated to their political masters … a theoretically sophisticated and extremely well-documented work.' Patricio Silva, Universiteit Leiden Show Less