Overview

Countries throughout the world have passed regulations that promise protection for workers and the environment, but violations of these policies are more common than compliance. All too often, limitations of state capacity and political will intertwine, hindering enforcement. Why do states enforce regulations in some places, and in some industries, but not in others? In Politicized Enforcement in Argentina, Amengual develops a framework for analyzing enforcement in middle-income and developing countries, showing how informal linkages between state officials and groups within society allow officials to gain the operational resources and political support necessary for enforcement. This analysis builds on state-society approaches in comparative politics, but in contrast to theories that emphasize state autonomy, it focuses on key differences in the way states are porous to political influence.

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9781107135833

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Reviews

'This is a breathtakingly original book that combines theoretical innovation with meticulous fieldwork. Amengual's argument also has important policy implications because it shows that there are multiple pathways to enforcement.' Teri L. Caraway, The Journal of Politics 'Amengual's empirical work is remarkable, both in his research design and in the breadth and depth of his fieldwork. ... [It] challenges much of the conventional wisdom of the field, especially among scholars who study - and very often tend to idealize - the role of Weberian bureaucracies and civil society organizations in development.' Latin American Politics and Society '[The book] sets an exciting and ambitious agenda for future scholarship, which will need to probe more deeply, across countries and policy areas, into how state and society interact not simply in the production of laws and regulation but also in their enforcement. And beyond scholars, Politicized Enforcement in Argentina is likely to have significant impact for policy practitioners ... with its insights on how enforcement emerges through linkages and resource mobilization.' Matthew Carnes, ILR Review

Author Information

Matthew Amengual is an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is affiliated with the Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) and the Sustainability Initiative. His research on labor and environmental politics has been published in Politics and Society, World Development, Industrial and Labor Relations Review and Desarrollo Económico.

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