INEQUALITY IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE QUANDARY OF CLIENTELISM

A review essay on books by (1) Estanislao Gacitua-Mario, Andrew Norton, and Sophia V. Georgieva [Eds], Building Equality and Opportunity through Social Guarantees: New Approaches to Public Policy and the Realization of Rights (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009); (2) Roberto Gargarella The Legal Foundations of Inequality: Constitutionalism in the Americas, 1776-1860 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010); (3) Paul Gootenberg and Luis Reygadas [Eds] Indelible Inequalities in Latin America: Insights from History, Politics, and Culture (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010); (4) Luis F. Lopez-Calva and Nora Lustig [Eds] Declining Inequality in Latin America: A Decade of Progress? (New York: UN Development Program; Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010); (5) Ricardo D. Salvatore, John H. Coatsworth, and Amilcar E. Challu [Eds] Living Standards in Latin American History: Height, Welfare, and Development, 1750-2000 (Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and Harvard University Press, 2010).