Laura Tedesco is a political scientist who specialises in state reform, democratisation, the political class, and the economics and politics of contemporary Latin America. Her previous publications include Democracy in Argentina. Hope and Disillusion (London: Frank Cass, 1999) and several articles on contemporary politics in Latin America. She teaches politics at the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia. Jonathan R. Barton is a Lecturer in the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK. He works on both issues of Latin American political economy as well as environmental politics and policy. He has written the book A Political Geography of Latin America (Routledge, 1997) as well as articles and book chapters on the Chilean transition.

'The State of Democracy in Latin America is an ambitious work that should be widely discussed for the implications of its central arguements concerning the contradiction between the egalitarian promise of democracy and the neoliberal state.'-Latin American Studies, Volume 38-2006'I for one, am thankful for a book that forcefully places a socio-economic egalitarianism at the centre of debates over democracy with rich implications for theories of the state.' -Eduardo Silva, University of Missouri- St Louis

• 1. Conceptualising the State 2. Perspectives on the Latin American State 3. The Unfolding of Argentina's Political Collapse and Social Decay 4. In Search of the Post-transitional Chilean State 5. Reflections on the Contemporary Latin American State