Colonialism and Postcolonial Development

James Mahoney is a Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America (2001), which received the Barrington Moore Jr. Prize of the Comparative and Historical Section of the American Sociological Association. He is also coeditor of Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 2003), which received the Giovanni Sartori Book Award of the Qualitative Methods Section of the American Political Science Association and coeditor (with Kathleen Thelen) of Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

'Overall, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development is a major contribution to the history of Spanish America, to the study of colonialism and to the literature on institutions and development … Furthermore, Mahoney's comparative historical methodology deftly accounts for how the particular histories of each country interacted with their colonial legacies to produce patterns of development. the discussion of how exogenous factors such as war affected development in Chile, Bolivia and Costa Rica is very well done … this book is essential reading for students of comparative politics and Latin American history.' Alex McDougall, Political Studies Review

• 1. Explaining levels of colonialism and postcolonial development; 2. Spain and its colonial empire in the Americas; 3. Mercantilist colonialism; 4. Liberal colonialism; 5. Warfare and postcolonial development; 6. Postcolonial levels of development; 7. British and Portuguese colonialism; 8. Conclusion.