Peter H. Smith is Simòn Bolívar Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of California at San Diego. He is the editor of Drug Policy in the Americas (Westview, 1992).

• Preface -- About the book -- About the Editor and Contributors -- The Changing Agenda for Social Science Research on Latin America -- Analytical Strategies -- Contending Paradigms for Cross-Regional Comparison: Development Strategies and Commodity Chains in East Asia and Latin America -- Purposes and Methods of Intraregional Comparison -- Uses and Limitations of Rational Choice -- Conceptual Issues -- Rewriting the Scripts: Gender in the Comparative Study of Latin American Politics -- Trajectory of a Concept: “Corporatism” in the Study of Latin American Politics -- Assessments of State Strength -- Reassessing Political Culture -- Political Roles of Social Science -- Polls, Political Discourse, and the Public Sphere: The Spin on Peru’s Fuji-golpe -- Public Opinion Research in Mexico -- Public Opinion Research in Russia and Eastern Europe