As of late, political scientists have ventured into studying the historical dynamics of state building in Latin America, a trend that has not gone unnoticed among historians. Such works have focused on the capacity of states to wage war and their bureaucratic development but have thus far abstained from offering a general theory regarding state formation in the region. Sebastián Mazzuca takes this leap by offering a wide theoretical approach that seeks to analyze the diverse political geography of Latin American countries and to understand why, in Mazzuca's words, these “states were born weak” (p. 1).
Mazzuca eloquently argues that in Latin America, early success regarding state formation meant failure at state building. Unlike Max Weber's and Charles Tilly's “pioneer” European states—where the processes of state formation and state building ran in parallel—Latin American “latecomer” countries first formed states, which in turn inhibited their state-building capacities (pp. 29–32). With states...
