Latin America in the 1980s was marked by the transition to democracy and
a turn toward economic orthodoxy. Unsettling Statecraft analyzes this
transition in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, focusing on the political
dynamics underlying change and the many disturbing tendencies at work as
these countries shed military authoritarianism for civilian rule.
Conaghan and Malloy draw on insights from the political economy
literature, viewing policy making as a "historically conditioned"
process, and they conclude that the disturbing tendencies their research
reveals are not due to regional pathology but are part of the more
general experience of postmodern democracy.