Studying the State explores the results of governments in the Global South, particularly in Latin America, turning to the state as a vehicle for mobilizing people, resources and political change.
The book evaluates the results of this return to the state by looking at recent historical events to analyse the outcomes, processes, successes and failures of these projects. It also explores the role of China in affecting the margins of manoeuvrability of states, especially Latin American states. Finally, the book considers various perspectives on the theory of the state, contributing to theoretical approaches in the social sciences but in a way that is always grounded in their utility for addressing real-world problems.
Contributing to theoretical understandings of the state through grounded case studies, Studying the State will be of great interest to scholars of Latin America, the Global South and neoliberalism and the state.
This book was originally published as a special issue in Third World Thematics.
Introduction: Studying the state: a Global South perspective
Esteban Nicholls
1. Ontological disputes between Indigenous communities and the state in Bolivia
Cristina Rojas
2. The strategic use of radical indigenous narratives by the Ecuadorian state
Esteban Nicholls
3. Hegemonic power networks and institutional configuration for illicit purposes
Carlos Antonio Flores Pérez
4. Chinese engagement in Africa and Latin America: does it matter for state capacity?
Dan Banik & Benedicte Bull
5. China and the decaying of socialist rentierism in Venezuela: instability and the prevalence of non-interventionism
Antulio Rosales
6. Polycentric hierarchies and institutional complementarities in the semi-periphery: state capacities and energy policies in the BRIC countries
Carlos Henrique Vieira Santana
Biography
Esteban Nicholls completed his doctoral studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada (2014), where he received the Senate Medal for his doctoral work. He currently works as Director of the Latin American Studies Doctoral Programme and as Aggregate (Associate) Professor of Social and Global Studies at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Quito, Ecuador. Dr Nicholls’s recent publications include "The Universities Project: A Radiography of a Failed State Scheme." (2018). In Enrique Ayala Mora and Carlos Larrea (Eds.), Ecuador Today. "La relación entre capacidad y autoridad en el Estado: La construcción de un Estado "Excepcionalista" en Ecuador." (2017). European Review of Latin American Studies, 103 (Co-authored with Dr. Pablo Andrade).
