Ben Ross Schneider is a Professor of Political Science at MIT. Professor Schneider's teaching and research interests fall within the general fields of comparative politics, political economy, and Latin American politics. His books include Politics within the State: Elite Bureaucrats and Industrial Policy in Authoritarian Brazil (Pittsburgh University Press, 1991), Business and the State in Developing Countries (Cornell University Press, 1997), Reinventing Leviathan: The Politics of Administrative Reform in Developing Countries (North-South/Lynne Rienner, 2003), and Business Politics and the State in 20th Century Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2004). He also has written on topics such as economic reform, democratization, technocracy, the developmental state, business groups, and comparative bureaucracy. Schneider's current research revolves around two longer term projects, the first on the market reforms in education, and the second on the distinct institutional foundations of capitalist development in Latin America with particular attention to corporate governance, foreign investment, and worker training.
Schneider co-directs the MIT Brazil Program (MISTI), the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Institutions and Development (IWID), and the Harvard-MIT Workshop on the Political Economy of Development in Brazil.
17.178 Institutional Foundations of Capitalist Development (Fall 2009)
"Hierarchical Market Economies and Varieties of Capitalism in Latin America." Journal of Latin American Studies. August 2009.
"Business Politics in Latin America: Patterns of Fragmentation and Centralization." Draft chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Business and Government, edited by David Coen, Graham Wilson, and Wyn Grant. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
"Big Business in Brazil: Leveraging Natural Endowments and State Support for International Expansion." In Leonardo Martínez-Diaz, ed., Brazil as an Emerging Economic Superpower. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, forthcoming.
"A Comparative Political Economy of Diversified Business Groups, or How States Organize Big Business." Review of International Political Economy 16, no. 1 (2009).
"Inequality in developed countries and Latin America: coordinated, liberal and hierarchical systems." (with David Soskice) Economy and Society 38:1 (2009), pp. 17-52.
"Economic Liberalization and Corporate Governance: The Resilience of Business Groups in Latin America." Comparative Politics, 40, no. 4 (July 2008).
"Pragmatism and Market Reform in Brazil." With Armando Castelar and Regis Bonelli. In José Maria Fanelli, ed., Understanding Market Reforms in Latin America. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Business Politics and the State in 20th Century Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Table of Contents and a selection from Chapter One
PDF (181 KB)
Reinventing Leviathan: The Political Economy of Administrative Reform in Developing Countries. Miami: North-South Center Press, 2003.
Chapter 1: The Political Economy Of Administrative Reform In Developing Countries
"Why is Mexican Business so Organized?" Latin American Research Review 37, no. 1 (2002), pp. 77-118.
"Organizing Interests and Coalitions in the Politics of Market Reform in Latin America." World Politics, 56, April 2004, pp. 456-79.
