Ben Ross Schneider

FACULTY  |  Ben Ross Schneider

Ben Ross Schneider is Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the MIT Brazil program. Prior to joining the department in 2008, Schneider taught at Princeton University and Northwestern University.

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 (1991), Business and the State in Developing Countries (1997), Reinventing Leviathan: The Politics of Administrative Reform in Developing Countries (2003), Business Politics and the State in 20th Century Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and Hierarchical Capitalism in Latin America:  Business, Labor, and the Challenges of Equitable Development (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He also has published on topics such as economic reform, democratization, technocracy, education policy, the developmental state, business groups, industrial policy, and comparative bureaucracy.

Research

Schneider's current research examines the distinct institutional foundations of capitalist development in Latin America with particular attention to diversified business groups, foreign investment, human capital, labor markets, and commodity-led growth.  Other ongoing research examines new forms of state capitalism, industrial policy, and state-owned enterprises.

Schneider's research has been supported by the Fulbright Program, the Social Science Research Council, the Searle Foundation, the Kellogg Institute, the Heinz Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, and the Inter-American Foundation. Schneider also has a strong interest in contemporary policy debates and has consulted for the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the Global Development Network, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Research (UNRISD), and the governments of Brazil and the United States.

Recent Publications

"Complementarities and Continuities in the Political Economy of Labor Markets in Latin America." (with Sebastian Karcher). Socio-Economic Review, 8, no. 4 (October 2010), pp. 623-51. (pdf)

"Hierarchical Market Economies and Varieties of Capitalism in Latin America." Journal of Latin American Studies, 41 (August 2009), pp. 553-75.(pdf)

"A Comparative Political Economy of Diversified Business Groups, or How States Organize Big Business." Review of International Political Economy 16, no. 2 (May 2009), pp. 178-201.(pdf)

"Inequality in Developed Countries and Latin America: Coordinated, Liberal, and Hierarchical Systems." (with David Soskice). Economy and Society 38, no. 1 (February 2009), pp. 17-52.(pdf)

"Economic Liberalization and Corporate Governance: The Resilience of Business Groups in Latin America." Comparative Politics, 40, no. 4 (July 2008), pp. 379-98.(abstract)

Business Politics and the State in 20th Century Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.(pdf)

Subjects

17.178 Institutional and Development (Syllabus)
17.588 Field Seminar in Comparative Politics (Syllabus)