The Origins of Subnational Democracy

The recent ‘subnational’ turn in comparative politics has shed light on the territorial unevenness of democracy inside countries. Although insightful, existing explanations have been mostly articulated around case studies and they have overlooked long durée historical trajectories. To overcome current limitations, my book examines democracy at the subnational level across the largest federations in Latin America, arguing that within countries, democratic divergence is rooted in both colonial legacies and early experiences of labor incorporation.