Baker Andy. The Market and the Masses in Latin America

Cambridge University Press, 2010. — 358 p."This fine study provides a comprehensive analysis of the way mass publics in Latin America view market reforms. Andy Baker shows that people are inclined to evaluate trade liberalization quite differently from privatization, and he argues persuasively that such judgments are based not on their assets or their position in the labor market but on consumer interests and 'top-down' appeals by competing political elites. This is a book that is very timely in terms of current issues facing Latin America. It will be of considerable interest to Latin American specialists, to people with more general interests in the politics of market reform, and to students of political economy."
Robert Kaufman, Rutgers University