Sebastián Mazzuca

About

Sebastián Mazzuca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He holds a PhD in Political Science and Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Academy for International and Area Studies. His research focuses on state formation, regime change, and economic development, with particular emphasis on Latin American politics and economy. Mazzuca has authored the book 'Latecomer State Formation: Political Geography and Capacity Failure in Latin America,' published by Yale University Press in 2021. He has also edited volumes on political economy and co-authored 'Middle-Quality Institutional Trap' with Gerardo Munck, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. His articles have appeared in prominent journals such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Democracy, among others.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Economics
• Development economics
• Political economy
• Mathematics
• Public administration
• Microeconomics
• Gender studies

Selected publications

• The Inclusionary Turn in Latin American Democracies

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2021 · 74 citations

  Latin American states took dramatic steps toward greater inclusion during the late twentieth and early twenty-first Centuries. Bringing together an accomplished group of scholars, this volume examines this shift by introducing three dimensions of inclusion: official recognition of historically excluded groups, access to policymaking, and resource redistribution. Tracing the movement along these dimensions since the 1990s, the editors argue that the endurance of democratic politics, combined with…

  DOI

• A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap: Democracy and State Capacity in Latin America

  2020 · 42 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Latin America is currently caught in a middle-quality institutional trap, combining flawed democracies and low-to-medium capacity States. Yet, contrary to conventional wisdom, the sequence of development - Latin America has democratized before building capable States - does not explain the region's quandary. States can make democracy, but so too can democracy make States. Thus, the starting point of political developments is less important than whether the State-democracy relationship is a virtu…

  DOI

• The Paradox of Civilization: Preinstitutional Sources of Security and Prosperity

  American Political Science Review · 2021 · 34 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The production of economic surplus, or “prosperity,” was fundamental to financing the rise of pristine civilizations. Yet, prosperity attracts predation, which discourages the investments required for civilization. To the extent that the economic footing of civilization creates existential security threats, civilization is paradoxical. We claim that, in addition to surplus production, civilizations require surplus protection, or “security.” Drawing from archaeology and history, we model the trad…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Latecomer State Formation

  Yale University Press eBooks · 2021-05-11 · 12 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Latin American governments systematically fail to provide the key public goods for their societies to prosper. This book argues this is because nineteenth-century Latin American state-formation occurred in a period when commerce, rather than war, was the key driver forging countries. Latin American leaders pursued the benefits of international trade at the cost of long-term liabilities built into the countries they forged, notably patrimonial administrations and dysfunctional regional combinatio…

  PublisherDOI

• Latecomer State Formation

  Yale University Press eBooks · 2021-05-02 · 12 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ernesto Dal Bó

  19 shared

• Pablo Fuentes Hernández

  University of Bío-Bío

  18 shared

• James A. Robinson

  11 shared

• Gerardo L. Munck

  7 shared

• Simeon Nichter

  University of California, San Diego

  4 shared

• Diana Kapiszewski

  3 shared

• Jordan Gans‐Morse

  Northwestern University

  3 shared

• Thad Dunning

  2 shared

Education

• PhD, Political Science

  University of California Berkeley

  2012

• MA, Economics

  University of California Berkeley

  2008

Similar researchers at Johns Hopkins University

• Richard S. Katzh-44
• Daniel Deudneyh-27
• T Smithh-26