States and Markets in Latin America: The political economy of economic interventionism

The state is conceptually distinct from both economy and society, with inherent interests in expanding its scope for autonomous action, asserting control over economic and social interactions, and structuring economic and social relations. These interests derive primarily from the state’s concern to establish and maintain internal and external security, to generate revenue, and to achieve hegemony over alternative forms of social organization. … States assume empirical reality through regimes that attempt to establish political order, set terms for political interaction, allocate leadership positions and power resources, and determine the representation of interests within decision-making contexts. Regimes attempt to negotiate and impose formal and informal rules about how the state will relate to the economy and to the society; durable and legitimate regimes have greater capacity to achieve these goals than do those that are less institutionalized.[...]