Reaching for a new deal: ambitious governance, economic meltdown, and polarized politics / Theda Skocpol, Lawrence R. Jacobs -- Hard-fought legacy: Obama, congressional democrats, and the struggle for comprehensive health care reform / Lawrence R. Jacobs, Theda Skocpol -- Eliminating the market...

In this paper we collect detailed information on the budget institutions of Latin American countries. We classify these institutions on a `hierarchical'/'collegial' scale, as a function of their transparency and the existence of legislative constraints on the deficit. We then show that...