Historically, Latin America has been one of the critical regions in the study of comparative politics. The region#xE2;#xAC;"s experiments with installing and deepening democracy and promoting alternative modes of economic development have generated intriguing and enduring empirical puzzles. In turn, those puzzles have fostered theoretical innovations that have helped shape the larger field of comparative politics. Latin America#xE2;#xAC;"s empirical challenges continue to spawn original and vital work on central questions in comparative politics: about the origins of democracy; about the relationship between state and society; about the nature of citizenship; about the balance between state and market. The richness and diversity of the study of Latin American politics makes it hard to stay abreast of the developments in the many sub-literatures of the field. TheRouteldge Handbook of Latin American Politicsoffers an intellectually rigorous overview of the state field and a thoughtful guide to the direction of future scholarship. Kingstone and Yashar bring together the leading figures in the study of Latin America to present extensive empirical coverage and a cutting-edge examination of the central areas of inquiry in the region.