This wide-ranging new assessment of Guatemala’s troubled political scene draws on the expertise of ten prominent social scientists. Each contributor examines an aspect of the national predicament through a suitably selected analytical lens. The results are illuminating in two respects—they deepen our understanding of Guatemalan contemporary realities while also testing, and, where relevant, modifying comparative schemas in the light of evidence from this intractable case.

Laurence Whitehead, Nuffield College, University of Oxford

This fascinating collection of essays deserves a wide readership among students and scholars of comparative politics and policy practitioners struggling to address autocratization in Guatemala. Harnessing the expertise of a stellar set of Central Americanist scholars and analysts and grounded in core theoretical debates about the causes and impacts of state (in)capacity, rigged peacebuilding, stunted development, and constrained mobilization, the chapters offer a sobering assessment of why democracy was never really meant to be in Guatemala.

Anita Isaacs, Haverford College