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acknowledgments The writing of a book is far too large an enterprise, bene‹ting from the help and wisdom of far too many people,to permit exhaustive acknowledgments. These are thus my thanks to those foremost in my mind at the end of this process—those who gave me the most, and to whom my debt is greatest. I wrote most of this during a wonderful sabbatical year at UC Berkeley, and hence I am grateful to the London Scool of Economics (LSE) for giving me leave earlier than I was strictly due, and to Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies for hosting me with such warmth and good humor. But for that invitation from Sara Lamson and Harley Shaiken, this book would still not be ‹nished. The years that have passed have not diminished my debt to my PhD advisers , Tim Besley and Teddy Brett. I still do not understand by what stroke of luck I ended up with Tim and Teddy, but both men exempli‹ed the ideal of mentor. Their intellectual ‹ngerprints are still visible on these pages, and I am grateful for that. I thank the LSE for the William Robson Memorial Prize and a STICERD New Researcher Award, which supported ongoing research during my ‹rst years on the faculty. I was very fortunate to have my earliest research ‹nanced by a grant from the World Bank Research Committee, and am grateful to Shanta Devarajan and Gunnar Eskeland for their roles in securing this, as well as for insights that helped push me forward at an early stage. An Overseas Research Students award and additional ‹nancial support were kindly provided by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Niko Vardapetyan research award. I would not have been able to do this work without these awards. I am grateful to Paula Giovagnoli for expert research assistance converting the second round of data (a disorganized ›ood) into our lovely, well-ordered database with minimal guidance and amazingly good humor. Armando Godínez guided my understanding of the structure of rural village society and taught me a great deal about conducting interviews and de- signing qualitative research. Ivette Arias provided timely research assistance in locating public investments in space. Alberto Leytón, Piter Olmos, Javier Reyes, David Tuchschneider, and Alejandra Velasco provided me with detailed data on municipal receipts and expenditures, as well as the wonderful censo municipal. George Gray Molina and Gerardo Molina of the Social Policy Analysis Unit (UDAPSO) were similarly instrumental in providing social and demographic indicators for all of Bolivia’s municipalities, and Fernando Medina of the Secretariat of Popular Participation provided a huge amount of additional data on municipal characteristics. I could not have done this work without the support, intellectual and material, of Edwin Acuña, Juan Carlos Aguilar, Jesús Aguilera, Eduardo Araujo, David Borda, Marco Camacho, Juan Carlos Franco, Luis González, Fernando Hernández, Javier Jahnsen, Guido Roca, Esteban Urgell, Rolando Vaca, Ginger Yapiz, Elsie Yavita, and other colleagues connected to the (then) Social Investment Fund, whose daily routine takes them throughout the length and breadth of Bolivia. They not only allowed me to rely upon their knowledge and intuitions, but bundled me into their jeeps, airplanes, and dugout canoes and took me to see the places and people that populate this work.Without their aid and intimate knowledge of the country I would have been lost. I also wish to thank Pranab Bardhan, Ruth Collier, Stuart Corbridge, Tyler Dickovick, James Dunkerley, Steve Fish, Ted Miguel, Dilip Mookherjee , Ken Shadlen, Nicholas Stern, two anonymous reviewers, and seminar participants at Berkeley, the LSE, Oxford, IDB, Initiative for Policy Dialogue , Institute for the Study of the Americas, World Bank, and the LACEA99 and PACDEV09 conferences for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. I thank Melody Herr of the University of Michigan Press for her enthusiasm, wisdom, and kindness in helping me navigate the labyrinth of book publishing. And I thank my LSE Development Management students for their many suggestions and elucidations (including unintentional ones) over the years. Their contributions have improved this study in many critical ways, notwithstanding any remaining errors, which are my own. Last I must thank my mother and father, who instilled in me a love of knowledge and respect for learning from an early age. And Lisette, my beloved, who suffered my efforts for far too long. You placed a well-judged distance between this slowly developing text and our married life, and then one day snatched...

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