Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ; Abbreviations ; Prologue ; Chapter 1 - Practical Authority, Institution-building, and Entanglement ; Chapter 2 - Entangled Institutions and Layered Reform Narratives: Governing Water Resources in Historical Context ; Chapter 3 - Institutional Design in Entangled Settings: How to Make an Unfinished Law ; Chapter 4 -Practicing Laws: Experiments with Institution Building ; Chapter 5 - Becoming Committees: Diversity, Problems and Processes ; Chapter 6 - Diversions of Authority: Power, Perseverance and Struggles over the Control of Water Resources ; Chapter 7 - Building Practical Authority from Outside the State ; Conclusions ; Appendix 1: Methodological Narrative ; Appendix 2: List of interviews ; References

About the Author

RA: Adjunct Professor, Institute of Political Science, University of BrasíliaMK: Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

Reviews

Abers and Keck draw on a decade of research in Brazil to conceptualize policy formalization as a social experiment in building capacity and authority. Their account weaves together extensive national surveys and intensive case studies ... their investigation yields important clues about the nature of democracy building in the Americas.
*Katie Meehan, Latin American Research Review*

Practical Authority is simply an outstanding and tremendously important work. It can be expected to quickly become the basis for a great deal more research in environmental policy and natural resource management, and I expect it will also become the foundation for new fieldwork in a variety of areas in political science and political economy.
*Alfred P. Montero, Latin American Studies*