In recent years first Chile, then Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have abandoned decades-old authoritarian political regimes and state-directed economic strategies and moved toward democratized politics and freer markets. This volume seeks to understand the key roles of technopols-technically skilled, politically savvy leaders-in these transformations. It is based in part on elite interviews with each 0f the leaders discussed: Domingo Cavallo of Argentina, Pedro Aspe of Mexico, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, and Evelyn Matthei and Alejandro Foxley of Chile. All are major social scientists turned politicians who, the authors argue here, have themselves contributed to the formulation 0f the ideas that they eventually came to implement in their respective governments. Contributors are Jorge I. Dominguez, Javier Corrales, Stephanie R. Cobb, Joao Resendc-Santos, Delia M. Boylan, and Jeanne Kinney Giraldo.