She is a specialist on the comparative analysis of policymaking, implementation, and public management in developing countries, with particular reference to Latin America. Her most recent book is Jobs for the Boys: Patronage and the State in Comparative Perspective (Harvard University Press 2012). She is also the author of: Going Local: Decentralization, Democratization, and the Promise of Good Governance; Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform; Audacious Reforms; Challenging the State; State and Countryside; Searching for Rural Development; and Bureaucrats, Politicians, and Peasants in Mexico. She has written numerous articles about policy management and the politics of policy reform. She also is the editor of Politics and Policy Implementation in the Third World; Getting Good Government; and Proclaiming Revolution. She is co-author, with John Thomas, of Public Choices and Policy Change, which won an award as the best book in public policy in 1991. A political scientist with a PhD from MIT, Grindle is engaged in research early travels to Latin America.
