Several dozen interviews with prominent businesspeople and top government officials were crucial for this project. Not only did these interviews provide basic information on associations that was lacking in the published record, they also provided crucial insights into the motivations of the actors involved in building associations and in strategic exchanges between business and government elites. These data on preferences, interpretations, and motivations were crucial to arguments developed in Chapter 2 on the micro-foundations of state-led collective action.

I interviewed more business and political elites in Brazil and Mexico, often in the early 1990s, in the context of related research I was conducting on other topics. The interviews in Argentina, Colombia, and Chile were fewer and much more focused. Some respondents requested anonymity, but most were willing to talk freely, in some cases in tape-recorded interviews. Wherever possible I have attributed quotes to named individuals in an effort promote transparency.

Argentina

Business

1. Jorge Blanco Villegas. President of UIA (1993–7). 3 May 2000.

2. Eduardo Cassullo. Executive director of UIA (1993–8). 4 May 2000.

3. José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz. President of Acindar, president of CEA (1974–6), minister of economics (1976–81). 5 May 2000.

4. Murat Eurnekian. Member and director of UIA (1963–96), secretary of industry (1987–8). 4 May 2000.

Government

1. Felix Peña. Mercosur negotiator (1990–2) and undersecretary of trade (1998–9), 5 May 2000.

Brazil

Business

1. Ruy Altenfelder. Vice president of FIESP. 8 December 1996.

2. Mauro Arruda. Executive director of IEDI. 15 December 1993 and 23 May 1995.

3. Synésio Batista da Costa. Executive director (1985–) of ABRINQ (Associação Brasileira dos Fabricantes de Brinquedos, Brazilian Association of Toy Manufacturers). 23 May 1995.

4. […]