Michael Albertus, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago joins James to discuss politics and democratization in Latin America - including when/how the region gained independence, the importance of land and land reform, property rights, left-wing radicals vs. right-wing reactionaries, drug wars and cartels, and whether democracy is responsible for corruption today. Mike is the author of Property without Rights: Origins and Consequences of the Property Rights Gap, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy (with Victor Menaldo), and Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform