This volume, the Inter-American Development Bank's 2006 Report on Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, appears after more than a decade of political and economic reforms in Latin America. The study analyzes how the workings of the policymaking process affect the quality of policy outcomes. It argues that the political process and the policymaking process are inseparable, and that failing to understand one risks failure with the other. It offers a wide variety of examples and case studies, using an analytical framework that can help explain why policies that work in certain instutional environments may not work in others. The study also yields useful insight for the design of effective policy reform.