Systems of social protection can provide crucial assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society, but not all systems are created equally. In Latin America, social policies have historically exhibited large gaps in coverage and high levels of inequality in benefit size. Since the late 1990s, countries in this region have begun to grapple with these challenges, enacting a series of reforms to healthcare, social assistance and education policy. While some of these initiatives have moved in a universal direction, others have maintained existing segmentation or moved in a regressive direction. Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America explores this variation in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela, finding that the design of previous policies, the intensity of electoral competition, and the character of political parties all influence the nature of contemporary social policy reform in Latin America.
• Presents data from over 135 original interviews with former presidents, ministers, senators, deputies and other public figures in Chile and Uruguay • Contributes to the growing literature on Latin America's left turn, presenting a new classification of parties that helps explain the high levels of heterogeneity among the region's left-leaning governments • Provides an analysis of welfare and other social assistance policies in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela
Contents
Acknowledgments; Acronyms; 1. From special privilege to social rights: universalism in social policy; 2. Creating universalistic social policy: the role of policy legacies, electoral competition, and party character; 3. Healthcare reform in Chile and Uruguay; 4. Social assistance reform in Chile and Uruguay; 5. Education reform in Chile and Uruguay; 6. Party character in Chile and Uruguay; 7. Slow progress toward universalism: Argentina and Venezuela in comparative perspective; 8. Latin America's left parties and the politics of poverty and inequality; References; List of interviews; Index.
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