Latin American Social Policy Developments in the Twenty-First Century

This book explores the scope of reforms and changes in the social protection systems in Latin America that have started at the beginning of the 21st century. It describes how and to what extent changes in social protection systems and social policies have occurred in the region in recent decades. Taking a comparative approach, the volume identifies the triggers for the transformations and how such pressures are received by the welfare regime, or a specific policy sector, to finally yield a given type of reform. The analysis is characterized by the presence of certain factors that explain the development of social protection systems in Latin America, such as economic growth, the consolidation of democratic political regimes, and the region’s Left Turns. The book also examines to what extent common challenges and processes induced by international institutions have led to convergence among countries or welfare regimes, or whether each maintains its own identity.

Chapter 1: The Latin American social protection systems in action: triggers and outcomes of reforms at the start of the 21th century.- Part I: Durability and Change in Latin American welfare regimes.-  Chapter 2: Stratified universalistic regimes in the 21st century: Widening and compounding inequalities in welfare and social structure in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Costa Rica.- Chapter 3: Actors and Social Reforms in Five Dual Welfare Regimes in Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela.- Chapter 4: Reviewing exclusionary welfare regimes: Andean countries (Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru).- Chapter 5: How 'liberal' are Latin American welfare regimes?.- Part II: Explaining social policy change and its consequences in Latin America.- Chapter 6: Social security and pensions systems: the deep stratification of Latin American societies.- Chapter 7: Health care reform in Latin America: notall roads lead to Rome. Chapter 8: Social Assistance: Conditional Cash Transfers – a gateway into social protection systems.- Chapter 9:  Beyond States and Markets: families and Family Regimes in Latin America.- Chapter 10: Family policies in Latin American re-enforcing familialism.- Part III: The end of an era?.- Chapter 11: The paradigmatic radical reform in Brazil`s social policies: the impact of the Temer Administration.

Natália Sátyro is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. She is the coordinator of ALACIP’s Public Policy Research Group (GIPP) since 2015 and co-convenor of IPSA’s Research Committee (RC39) on Welfare State and Developing Societies, since 2014.

Eloisa del Pino is Senior Researcher in the Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP) at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She is conducting the GoWPER Project 2018–2020 Restructuring the Welfare Governance CSO2017-85598-R PN I+D.

Carmen Midaglia is Professor of Political Science at the Universidad de la República, Uruguay. She is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Co-Coordinator of the Working Group on Poverty and Social Policies of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.