New Developments in Latin America's Social Policy

Abstract

This article introduces a special section focusing on the social policy reforms of recent years in Latin America. The essay identifies and discusses the principal trends and challenges in social policy in the region since the 1980s, before providing a summary of the special section and linking up the themes of the four contributions that follow. These highlight the variety of approaches adopted, as well as the differing assessments of recent developments. The authors note that while the reform process itself is unfolding, it is striking that social policy has become a highly visible and contested issue in the region.

Social Investment Policies in Chile and Latin America: Towards Equal Opportunities for Women and Children?

“…As Jane Jenson (2009) shows, social investment ideas have also entered postadjustment policy-making in Latin America, where concerns about persistent poverty, inequality and social exclusion have mixed with efficiency arguments about activation and investment. It is within this logic that certain state activities have become re-legitimated, and experimentation with a very heterogeneous set of 'new' social policies has taken place (Barrientos et al, 2008;Molyneux, 2008). As the first section of the article will show, regional policies targeted at improving the wellbeing of children have included cash transfers, nutritional programmes and informal daycare as well as more professionalised early education services.…”

Gendered Migrations and Global Social Reproduction

“…The advent of authoritarian political regimes in these countries in the 1970s, and the imposition of structural adjustment in the 1980s, got rid of employment protection. With the return of democratic regimes, there have been some moves towards social programmes (Barrientos et al 2008;Jenson 2010). Similarly, the East Asian developmental model, characterised by social insurance policies that are used to support strong state-led economic policies and high dependence on the family, is increasingly seen as a transient phenomenon -which breaks free of these characteristics as the economy develops (Ringen et al 2011).…”

Inclusive Growth: Beyond Safety Nets?

“…The extension of new social protection programmes across the continent illustrates the wider renewed concern for redistribution, under a new 'social contract' (Barrientos et al, 2008), in part supported by a resource-driven economic boom. 9 Brazil is a much-noted example.…”