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The Retrenchment of the Welfare State in Latin America: The Case of Argentina
Author(s) -
Lo Vuolo Rubén M.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9515.00066
Subject(s) - retrenchment , welfare state , latin americans , social policy , welfare , social welfare , state (computer science) , economics , political science , market economy , public administration , law , politics , algorithm , computer science
According to the conventional approving account of the transformations which have been taking place in public policy and in markets in Latin America, Argentina constitutes one of the most successful examples of wide‐ranging and rapid change. Certainly the experience of Argentina offers an excellent case‐study of what in the literature is termed “ the retrenchment of the welfare states”; that is those institutional transformations associated with the “neoconservative revolutions” of recent years. In this paper I analyse the characteristics of Argentinian welfare state retrenchment, distinguishing between two fields of analysis: (1) “systemic retrenchment” which is linked to changes in the “referential environment” of social policy institutions, especially changes in the economic, fiscal, labour market and politico‐institutional contexts: (2) “programmatic retrenchment” which refers to changes in the institutional ordering of specific social policies. Finally I draw conclusions in respect of the strategies adopted for the retrenchment of the welfare state in Argentina and discuss probable prospects for the future.