ABSTRACT

During the last three decades, welfare regimes in Latin America have undergone two waves of reforms. The first one was realised during the 1980s and 1990s, directed by a paradigm of liberal welfare; the second one started in the mid-1990s and is close to universalism. This chapter studies the impact of these reforms on the architecture of the welfare regimes and establishes the extent to which both kinds of reforms have promoted or restricted the building up of rights and citizenship of a social character. To do so, the analysis focuses on the actors that have promoted both kinds of reforms, the social agenda they have proposed and the characteristics that the reforms assume. In particular, the chapter emphasises the objectives of universalist reforms: to include the poor and vulnerable in the provision of social protection, to universalise access to health, to develop policies and social institutions in the area of social care and to advance in the design of non-contributive schemes. In the final part, the achievements of these reforms are analysed, and the dilemmas they face in the context of the economic and political crisis that Latin America is currently going through are pointed out.