ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses difficulties faced by the public social security systems and alternatives to reform: changes in Latin America, including Brazil and also considers preliminary results of the Brazilian and other Latin-American reforms. Brazilian and other Latin-American critics proposed a number of measures needed to change the social security systems and remove the difficulties indicated in their diagnoses. The main financial problem of the Brazilian Social Security System is related to public employees, who receive higher benefits, without their or the state's having contributed proportionately in actuarial terms. But in Brazil in other Latin-American countries, the economic crisis and the reduction in the level of activities constituted the main problem which limited the growth of revenue and impeded the inclusion of greater numbers of contributors into the social security system. The structural reforms implanted have not overcome the difficulties that existed in the public social security systems in Latin-American countries.
