ABSTRACT
Well into the twenty-first century, many developing countries are more prosperous than in past decades and engage in large-scale social policies. Welfare policies that were absent or thin in the past are taking on a significant scale. However, they are often disconnected from economic policies. The ministries of economics and of social affairs don’t speak to each other, or when they do they don’t speak the same language. Economists have mostly been trained in neoclassical economics, and in some cases in Chicago school supply-side economics, whereas social affairs ministries speak the language of social cohesion and political stability. Thus, the logics of accumulation and welfare, of growth and social policy don’t connect. This policy schizophrenia is not occasional. It reflects long-standing divides between economic and social spheres. It mirrors the long-standing disconnect on a world scale between the international financial institutions, based in Washington, and the UN institutions.
