Organized Labor Strikes and Social Spending in Latin America: The Synchronizing Effect of Mass Protest

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-109
Author(s):  
Dongkyu Kim ◽  
Mi-son Kim ◽  
Cesar Villegas
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Welfare Spending ◽  
Labor Strikes ◽  
Capital Spending ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Mass Protest

ABSTRACTThe theories and evidence about relationships between democracy and social spending in Latin America are highly contested. A recent study shows that collective protest by organized labor effectively increases social security and welfare spending, whereas mass protest does not have comparable effects on human capital spending in Latin American democracies. This article reexamines the analysis and demonstrates that organized labor alone cannot sway democratic governments. Labor strikes require the synchronizing effect of mass protest to obtain government concessions. Only through concurrent episodes of mass protest can organized labor overcome the numerical disadvantage of pressing democratic government for social welfare spending. In understanding the relationship between labor protests and social welfare spending through the lens of insider-outsider dichotomy, it is critical to consider the synchronizing effect of mass protests. The findings remain robust with alternative measures of democracy and various model specifications.

The Consequences of Organized Labor and Mass Protest for Social Spending in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-116
Author(s):  
Bárbara A. Zárate-Tenorio
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Labor Strikes ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Mass Protest

I am very pleased to participate in this dialogue on the effect of collective protest on social spending in Latin America, which initiated when the editors of LAPS invited me to review the research note titled “Organized Labor Strikes and Social Spending in Latin America: The Synchronizing Effect of Mass Protest.” Dongkyu Kim, Mi-son Kim, and Cesar Villegas engage with my paper, published in Comparative Political Studies (Zarate-Tenorio 2014), which analyzes the effects of organized labor strikes and mass protests on social security and welfare, health and education spending in Latin America, 1970–2007.

Latin America and China’s Transnationalizing Oil Industry: A Political Economy Assessment of New Relations

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 626-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Hogenboom
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Regional Trends ◽  
Rapid Pace ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Changing Attitudes

Chinese oil companies have recently started to set up operations in Latin America, and they are doing this at a rapid pace. This article aims to provide an overview of the increasing flows of oil and capital (fdiand credit) between Latin America and China, and to clarify how they interact with the broader Sino-Latin American relations as well as Latin America’s changing political landscape. In addition to regional trends, the cases of Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador are discussed. The article combines an assessment of factual data with an analysis of the broader political economy context in which these new oil relations operate. Next to national differences, three general tendencies stand out: first, the type of arrangements and coordinated activities that Chinese companies, banks and government agencies deploy differ from those of other large oil-seeking nations; second, while the arrival of Chinese capital is welcomed by Latin American governments and pictured as part of non-imperialist South-South relations, Chinese oil companies and loans are sometimes criticized in local media by scholars, opposition andngos; and third, Chinese oil imports and investments have added to changing attitudes and policies towards strategic sectors under new political regimes, which allows for more social spending but which critics have labeled as the return to an ‘extractivist model.’

scholarly journals Diminished Expectations

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha C. Holland
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Original Survey

In Latin America, the relationship between income and support for redistribution is weak and variable despite the region's extreme income inequality. This article shows that this condition is rooted in the truncated structure of many Latin American welfare states. Heavy spending on contributory social insurance for formal-sector workers, flat or regressive subsidies, and informal access barriers mean that social spending does far less for the poor in Latin America than it does in advanced industrial economies. Using public opinion data from across Latin America and original survey data from Colombia, the author demonstrates that income is less predictive of attitudes in the countries and social policy areas in which the poor gain less from social expenditures. Social policy exclusion leads the poor to doubt that they will benefit from redistribution, thereby dampening their support for it. The article reverses an assumption in political economy models that welfare exclusion unleashes demands for greater redistribution. Instead, truncation reinforces skepticism about social policy helping the poor. Welfare state reforms to promote social inclusion are essential to strengthen redistributive coalitions.

scholarly journals National and subnational coverage and inequalities in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and sanitary health interventions in Ecuador: a comparative study between 1994 and 2012

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Rios Quituizaca ◽  
Giovanna Gatica-Domínguez ◽  
Devaki Nambiar ◽  
Jair Licio Ferreira Santos ◽  
Stefan Brück ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Weighted Least Squares ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Theil Index ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Redistributive Policies

Abstract Background Latin America (LA) has experienced constant economic and political crises that coincide with periods of greater inequality. Between 1996 and 2007 Ecuador went through one of the greatest political and socio-economic crises in Latin America, a product of neo-liberal economic growth strategies. Between 2007 and 2012 it regained political stability, promoted redistributive policies, and initiated greater social spending. To understand the possible influence on the political and economic context, we analyzed the coverage and inequalities in five Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health (RMNCH) and two water and sanitation interventions using survey data from a broad time window (1994–2012), at a national and subnational level. Methods The series cross-sectional study used data from four representative national health surveys (1994, 1999, 2004 and 2012). Coverage of RMNCH and sanitary interventions were stratified by wealth quintiles (as a measure of the socio-economic level), urban-rural residence and the coverage for each province was mapped. Mean difference, Theil index and Variance-weighted least squares regression were calculated to indicate subnational and temporal changes. Results From 1994 to 2004, Ecuador evidenced large inequalities whose reduction becomes more evident in 2012. Coverage in RMNCH health service-related interventions showed a rather unequal distribution among the socioeconomic status and across provinces in 1994 and 2004, compared to 2012. Sanitary interventions on the contrary, showed the most unequal interventions, and failed to improve or even worsened in several provinces. While there is a temporary improvement also at the subnational level, in 2012 several provinces maintain low levels of coverage. Conclusions The remarkable reduction of inequalities in coverage of RMNCH interventions in 2012 clearly coincides with periods of regained political stability, promoted redistributive policies, and greater social spending, different from the former neo-liberal reforms which is consistent with observations made in other Latin American countries. Territorial heterogeneity and great inequalities specially related with sanitation interventions persists. It is necessary to obtain high quality information with sharper geographic desegregation that allows to identify and understand local changes over time. This would help to prioritize intervention strategies, introduce multisectoral policies and investments that support local governments.

Politics, Institutions, and Welfare Spending in Industrialized Democracies, 1960–82

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander M. Hicks ◽  
Duane H. Swank
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Welfare Spending ◽  
The Social ◽  
Industrialized Democracies ◽  
Time Series Analyses ◽  
State Centralization ◽  
Pooled Time Series

We examine the roles of democratic politics and political institutions in shaping social welfare spending in 18 contemporary capitalist democracies. We explore the social spending consequences of government partisanship, electoral competition and turnout, and the self-interested behaviors of politicians and bureaucrats, as well as such relatively durable facets of political institutions as neocorporatism, state centralization, and traditionalist policy legacies. Pooled time series analyses of welfare effort in 18 nations during the 1960–82 period show that electoral turnout, as well as left and center governments increase welfare effort; that the welfare efforts of governments led by particular types of parties show significant differences and vary notably with the strength of oppositional (and junior coalitional) parties; and that relatively neocorporatist, centralized, and traditionalistic polities are high on welfare effort. Overall, our findings suggest that contrary to many claims, both partisan and nonpartisan facets of democratic politics and political institutions shape contemporary social welfare effort.

scholarly journals Welfare State Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (1970s–2000s): Multidimensional Welfare Index, Its Methodology and Results

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gibran Cruz-Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Multidimensional Welfare ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Welfare Index ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
The Welfare State

There is an ongoing debate between focalization and universalization on welfare policies as the best way to develop the welfare state in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, there is a need to develop a measure that exhibits the multidimensional nature of the welfare state, instead of focusing on the social spending dimension. Segura-Ubiergo (The political economy of the welfare state in Latin America: globalization, democracy and development. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2007) constructed a welfare effort index (WEI) to facilitate understand the relative degrees of welfare state development among Latin American countries. The WEI focuses mainly on social spending and ignores the other dimensions of welfare. Based on a comparative analysis of 17 Latin American countries and following the methodology of Segura-Ubiergo, a new index that aims at enriching the WEI was constructed. The new index is multidimensional in that it has eight indicators relating to three dimensions of welfare: social spending, coverage of welfare programs and outcome of welfare institutions. Principal component analysis was used for reducing the indicators into three indexes that represent three proposed dimensions of welfare. The combination of these three indexes gives the multidimensional welfare index. The results of the index account for more than 75 % of the data variance.

Can Latin America learn from India’s efforts at fighting poverty? The case of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-174
Author(s):  
Augusto De Venanzi
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Policy Transfer ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Rural Workforce ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Latin American Region ◽  
Employment Guarantee

AbstractA decade of high economic growth (2003–2013) in Latin America accompanied with high social spending, produced a significant improvement in the living conditions of the region’s population. Household incomes grew, poverty and inequality rates fell, and job opportunities increased. However, beginning in 2013 the economic situation of Latin America experienced a downwards trend. The effects have been felt in reduced income due to the fewer labour opportunities afforded by a decrease in demand and investment, particularly in infrastructure. Moreover, investment in infrastructure has remained stagnant since the late 1990s. The present article is intended as a preliminary study regarding the feasibility of transferring the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to the Latin American region. The paper contends that such a policy transfer could greatly improve the adverse employment conditions affecting large segments of the Latin American rural workforce and contribute to bridge the area’s rural-urban infrastructure gap.

Undermining Governors: Argentina’s Double-Punishment Federal Spending Strategy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Beck Fenwick ◽  
Lucas González
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Original Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Spending ◽  
Welfare Spending

Abstract Throughout Latin American federations, programmatic welfare spending is increasingly nationally oriented and bureaucratically delivered. By explaining the logic and the effects of combining two types of federal spending, discretionary and non-discretionary, this article uncovers an additional driver that contributes to understanding policymaking and its implementation not only in Argentina, but potentially in other robust federal systems such as Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Using original data on federal infrastructure and programmatic social welfare spending for the twenty-four provinces of Argentina between 2003 and 2015, we provide empirical evidence that both forms of spending penalize opposition districts and more populated urban provinces (regardless of partisan affinity), and thus undercut the ability of key governors to become future presidential challengers. This research suggests that presidents of territorially diverse federations with strong governors can utilize the dual-punishment spending strategy to alter the balance of power, reinforcing the dominance of the center.

Latin American Labor History

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Relationship Of

Latin America has a long urban tradition. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, it has been more urbanized than any other region on the globe except North America, northwestern Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. This has produced large urban working classes, large labor movements, and an equally large—and by now traditional—labor historiography, particularly in Latin America itself. This article discusses trends that have shifted the focus from organized labor to workers themselves and their sociocultural world inside and outside the factory. It covers working-class formation during the second half of the nineteenth century, the influence of anarchism and socialism on labor and urban life from the 1880s to the Great Depression, the relationship of organized labor and populist regimes from the latter event to the 1960s, and the emergence since then of what has been called “new unionism,” a more politically independent and grass-roots form of labor mobilization.

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