Globalization and Social Policy Developments in Latin America

Social policy in Latin America has undergone profound changes in the 1980s and 1990s. The thrust of the changes has pointed in the direction of state retrenchment and market expansion in the financing, delivery, and administration of social services and transfer payments. To the extent that the state has retained responsibilities for social services and transfers, they have become more targeted rather than more universalistic. There is no disagreement about the need for social policy reforms, but wide divergence of opinion about the desirable direction of the reforms exists. Proponents of the market-oriented changes are arguing that they have brought