Social Reforms in Latin America: The Analytical Perspectives and the Actors of Change

This paper examines the theoretical perspectives underlying the analysis of social reforms in Latin America, in order to identify the actors involved in the interpretations of these processes & the role attributed to them in the constitution & transformation of social protection systems. In the first part, the predominant perspectives in the studies on the origin & crisis of the European & American welfare states are reviewed, in order to discuss the way in which they have been taken up in Latin American analyses. In the second part, the most recent interpretations of neoliberalism's social reforms are analyzed, & dominant approaches such as rational choice & neoinstitutionalism are confronted through an analytical perspective that focuses on relational processes. References. Adapted from the source document.