Social Protection and the Market in Latin America
The Transformation of Social Security Institutions

This book provides a theoretical and empirical examination of government privatization of national old-age pension systems.

Sarah M. Brooks (Author)

9780521877671, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 November 2008

388 pages, 13 b/w illus. 20 tables
23.4 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.64 kg

'Sarah Brooks' theoretically sophisticated and well-researched book successfully challenges the conventional wisdom on the power of globalization pressures and the constraints arising from institutional path dependency and perceptively highlights the role of contingency and political leadership in institutional transformation. The book is highly recommended to all students of institutional persistence and change.' Kurt Weyland, University of Texas at Austin

Social security institutions have been among the most stable post-war social programs around the world. Increasingly, however, these institutions have undergone profound transformation from public risk-pooling systems to individual market-based designs. Why has this 'privatization' occurred? Why do some governments enact more radical pension privatizations than others? This book provides a theoretical and empirical account of when and to what degree governments privatize national old-age pension systems. Quantitative cross-national analysis simulates the degree of pension privatization around the world and tests competing hypotheses to explain reform outcomes. In addition, comparative analysis of pension reforms in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay evaluate a causal theory of institutional change. The central argument is that pension privatization emerges from political conflict, rather than from exogenous pressures. The argument is developed around three dimensions: the double bind of globalization, contingent path-dependent processes, and the legislative politics of loss imposition.

Part I: 1. Introduction: transforming the welfare state: from social protection to the market
2. Explaining structural pension reform: theoretical debate and empirical evidence
Part II: 3. Explaining the institutional transformation of social security
Part III: 4. Pension reform in Latin America: overview and scope of institutional transformation
5. Pension reform in an open economy: negotiating globalization's double bind
6. Contesting institutional change in society: where political strategies meet institutional legacies
7. legislative conflict and institutional change: building majorities behind loss-imposing reform
Part IV: 8. Conclusions and implications: toward a new social contract?

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB]