The Quest for Universal Social Policy in the South
Actors, Ideas and Architectures

This volume examines the concept of global social policy architectures and its emergence across issues and through time.

Juliana Martínez Franzoni (Author), Diego Sánchez-Ancochea (Author)

9781107125414, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 October 2016

276 pages, 29 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.55 kg

Universal social policies have the power to reduce inequality and create more cohesive societies. How can countries in the South deliver universalism? This book answers this question through a comparative analysis of Costa Rica, Mauritius, South Korea, and Uruguay, and a detailed historical account of Costa Rica's successful trajectory. Against the backdrop of democracy and progressive parties, the authors place at center stage the policy architectures defined as the combination of instruments that dictate the benefits available to people. The volume also explores the role of state actors in building pro-universal architectures. This book will interest advanced students and scholars of human development and public and social policies, as well as policymakers eager to promote universal policies across the South.

Part I. Universalism in the South: 1. Introduction
2. Universalism in the South: definition and relevance
Part II. A Comparative Study of Policy Architecture: 3. Policy architectures and universal outputs today
4. The long-term influence of policy architectures
Part III. Building Universalism in Costa Rica: 5. The foundations of the policy architecture in the 1940s
6. Moving further towards unification in the 1970s
7. Contradictory moves under market pressures since the 1980s
8. Actors and ideas in comparative perspective
9. The quest for universalism: implications for contemporary policymaking.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Sociology [JHB]