Uneven Social Policies
The Politics of Subnational Variation in Latin America

Social policies can transform the lives of the poor, yet subnational politics and state capacity often inhibit their success.

Sara Niedzwiecki (Author)

9781108472043, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 September 2018

272 pages, 18 b/w illus. 22 tables
23.6 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'… outstanding … carefully researched. This is a very rich book and multiple conclusions can be derived from the analysis, including the important roles that subnational governments and policy implementation have in linking the policy processes with outcomes.' Silvia Borzutzky, Latin American Research Review

Social policies can transform the lives of the poor and marginalized, yet inequitable implementation often limits their access. Uneven Social Policies shifts the focus of welfare state analysis away from policy design and toward policy implementation. By examining variation in political motivations, state capacity, and policy legacies, it explains why some policies are implemented more effectively than others, why some deliver votes to incumbent governments while others do not, and why regionally elected executives block the implementation of some but not all national policies. Niedzwiecki explores this variation across provinces and municipalities by combining case studies with statistical analysis of conditional cash transfers and health policies in two decentralized countries, Argentina and Brazil. The analysis draws on original data gathered during fifteen months of field research that included more than 230 interviews with politicians and 140 with policy recipients.

1. Social policies and politics in decentralized countries
2. Implementing social policies: attribution of responsibility, political alignments, policy legacies, and territorial infrastructure
3. Mixed methods and multilevel research design
4. Subnational statistical analysis
5. Conditional cash transfers in Argentina and Brazil
6. Healthcare policies in Argentina and Brazil
7. Social policy implementation: looking back and forward.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4]