Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America

James W. McGuire explores why some East Asian and Latin American societies have done better than others at raising life expectancy and reducing infant mortality.

James W. McGuire (Author)

9780521139342, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 15 March 2010

426 pages, 3 b/w illus. 27 tables
23.4 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.59 kg

“Political science has focused too exclusively on the creation and operation of institutions and has examined too little the policy outputs and outcomes that they produce. In this unique and impressive book, James McGuire helps to rectify this stark imbalance by investigating the impact of democracy and of specific policy programs on basic health issues. The broad, cross-regional scope of the analysis and the depth of the research are exceptional. I am highly impressed by the mastery of detail, the comprehensiveness of the analysis, and McGuire’s capacity to put it all together as a vast canvas. This book is certain to have an important place in the scholarly literature.”
– Kurt Weyland, University of Texas, Austin

Why do some societies fare well, and others poorly, at reducing the risk of early death? Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America finds that the public provision of basic health care and other inexpensive social services has reduced mortality rapidly even in tough economic circumstances, and that political democracy has contributed to the provision and utilization of such social services, in a wider range of ways than is sometimes recognized. These conclusions are based on case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, as well as on cross-national comparisons involving these cases and others.

1. Incomes, capabilities, and mortality decline
2. Democracy, spending, services, and survival
3. Costa Rica: a healthy democracy
4. Chile: the pinochet paradox
5. Argentina: big welfare state, slow infant mortality decline
6. Brazil: from laggard to leader in basic health service provision
7. Taiwan: from poor but healthy to wealthy and healthy
8. South Korea: small welfare state, fast infant mortality decline
9. Thailand: democratization speeds infant mortality decline
10. Indonesia: authoritarianism slows infant mortality decline
11. Wealth, health, democracy, and mortality.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP]