The Political Economy of the Welfare State in Latin America

"This book is one of the first attempts to analyze how developing countries through the early twenty-first century have established systems of social protection and how these systems have been affected by the recent processes of globalization and democratization. The book focuses on Latin America, a pioneer in welfare state development in the developing world, to identify factors associated with the evolution of welfare state policies during the preglobalization period prior to 1979 and studies how globalization and democratization in the last thirty years have affected governments' fiscal commitment to social spending."--Jacket.