| This dissertation contributes to the development out incipient knowledge of the dynamics of social policy change in developing nations. In so doing, it explains the causes of social policy change in two Latin American countries in the areas of education, health care, and pensions. Until the 1970s Chile and Uruguay shared striking similarities: both countries presented the most universalistic and redistributive social protection systems of Latin America, their schemes were extremely costly and continued to develop even after economic recession mounted. Both countries presented significant fiscal deficits and demographic changes posed additional challenges to their systems and both had democratic breakdowns in 1973. Despite these similarities, while the military government that ruled Chile (1973--1990) carried out a marked project of social policy retrenchment, its Uruguayan counterpart (1973--1985) left the system virtually untouched. In the re-democratization period, Uruguay started to develop a gradual process of reform while the Chilean democratic government maintained the model inherited from the previous military regime. Although informative in many aspects of social policy, the literature on this topic was unable to predict these contrasting outcomes. As the causal mechanisms proposed by the literature can not be left out, a fuller analysis of the politics of social policy change requires the revision of existing theories. Informed by the neo-institutional approach, the power resources perspective, and the area and case study literature, this dissertation shows that the contrasting patterns of social policy change seen in Chile and Uruguay are explained by the distribution of governmental authority, the ideological positions of the policy-makers, and the on the degree to which extra-governmental actors opposing change can veto reform attempts. |
