Determinants of Policy Change in Latin America: A Comparison of Social Security Reform in Chile and Uruguay (1973–2000)

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, Chile and Uruguay shared remarkable similarities and reached the 1970s as the holders of the most developed and generous social security systems of Latin America. In spite of their similarities, government responses to the so-called social security crisis were divergent, with Chile promoting a radical retrenchment strategy under military rule that was not rolled back after re-democratization, and Uruguay maintaining the historical social security model during military rule, but promoting moderate policy change after transition. How can we explain these contrasting patterns of policy change? Relying on the method of difference and process tracing, this article shows that social security change is the result of three combined explanatory factors. The ideological positions of policy-makers, the patterns of distribution of governmental authority, and the strength of non-state actors are critical in explaining social security change.