State transformations and welfare models: the significance of the return of public institutions in Ecuador of the Citizen Revolution (2007–2017)

Gemma Ubasart-González,Analía Mara Minteguiaga

doi:10.1108/ijssp-10-2020-0484

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between estate transformations produced during the governments of the Citizen Revolution (CR) in Ecuador (2007-2017) and welfare regime transformations.Design/methodology/approachThe CR’s project registers an array of specificities that make it a relevant case study to understand it. Among them, it articulated the transformation of the development model with a comprehensive state reform: emphasized both the modernization of the state and the productive structure, and the creation of the basic pillars of a welfare state. The ambitious project materialized in an ambivalent manner, revealing accomplishments and limitations.FindingsThe recovery of resources for the state, the efficient organization of resources, decentralization and deconcentration processes, public administration transformations and policy de-corporatization processes accompanied and even propelled important achievements in the social sphere in terms of decommodification, stratification, commodification and defamiliarization. Ecuador’s starting point, as a small and impoverished country with pubic and communal goods and services dismantled through neoliberal reforms, was quite precarious. But, progress was made. Beyond the identified limitations, its accomplishments must be highlighted because they are novel in comparison to other progressive government experiences, especially in the context of Central Andean countries.Originality/valueThis article vindicates the need to link state transformation processes to welfare regime transformations, as well as the academic literature that informs both fields. The description of what took place in Ecuador in the field of social welfare during the ten years of the CR continues to confirm the theoretical potential of the concept of welfare regime with the necessary translations and appropriations that allow for the analysis of countries in the region. It enables an approach to a more theoretically and methodologically elusive object that is at the same time tremendously potent in analytical terms and in its contributions to social transformations. An object that alludes to areas gravely affected during neoliberal hegemony, linked to public institutionality, state capacity and state autonomy. This is why everything that affects the state and the management of public goods and services must be incorporated into the analysis.

Highlights

Ecuador under Rafael Correa’s administration Ecuador is a small Latin American country with a population of a little over 17 million people, located in the northwest of South America
The Citizen Revolution (CR)’s project registers an array of specificities that make it a relevant case study (Coller, 2005). It articulated the transformation of the development model with a comprehensive state reform: emphasized both the modernization of the state and the productive structure, and the creation of the basic pillars of a welfare state [4]
The main objective of this article is to analyze whether transformations that occurred in the country in that particular decade were limited to an increase in social spending, coverage or benefits rather than characterized by seeking structural institutional transformations redefining the relation between the state, the market and the citizenry

Summary

Introduction

Ecuador under Rafael Correa’s administration Ecuador is a small Latin American country with a population of a little over 17 million people, located in the northwest of South America. It has an important indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian presence, allowing its characterization as a multiethnic and multilingual country. The import substitution industrialization (ISI) model – key among other countries of the region during the 1930s and early 1970s – was barely implemented under the exceptional conditions of the oil boom in a tardy, extemporaneous and limited manner (Perez Sainz, 1984; Villalobos, 1987). In existing welfare regime typologies, Ecuador has been classified as “exclusionary” (Filgueira, 1998; Barba, 2003) or “familiarist” (Martınez Franzoni, 2007)

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion