ABSTRACT Purpose This study analyzes professionalization processes and interdisciplinary collaboration of social work professionals within Chilean family and criminal justice systems following judicial reforms implemented in the 2000s. Materials and Methods An exploratory-descriptive qualitative design employed semi-structured interviews with 21 social workers across Metropolitana and Biobío regions (2020–2022). Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling from family courts (n = 14) and criminal justice settings (n = 7). Thematic analysis was conducted using ATLAS.ti software, applying integrated deductive-inductive approaches grounded in sociology of public action, law and society studies, and feminist ethics of care frameworks. Results Three fundamental transformations emerged: social workers introduced gender perspectives and care ethics into judicial practices, catalyzing shifts from punitive toward relational interventions prioritizing human dignity and social complexity; active collaboration developed between social workers and lawyers, generating productive tensions that enhanced each profession’s expertise in addressing complex social-legal issues; differentiated professional roles materialized, with social workers functioning as judicial partners in family cases and community-legal mediators in criminal contexts. Discussion Care ethics integration constitutes a fundamental challenge to traditional juridical capital, promoting contextually-sensitive justice models. Social workers operate as institutional entrepreneurs, employing street-level bureaucratic practices to gradually transform institutional cultures despite persistent professional hierarchies and resource constraints. Conclusion Chilean judicial reforms facilitated social work integration, contributing to justice system humanization through structural transformations. Social workers consolidated their role as agents of institutional change, though sustained investment in human resources and policies prioritizing social perspectives remains essential for advancing paradigmatic shifts toward inclusive, people-centered justice models.

Abstract This paper explores how platform workers are excluded from accessing key collective labour rights in Latin America and what measures have been taken to formalise the sector. It argues that platforms use a combination of management technologies and a form of freedom based on choice, known as freedom as non-interference, which can be found in their business narrative, and in the construction of the so-called binary divide between employees and employers in several national jurisdictions. This contribution tests these propositions in the context of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advisory Opinion OC-27/21 and the recent Chilean reform on platform work. Lastly, this contribution discusses how an alternative idea of freedom, known as freedom as non-domination, would be a suitable alternative to freedom as non-interference to address platform workers’ exclusion from collective labour rights.

This study aims to analyse, within the context of paradox theory, the tensions and opportunities introduced by the meetings of microcentres, as spaces for teacher professional development within an educational reform. After a qualitative study, it was concluded that four types of paradox are present: organisation, learning, belonging, and performance. Additionally, the microcentres are sites of negotiation between local autonomy and state control.

Student Loans or Taxes? Financing Reform in Chile

How One Idea of Freedom Prevents Platform Workers from Accessing Collective Labour Rights (and How Another Addresses It): Exploring the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advisory Opinion OC-27/21 and the Chilean Reform on Platform Work

Governments face many constraints in attracting talented managers to the public sector, which often lacks high-powered incentives. In this paper, we study how a civil service reform in Chile changed the effectiveness of a vital group of public sector managers: school principals. First, we estimate principal effectiveness by using an extension of the canonical teacher value-added model. Then we evaluate the effect of the reform on principal effectiveness using a difference-in-differences approach. We find that public schools appointed more effective managers and improved their students’ outcomes after increasing the competitiveness and transparency of their selection process. (JEL D73, H83, I21, J24, J45, O15)

Summary Better employment quality can improve personal well-being, social cohesion, and inclusive growth and development. Yet good quality jobs – associated with greater well-being – are less accessible to women than men. While it is understood that policies balancing family and work lead to greater female labour participation, this paper investigates whether one such policy – increased childcare – improves the quality of jobs where mothers are employed. The context we analyse is a nationwide school reform in Chile that extended school schedules for primary school-aged children, providing childcare services. We combine administrative data of the phase-in of the policy with panel data of individual mothers’ employment outcomes and socio-economic characteristics. We estimate a fixed-effects model that controls for mothers’ unobserved heterogeneity and identifies the effect of the policy from plausibly exogenous temporal and spatial variations in access to schools with long schedules and exogenous exposure to the policy. We find a positive effect of childcare on several measures of employment quality and gender gaps within the couple. Our evidence suggests that the mechanism driving the impact is the implicit subsidy to the cost of childcare, affecting the opportunity cost of mothers’ time. In addition, we find heterogeneous results by mothers’ education level. Access to childcare through longer primary school schedules can increase household welfare and can play a role in reducing income and gender inequalities.

Abstract This ethnographic study examines how Chilean family courts adjudicate domestic violence (DV) cases, highlighting a paradoxical shift away from their intended flexibility towards rigid bureaucratic procedure by examining the undue influence of psychological reports, which are expensive and difficult‐to‐obtain documents, on case outcomes. This research explores the role of these reports as ‘legal technicalities’, serving as both products and catalysts of specific social relations and tensions, and reveals an earnest yet unsuccessful effort to establish judicial authority amid poorly conceived DV reform. The article contributes to an empirical, bottom‐up analysis of authority construction techniques used in recent widespread judicial reforms in Chile, providing fresh insights into the complexities of institutional changes within these contexts.

How do large-magnitude proportional systems affect invalid voting? We evaluate a Chilean electoral system reform that introduced proportionality. Voting is voluntary, and legislative and presidential elections are held concurrently. We compare the invalid votes between different types of elections before and after the reform using various difference-in-differences strategies. We find that invalid voting increased in legislative compared to presidential elections (pre-trends were parallel). The increase in invalid voting is greater in post-reform districts with higher magnitude and is not due to pre-reform district characteristics. The results of heterogeneity analyses and a survey experiment suggest the mechanism behind these findings is the cognitive burden associated with a longer ballot. This research highlights an understudied aspect of electoral systems: higher district magnitudes may be demobilizing in terms of valid voting for citizens who are more vulnerable to cognitive burden, even among those motivated enough to vote in the first-order election.

ABSTRACT This study considers the reforms of Chile’s state sport structures from 2001 to 2022. Drawing upon institutional frameworks, the purpose of this article is to analyse the emerging rules, practices and narratives from these reforms. This study employed a qualitative approach, with data gathered from document analysis and semi-structured interviews with six policymakers/bureaucrats from the Ministry of Sport (MINDEP) and National Institute of Sport (IND). Data was analysed through thematic coding of available texts (e.g. policies, government documentation, media sources and interview transcripts) via MAXQDA 2022 qualitative analysis software. The findings highlight that incommensurate rules, practices and narratives may be the impetus for institutional change. Rules connected with New Public Management (NPM) and the creation of the National Institute of Sport (Law 19.712 of 2001) conflicted with the discretionary practices of previous institutional arrangements. Subsequent legislation created a (rule-based) dichotomy between ‘thinkers’ (MINDEP) and ‘doers’ (IND), which has been influenced by the practice of politically based appointments into the IND. While informants suggested that the system’s parochialism and incapacity render change unlikely in the future, there is nevertheless evidence of change emanating from the combination of broken rules (in the form of scandals), incommensurate practices and contemporary narratives about the need to engage with communities.

Abstract A decade ago, cannabis reform was on the public and political agenda in Chile, but the reform process eventually broke down with no marijuana legalization. This article focuses on the different stages of agenda politics to explain the reasons for the failure of cannabis reform in Chile. Drawing on original data, including 36 interviews with key actors, the article traces the reform process. Through a combination of process tracing and counterfactual analysis, the article establishes the causal weight of explanatory factors and distinguishes between activities and their effects. The evidence shows that cannabis reform in Chile failed not only because of a lack of governmental support and agenda setting but also because reform proponents were unable and unwilling to maintain the agenda after initially setting it successfully. By contrast, insider and outsider reform opponents were effective at agenda denial and counter‐framing cannabis reform. Despite producing lots of smoke, recreational cannabis reform efforts have burned out without blazing the trail toward marijuana legalization in Chile. By unearthing the factors that led to initial success in gaining attention and to eventual failure in securing approval in the recent past, this article points out the difficulties of legalizing marijuana in Chile in the near future.

Introduction: with the health reform in Chile, quality assurance arises, which through accreditation processes seeks to improve patient care, making permanent changes in the processes and safety culture of health institutions. Objective: analyze the current state of accreditation of dialysis centers in the Maule region of Chile. Methodology: quantitative, non-experimental design, descriptive, retrospective and longitudinal. Sixteen dialysis centers in the region were analyzed and the information was obtained from the official site of the Superintendence of Health, through the Registry of Accredited Providers.Results: of the total number of dialysis centers reviewed, 93,4 % accredited with 100 % compliance with the mandatory characteristics and only six re-accredited with 100 % compliance with the total characteristics that apply to them as providers and two have expired accreditation. Conclusions: accreditation processes are sufficient tools to improve the quality and health safety of dialysis patients, thanks to the rigor and continuity of the process, but in order to maintain it, it should be aimed at a change in safety culture

ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of the Educational Reform in Chile since 1965, this article sheds light on the convergence of educational language based upon the economic notion of developmentalism, the idea of human capital and the expansion of school guidance (orientación) in Chilean education. Through analysing right-wing press and discourses from teachers and counsellors who were supporters of the significant changes that secondary education was going through led by Christian democrats, we briefly reveal the confluence and the opposition of concepts and the strategic differences among relevant actors in the reformist process.

Introduction: This paper sets out a brief history of World Bank involvement in pensions. Section 1 considers the period 1980–2000, and in particular a major pension reform in Chile in 1981 and the World Bank’s support for that approach, discussing the reforms and how well, or otherwise, they performed. Section 2 explains increasing diversity of views within the World Bank, and section 3 the more balanced view of recent years.Objective: The main goal of the presented article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the evolution and controversies surrounding individual funded pension accounts, with a primary focus on the Chilean model and its global impact. The article aims to critically examine the historical context, the World Bank’s role, internal and external debates, and recent developments in pension policy. Ultimately, it seeks to foster a more balanced understanding of pension systems, acknowledging their complexities, objectives beyond consumption smoothing, and the need for responsive policy adjustments in the face of real-world challenges.Materials and methods: The analysis is based on historical and policy documents, literature review, comparative analysis, qualitative assessments, and policy evaluation.Results: The main conclusion of the article is that the widespread adoption of individual funded pension accounts, as championed by the World Bank and initially implemented in Chile, has faced significant challenges and limitations. While these accounts were promoted as a panacea for pension reform challenges, the article argues that they have not lived up to their promises. Issues such as incomplete coverage, inadequate pensions, high administrative charges, gender inequality, and fiscal transition costs have raised concerns. The article also highlights a shift in recent years toward a more balanced and comprehensive approach to pension policy, emphasizing the importance of addressing poverty relief and broader social protection objectives.

Democratizing urban governance through mayoral term limits: Quasi-experimental evidence from a reform in Chilean municipalities

Teóricamente, con voto voluntario baja la participación electoral y tienden a votar más los ricos que los pobres, generando lo que la literatura denomina como sesgo de clase. Entonces, ¿qué lleva a los políticos a optar por un régimen de voto voluntario? Considerando el caso de Chile, nuestro objetivo es identificar las razones que impulsaron la reforma. Metodológicamente, utilizamos tres fuentes de información: discusión legislativa, encuestas de opinión y una inédita encuesta aplicada al 100% de los diputados luego de aprobada la reforma. Nuestros resultados indican que la reforma se aprobó producto de la interacción entre intereses estratégicos de la coalición de gobierno (de centro-izquierda) y de la oposición. Mientras el gobierno impulsó la reforma creyendo que los nuevos votantes serían principalmente de centro-izquierda, la derecha lo hizo pensando en que sus nuevos electores tendrían mayor probabilidad de votar dado su mayor nivel de ingresos. A esto se sumó un amplio apoyo ciudadano a la reforma expresado en las encuestas, lo que pudo presionar a los diputados. Constatamos que en la centro-izquierda hubo rápidas señales de arrepentimiento, pues el 70% de los diputados –en una encuesta hecha a meses de la reforma– se mostró partidario del voto obligatorio.

EE556 SAVR and TAVR in Aortic Stenosis: Reimbursement and Cost Analysis in Chile for Providers Reference

Why and how do policymakers initially sceptical of policy innovations from abroad eventually transfer them to their own countries? Focusing on Chile’s reforms to combat business cartels in 2009 and 2016, this article answers that question. Policy diffusion and transfer literatures maintain that coercion, competition, learning or emulation could account for foreign inspirations in policymaking. However, these literatures overplay the role of coercion and emulation in policy transfer to countries in the global south, and have difficulty distinguishing between different mechanisms in empirical studies. To address these limitations, I suggest analysing three intermediate causal steps in policy transfer: first, policymakers’ motivations in initiating policy reforms, second, their reflections on how the foreign-inspired model responds to the policy problem at hand, and third, their reflections on the fit between the foreign model and domestic conditions. Through process-tracing of two anti-cartel reforms in Chile, I find that policymakers introduced foreign-inspired policy measures to combat business cartels through a process of learning from other countries and international organisations, rather than coercion or emulation. Learning was evident in three ways. First, in the initiation of the reform, as policymakers responded to a clearly identified policy problem; second, in policymakers’ careful reflection on how the foreign-inspired model responded to these problems; and third, in the adjustments made to fit the foreign model to domestic conditions. The analysis demonstrates the utility of analysing intermediate causal steps in policy transfer, and of paying more attention to local actors and political processes.

Chilean youth justice went through a drastic reform process during the 2000s, it was the second radical youth justice reform movement in the country since the creation of the Law of Minors in 1928. The decision to reform took place as Chile transitioned and stabilized into democracy after the authoritarian regime of the 1970s and 1980s. Superficially, it seems this is just one more way of embracing democracy and Human Rights. However, after in depth documental analysis of both the reform and the socio-political context, this paper offers a different insight and an explanation for the sudden relevance of youth justice, as a tool used by authoritarian political elites that then filtered into the political elite of the new democracy. In this context, populism played a key role in spreading concerns about youth offending and the need for a new youth justice which worked to strengthen the legitimacy of authoritarian practices in the new Chilean democratic order. It was an elite-driven populism that transformed youth justice into a key social and political concern.

ABSTRACT The article analyzes the recent evolution of school leadership in Chile between 2009 and 2019, a decade of significant intensification in the country’s school leadership policies, comparing principals’ characteristics, working conditions and leadership practices, as reported by school principals and teachers. Data comes from a survey applied in both years to principals and teachers in nationally representative samples of urban primary schools. While reports of some characteristics and working conditions of principals have changed, no significant variation occurred in teachers’ perceptions of principals’ leadership practices. The article discusses policy´s capacity to motivate principals’ practice change at the local level.