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Political Determinants of Social Policy Allocations in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Carl Stone
Carl Stone
Affiliation:
University of the West Indies
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Extract

Certain analysts have argued in support of liberal democratic rule that this method of structuring political power through parliaments, mass political parties and specialized interest groups is both responsive to mass needs and imbued with high capabilities for public welfare and resource redistribution. Critics2 of this view contend that liberal democratic government merely provides a facade of mass legitimacy that obscures and masks the control of public policy and decision making by privileged and affluent classes that own or control the means of production. This paper attempts to examine these conflicting views on the policy responsiveness of liberal-democratic rule to mass welfare needs in the context of the mainly capitalist societies of Latin America.

Type
Political Institutions and Social Policy
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1975 , pp. 286 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1975

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References

This paper represents a revised version of a chapter of the author's Ph.D. Thesis entitled ‘Political Development and Social Policy in Latin America’ (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor). The author acknowledges the generous assistance provided by the Dept. of Political Science, University of Michigan for both Data Collection and Computer Analysis, as well as the keen interest and useful comments of Professor Samuel Barnes.

1 See Almond, Gabriel and Powell, G. Bingham, Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach. Boston: Little Brown & Co. (1966).Google Scholar

2 Ocampo, Jose F. and Johnson, Dale, ‘The Concept of Political Development’ in Cockcroft, J., Frank, A. and Johnson, D. (eds.) Dependence and Underdevelopment: Latin America's Political Economy. New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc. (1972).Google Scholar

3 For a discussion of this theme see Frank, A. GunderLumpen Bourgeoisie and Lumpen-Development: Dependence, Class and Politics in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press (1972),Google Scholar and Petras, James, Politics and Social Structure in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press (1970).Google Scholar

4 Alba, Victor, ‘Latin America: the middle class revolution’ New Politics, Winter 1962; Porter, C. and Alexander, R., The Struggle for Democarcy in Latin America. New York: Macmillan (1961).Google Scholar

5 Cockroft, J., ‘The Last rites of the reformist Model in Latin America’, in Cockroft, , Frank, , AND Johnson, (eds.), Dependence and Underdevelopment: Latin America's Political Economy.Google Scholar

6 See Fry, B. R. and Winters, R. F., ‘The politics of redistribution’, in American Political Science Review, June 1970, p. 508–22.Google Scholar

7 The 19 states include Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Brazil, Honduras, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, El Salvador, Haiti, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic.

8 See Harman, H.Modern Factor Analysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. Each factor loading reflects the correlations between the factor and the respective variables. The high loadings on each factor therefore identify the factors distinguishing elements or syndrome of variables. The rotation of the matrix maximizes the statistical independence of the factors.Google Scholar

9 This is more than a mere assumption. Concrete evidence of this thesis is to be found in Snow, Peter, ‘A scalogram analysis of political development’, in American Behavioural Scientist, Vol. IX, 03 (1966).Google Scholar

10 Data Source: Social Security Programs Throughout the World (1959) and (1961), U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington. The four main categories are work injury, illness, old age, and unemployment.Google Scholar

11 Data Source: Situação Social de America Latina, Rio de Janeiro, 1965.Google Scholar

12 Data Source: United National Statistical Yearbook, 1952–1965,Google Scholar and United Nations Yearbook of National Accounts, 1952–1965.Google Scholar

13 For a discussion of this problem, see Smith, T. Lynn, ‘Urbanization in Latin America’, in Anderson, N., Brill, E. J. (eds.), Urbanization and Urbanism, Netherlands (1964), pp. 128–42.Google Scholar Data Source: Statistical Abstract of Latin America, 1967, by Center for Latin American Studies, University of California.Google Scholar

14 Data Source: Latin America in Maps, Charts and Tables, Vols. 1–3, by Labelle, Yvon and Estrada, Adrian, Mexico, 1963.Google Scholar

15 Data Source: Politics and the Labor Movement in Latin America, by Alba, Victor, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968, p. 214.Google Scholar

16 Data Sources: (1) United Nations Statistical Yearbook (1950–1968);Google Scholar (2) Latin America in Maps, Charts and Tables, by Labelle, Yvan and Estrada, Adrian, Mexico, 1965;Google Scholar (3) United Nations World Survey on Education, 1960.Google Scholar

17 The reason is that larger allocations (per capita) are made to secondary schools.

18 r 2 gives the proportion of variance explained and r the simple correlation coefficient.

19 See United Nations, Social Change and Social Development Policy in Latin America, New York (1970).Google Scholar

20 United Nations, op. cit., pp. 250–4.Google Scholar