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The reform of social security pensions and healthcare is a key issue for the modern world, and in many ways Latin America has acted as a social laboratory for the reform of these systems. From the reforms that took place in Chile in 1981, most pension and health care systems in the region have seen reform, and been fully or partially privatized. Many other countries considering reform of their own systems have been influenced by the policies implemented in Latin America.

Yet despite the importance and influence of these reforms, until now there has not been an integrated and comprehensive analysis of the changes and their effects. This book is the result of four years of painstaking work, data collection, field research and international collaboration, and so fills the vacuum in the literature with a systematic comparison of pension and healthcare reforms in the 20 Latin American countries.

It identifies reform models, and elaborates taxonomies to facilitate their understanding and comparison. Some key features of the reforms to emerge are: labour force and population coverage, equity and solidarity, sufficiency and quality of benefits, state regulation, competition and degree of privatization, efficiency and administrative costs, social participation in management, financing sources and long-term sustainability. Effects of the reforms on social security principles are measured based on recent standardized statistics and other information. Goals or assumptions of the reforms are contrasted with actual outcomes, and the pros and cons of private versus private provision assessed. Detailed policy recommendations are offered to correct current problems and improve pension and healthcare systems.

This is the first book to comprehensively study these influential reforms in Latin America's pension and health care systems, and as such will be of importance to academics and researchers interested in social security and welfare policy, pensions, health care, and public policy; Social security, pension, and health care policy-makers; And social security, pension, and health care consultants and practitioners. ... Read more

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Rivera, Botero, Lam, Mata, Tamayo, Torres-Garcia, and other internationally known artists have exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington, D.C., and for many their renown also began here. This is the first publication in the English language to include biographical information on more than 1,000 Latin American artists who have exhibited their works at the OAS. Many of the catalogs of the more than 380 exhibitions compiled here provide critical insight about these artists' "oeuvre". The many years of research dedicated to this unique project have resulted in an encyclopedic work on the contemporary art of a continent almost overlooked until the recent past. Indexes. ... Read more

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Over the course of the 1990s governments, policy makers, NGOs and practitioners concerned with poverty alleviation increasingly sought to integrate rights into their practice in a broad range of contexts and countries. The term "rights based development" was coined to describe these efforts. Development agencies such as the UN and the World Bank, along with many NGOs and governments, have sought to promote a common understanding of what rights-based priorities entailed for their work. However there is still limited understanding of how such approaches are being worked out in practice and how they are understood in different socio-cultural contexts.

This book examines the ways that rights-based strategies have been understood in development practice in Latin America. It is based on research carried out with NGOs working with women and indigenous people in Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the latter three being among the poorest countries in the region. Rights-based development work has involved combining ideas of citizenship, democracy, participation and empowerment in novel ways. Doing the Rights Thing will contribute to the creation of a fuller understanding of this new approach to development and reveal the potential that it offers in ongoing efforts to secure more equitable as well as more effective and inclusionary development outcomes. ... Read more

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Conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the State in Mexico became prominent soon after independence in 1821, and during the next three decades national and state governments made various attempts to reduce ecclesiastical influence in the social, economic and political life of the nation. Few of such efforts met with much success, and it was not until 1856 that a major reform was initiated. Legislation was issued which affected all spheres of clerical activity but the most vital and controversial aspect of the reform involved the measures adopted to dispossess the Church of its wealth. The extensive ecclesiastical holdings of urban and rural real estate and capital were nationalized and redistributed. Professor Bazant examines earlier attempts at nationalization, and describes in detail the implementations of the 1856 Lerdo Law and subsequent decrees. Using selected areas of the country, he traces the precise effects of the redistribution of Church property and capital, describing the terms of sale or transfer, the number of sales, the buyers, their nationality and occupation, and the total value of the amounts involved. ... Read more

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Cuba began a process of "rectificacion" in the mid-1980s, a reform project that has bucked the trends of economic and political liberalization that are reshaping the global order. Sustaining an official commitment to socialism in the face of economic crisis and international pressures, Cuba's survival seems puzzling, and this book uses the Cuban experience to investigate the problematic of democracy and democratic change. The author's argument about the democratic possibilities of Cuban socialism focuses on the state, bureaucracy and participation. Identifying bureaucratic domination as a problem for democracy in all modern states, and not unique to socialism or Cuba, she examines questions of bureaucracy and participation through an investigation of Cuban schools. ... Read more