Democracy and the Left

Social Policy and Inequality in Latin America

John D Stephens author Evelyne Huber author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:9th Oct '12

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Democracy and the Left cover

Although inequality in Latin America ranks among the worst in the world, it has notably declined over the last decade, offset by improvements in health care and education, enhanced programs for social assistance, and increases in the minimum wage. In "Democracy and the Left", Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens argue that the resurgence of democracy in Latin America is key to this change. In addition to directly affecting public policy, democratic institutions enable left-leaning political parties to emerge, significantly influencing the allocation of social spending on poverty and inequality. But while democracy is an important determinant of redistributive change, it is by no means the only factor. Huber and Stephens present quantiative analyses of eighteen countries and comparative historical analyses of the five most advanced social policy regimes in Latin America, showing how international power structures have influenced the direction of their social policy. They augment these analyses by comparing them to the development of social policy in democratic Portugal and Spain. The most ambitious examination of the development of social policy in Latin America to date, "Democracy and the Left" shows that inequality is far from intractable - a finding with crucial policy implications worldwide.

"Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens have provided the most theoretically profound, empirically thorough, and wide-ranging work that advances the more optimistic view that democracy itself plays a crucial role in stimulating redistribution in Latin America and that the political left is the most important agent in effecting this change. Democracy and the Left is an important, major book that advances a powerful argument about a significant topic and substantiates it with an impressive range of research." (Kurt Weyland, University of Texas)"

ISBN: 9780226356525

Dimensions: 23mm x 16mm x 3mm

Weight: 595g

368 pages