Social policy commitment in South America. The effect of organized labor on social spending from 1980 to 2010/Compromiso con la politica social en Sudamerica. El efecto de los sindicatos sobre el gasto social de 1980 a 2010

This paper studies the effect of organized labor on social policy commitment in Latin America. Contrary to the idea that unions are not expected to be major promoters of social state development due to being weakened by dictatorship and structural adjustment, I argue for the incorporation of this va...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of politics in Latin America pp. 3 - 42
Main Author Niedzwiecki, Sara
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Sage Publications Ltd. (UK) 01.08.2015
Subjects
Forecasts and trends
Labor movement
Labor unions
Political aspects
Social aspects
Social policy
South America
South America
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Summary:This paper studies the effect of organized labor on social policy commitment in Latin America. Contrary to the idea that unions are not expected to be major promoters of social state development due to being weakened by dictatorship and structural adjustment, I argue for the incorporation of this variable in statistical analysis of social spending. Through pooled time-series regressions of 10 South American countries from 1980 to 2010, this paper finds that union strength has a statistically significant and positive effect on social spending. This analysis also confirms that democracy and the concentration of power in the executive all have a significant effect with regard to predicting changes in the levels of social spending.
ISSN:1868-4890
1868-4890