Social protection in Latin America

This chapter offers a succinct introduction to the development, current structure and outcomes of social protection in Latin America. Current institutions of social protection are the outcome of three main political processes: the ‘first incorporation’ of workers in the mid-twentieth century leading to the adoption of Bismarckian occupational insurance funds; the neoliberal retrenchment wave in the 1970s and 1980s associated with the introduction of individual retirement plans; and the ‘second incorporation’ from the turn of the twenty-first century associated with the expansion of social assistance. The current dual structure of social protection in the region reflects these developments. Occupational insurance and individual retirement plans cater for better-off groups in standard employment. Conditional income transfers and old age and disability transfers offer basic support for low-income groups often dependent on informal employment. Social protection institutions and their outcomes are highly unequal and, despite their longevity, in need of far-reaching reform.