Social security in Latin America: Pressure groups, stratification, and inequality (Pitt Latin American series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822933683 ISBN 13: 9780822933687

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1705

Synopsis

A historical comparative analysis of how pressure groups in Latin America shaped the inception and evolution of social security, generating stratified systems with significant   inequalities among schemes. The book develops innovative techniques to measure such inequalities. The first application of social science method to social security in the region. Useful for economists, political scientists, historians, sociologists, and social policy experts and decision makers.

"One of the merits of this book is the opening of a new way for research on social security in Latin America; it is the first theoretically-based and comparative study that goes beyond juridical and historical aspects and provides a paradigm for the analysis of other dimensions of social policy" (Ernesto A. Isuani, Political Scientist, Mendoza, 1980).

Mesa-Lago moves social security legislation from the dusty recesses of bureaucratic tedium and presents it essentially political, capable of reflecting, maintaining and creating inequalities in the larger society" (Henry Dietz,  American Political Science Review, 1980).

"This is the best book in English, and probably in any language, on the social security systems of Latin America. This is a volume that university and college libraries will want to possess" (Choice, 1979).

"A valuable contribution in both methodology and substance, this work is highly recommended for specialists on social security, pressure groups, methodology and Latin America" (Library Journal, 1978).

"This book is the first attempt to apply social sciences approaches and methodologies, in a multidisciplinary fashion, to a comparative study of social security in Latin America" (Revista de  Seguridad Social, 1980).

"This trailblazing compendium, a major reference work, is of great value to all those dealing with the problem of social security anywhere" (Latin America in Books, 1980).

"This book is a pioneer and important work, a fundamental study of social security systems in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Detailed statistics support the conclusions and are valuable for themselves" (Handbook of Latin American Studies, Library of Congress, 1979).

"This book is a highly scholarly analysis of the social security systems of five Latin American countries" (Ageing International, 1979).

About this title

About the Author:

Carmelo Mesa-Lago is Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and has been a visiting professor, researcher and lecturer in 40 countries. The author of 82 books and 275 articles/chapters published in 7 languages in 34 countries, most of them on social security including pensions and healthcare. He has worked as consultant in all Latin American countries and several in the Caribbean, as well as in Germany, Egypt, Ghana, Philippines and Thailand, as a regional advisor for ECLAC, a consultant (ILO, ISSA) and several U.N. branches, and most international financial organizations, and foreign foundations. Member of the US National Academy of Social Insurance and the Board of International Social Security Review, he received the ILO International Prize on Decent Work (shared with Nelson Mandela), the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Senior Prize, two Senior Fulbrights, the Arthur Whitaker and Hoover Institution Prizes, and Homage for his life work on social security from the Ibero-American Organization of Social Security and the Inter-American Conference on Social Security, and other numerous honors and research grants. He was finalist in Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize on Social Sciences 2009.

Review:

"Academics bring a degree of critical detachment to the study of social security which is often lacking among its administrators. When in addition the academic has been involved in a national social security reform, as Mesa-Lago was in Cuba, then he should be well equipped to write on the subject both with frankness and insight. He is to be congratulated on having amassed such a wealth of statistical data and on the way he has used these. This text will without doubt serve as a most useful reference on the five countries covered" (International Social Security Review, 1980).

"I find this book to be the most significant and innovative contribution on comparative policy in Latin America to appear in recent years. Students of comparative policy analysis and applied economics will find here interesting methodological discussions; specialists on labor history and pressure group politics will gain with line group's capability to policy outcomes; social security professionals have virtually a regional handbook." (John Bailey,  Georgetown University, Hispanic American Historical Review,  1980).

"This is an unusually comprehensive study of the historical evolution, the politics, and the comparative attainments of social security in five Latin American countries. Over a hundred tables and figures supplement the massive and detailed descriptions of national programs and their development over time. No reader will doubt the author's prefatory note describing the work as the end product of two decades of intense preoccupation with the subject matter" (George Rohrlich, Journal of Economic Literature, 1980). 

"As a compendium of information this book will be of much value, whether it be used in the discussion of specific social security questions or as a contribution to a wider analysis of the inequalities inherent in Latin America's class systems" (Emmanuel de Kadt, Professor of Development, University of Essex, Journal of Development Studies, 1980).

"As a sheer and immensely laborious descriptive effort this book is definitive. But its strength and focus  lies not so much, and certainly not alone there, but in the attempt to tackle the issue of equality" (Henry Landsberger, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Latin American Research Review, 1981).

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 1705
• ISBN 10: 0822933683
• ISBN 13: 9780822933687
• Binding: Hardcover