| About | Subscribe | Events | Contact | My Account |
|---|
| About | Subscribe | Events | Contact | My Account |
|---|
|
. Back to Basics (Spring 2008 Preview) by José Antonio Ocampo* . The perennial argument over social policy—universalism versus targeted subsidies to the poor—is once again galvanizing policymakers and scholars across the region. In recent decades, Latin American governments have generally inclined toward limited social assistance programs, but that model is increasingly under attack in a continent where high levels of inequality continue to be endemic. Yet the alternative, a universal welfare system based on the principle of social citizenship—or social rights—is often regarded as having limited applicability in Latin America, where access to formal employment and a solid tax base—key elements of this model—are limited.
.
. . *José Antonio Ocampo is Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He has served as UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Executive Secretary of ECLAC/CEPAL. This article is based on his recent work for the Andean Development Corporation. __________________________________________ Counting the Poor (Spring 2008 Preview) by Sanjay G. Reddy* . Historically, especially in Latin America, more effort has gone into assessing the extent of “income poverty”— whether individuals possess sufficient income to live a minimally adequate life—than into determining the extent of non-income deprivations such as access to water and sanitation, adequate educational opportunities and basic health care. Thanks to the rising influence of the “human development” perspective that emphasizes non-income achievements, greater attention has been given in recent years to such factors as health status, education, quality of shelter, and access to clean water. However, whether or not people have adequate resources to achieve basic requirements continues to be a crucial factor in determining whether a person is poor. It is hard to imagine a practical approach to poverty assessment that could do without it altogether. . The most influential approach to income poverty assessment in the regional and global context is the “money metric” approach used by the World Bank. This approach, which employs the “one dollar per day” and the “two dollars per day” international poverty lines, converts these poverty lines into local currencies using “purchasing power parity” conversion factors. It then uses national household surveys to identify in each country the number of persons whose local income is lower than the national poverty lines that have been deemed equivalent to the international poverty lines.
. .. To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. . *Sanjay G. Reddy is an assistant professor at the Department of Economics, Barnard College and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. __________________________________________ High Inequality (Spring 2008 Preview) by Guillermo Perry* .
Latin
America suffers from both the world’s highest rate of income
inequality and from a lackluster economic performance that puts it
well behind the growth levels of other emerging regions such as
Asia. Could there be a connection? Recent research suggests that
high . This phenomenon, often ignored by economists, has profound implications for the region on every level, ranging from low levels of investment and untapped human potential, to high crime rates and macroeconomic instability. But these facts do not imply that the region’s special history and flawed institutions condemn it to permanent levels of high inequality and low growth. . Several Latin American governments are pursuing... . To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. . *Guillermo Perry is a research associate at Fedesarrollo and Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development. From 1996 to 2007, he served as Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank and, from 1994 to 1996, as Colombian Minister of Finance and Public Credit. __________________________________________ Free Trade and Poverty (Spring 2008 Preview) by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs* . Is globalization a leading cause of rising inequality? Or does it help reduce poverty? These questions are at the heart of the major economic and social challenges confronting both high income and developing countries today. For developed industrial nations, the answers are bound to determine the outcome of the currently troubled Doha Round of trade talks—and possibly the future direction of the global multilateral trading system itself. But the stakes are no less high for developing countries. Finding the right balance between open trade and national investment-and-growth policies will affect the future of millions of people currently existing on the margins of the global economy. .
Substantial numbers of those marginalized people live in Latin
America. The answers to those questions are shaping the political
and economic debates and future of the region. A number of global trends are clear... .. To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. .. *José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs is Executive Director of the Employment Sector at the International Labour Organization in Geneva. __________________________________________ Pocketbook Poverty Alleviation (Spring 2008 Preview) by Eduardo L.G. Rios-Neto* . Over the last two decades, Latin American governments have expanded the social benefits packages available to their people. The classic universal model of social welfare policies paid for public services such as health and education, and provided social insurance money transfers that covered risk through contributory payments for items such as retirement and unemployment insurance.
.
. .. To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. . *Eduardo L.G. Rios-Neto is a professor of demography at Cedeplar, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is also the President of the National Commission on Population and Development (CNPD) in Brazil, and holds a PhD in demography from the University of California at Berkeley. __________________________________________ Cuba No Libre (Spring 2008 Preview) by Gary Marx and Cecilia Vaisman* . On February 19th, Fidel Castro made it official: he was resigning the presidency and ending his 50-year reign over Cuba. Many exiles, U.S. officials and Cubans on the island had been waiting for this historic day, confident that it would not only mark a new beginning but signal that fundamental change was coming to the hemisphere’s only communist nation. Some experts predicted that Cubans, fed up with shortages and hardship, would rise up and demand freedom. Others suggested change would come from within the government—that a younger generation of leaders would ascend to the top and recognize that Cuba’s economic and political system was bankrupt and needed radical reform. . But what happened following Fidel’s announcement was the opposite. Rather than taking to the streets demanding change, Cubans are going about their daily lives—queuing for hours at bus stops, collecting monthly food rations at neighborhood bodegas, and showing up at government jobs—as if nothing unusual has happened. Rather than a new generation of leaders taking over, Raúl Castro, Fidel’s younger brother, was named Cuba’s new president, and a cadre of aging communist loyalists continue to dominate the leadership structure in the newly named Council of State, the nation’s top policy-making body. . U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once again urged the Cuban... . To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. . *Gary Marx was the Chicago Tribune's Havana correspondent from 2002-2007. Cecilia Vaisman also lived in Cuba from 2002-2007 and is a senior producer for Homelands Productions. They are currently Guest Scholars at the University of Notre Dame's Kellogg Institute.
Frustration Mounts (Spring 2008 Preview) by Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat* .
If the new Cuban government has a remarkable resemblance to the old,
that’s because they are one and the same. No real change has taken
place in Cuba. Yet. The same group that accompanied Fidel and Raúl
Castro since their days in the Sierra Maestra—all now senior
citizens—remains firmly at the helm of government. They represent
the quintessence of the Cuban military-industrial complex. Below
them, however, lies an entity often observed but not very well
understood: the Cuban people. Recent polls by Gallup (2006) and the International Republican Institute (2007) indicate that a majority of Cubans are unhappy with their level of personal and economic freedom. Cubans increasingly cry out for greater personal autonomy, and that also includes questioning of the political structure. That unhappiness has largely been expressed in a withdrawal from the political involvement that has been crucial to the government’s ability to keep the population in check. According to the government’s own figures, over 1.4 million Cubans did not participate in the one-party, single-candidate electoral process that culminated with the selection of Raúl Castro as president this year. That’s a noteworthy decline from the 823,171 who absented themselves from the previous “elections” held in 2003. Considering that the Cuban government uses a wide array of persuasive and coercive measures to pressure citizens to participate, it is a highly significant figure. . But passive discontent is already changing into a more active mode... . To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. . *Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat teaches Political Theory at Florida International University and is the National Secretary of the Cuban Democratic Directorate. __________________________________________ Dispatches from the Field: Sao Paulo (Spring 2008 Preview) by Dennis Barbosa* . Yola Usnayo, born to a poor family in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, dreams of becoming a hairdresser. The 25-year-old mother puts in 17-hour days as a seamstress at a cramped sweatshop in São Paulo’s Bom Retiro neighborhood. She earns less than $500 a month for sewing up to 400 articles a day. But since she arrived in Brazil by bus three years ago, she has been determinedly putting away her savings for the better life she is convinced awaits her family.
. But at least she’s not alone. An estimated 100,000 expatriate Bolivians like Yola are scrabbling for an economic foothold in Brazil’s wealthiest city. These hidden migrants... .. To read more, subscribe and receive an instant digital copy of the Spring issue. Already a subscriber? Login Now. . *Dennis Barbosa is an independent journalist based in Sao Paulo.
|
Advertiser Index Media Kit
AQ Events
May 1, 2008 Social Mobility: Innovations and Constraints [Find Out More]__________ Toronto Launch
Fall 2007 Launch
Chile Launch Brazil Launch __________ Washington Launch __________ New York Launch
|
|
|
__________
