Social Science Research Council

"The Changing Social Policy Divide: Informal and Formal Workers in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico"

Social policy in Latin America has traditionally involved programs for formal-sector workers. In the past decade, however, social programs for historically under-organized informal-sector workers, who comprise about half of the workforce in the region, have been growing significantly. Cash transfers, greater access to health care and pensions for informal workers represent fundamental social policy innovations, which I will explore through a comparative analysis of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Despite the growing importance of benefits for informal workers, recent scholarship on social policy in Latin America has focused predominantly on programs for formal-sector workers, and has presented social policy as heading in one direction, that of privatization and scaling back of public commitments.

My project seeks to recast our understanding of the evolution of social policy since the beginning of market-oriented reforms by extending the analysis to also include programs for informal workers. In order to explain (a) why benefits are being expanded for informal workers, (b) the overall patterns of social policy, including programs for formal and informal sector-workers, an (c) major contrasts among countries, I focus on two factors. The first concerns the mobilization of informal workers. Specifically, have they built organizations? Have they formed alliances with key actors, i.e., labor unions? Do they participate in policy-making? Or, are they unorganized and mobilized electorally in a top-down way? The second factor relates to the ways in which policy initiatives for informal workers interact with interests organized around pre-existing formal workers’ programs.