Silvana Maubrigades
With different levels of development, Latin America had distributive policy attempts in the mid-twentieth century, which failed to survive beyond the 1970s. In these circumstances, it became apparent that the region’s main weakness was its source of income and its dependence on international trade of primary goods. This structural constraint says a lot about the problems of inequality, both because the primary export model creates few jobs in some countries, and because it generates low-skilled and low-paid jobs.
A path worth to be explored by policymakers is the improvement of public policies that support social welfare. Education and health are the two central pillars in terms of quality of life and no substantive improvements have been made in this area beyond specific investments in some countries. It is difficult to overcome assistentialism policies and move to the concretisation of improvements that translate into better jobs, greater appreciation of the qualification and regulation of the labor market. The region is working on that, but dependence on the economic model is strong and limits achievement.
