The Welfare regimes in the twilight of conservative modernization

possibilities and limits to social citizenship in Latin America

Abstract

Latin America is undergoing a profound transformation of its social policies and of the very concept of social citizenship. I argue in this article that such transformation takes place within a broader epochal change: the end of conservative modernization as it was defined in Barrington Moore´s seminal work.  The triumph of electoral democracy, urbanization, increased educational attainment and increased exposure to new and broader consumption patterns have destroyed the political basis of conservative modernization dynamics. While access to arenas and statuses that turn expectations into legitimate demands has expanded radically, access to the means to satisfy such demands has remained static (unequal and segmented) until the end of the century. The shift to the left in the region should be interpreted as the political solution to this second and final crisis of incorporation of the conservative modernization pattern. The “Washington Consensus” was indeed the last attempt of incorporation under the pattern of conservative modernization. It is in this context that the possibility of a new social citizenship based on universality of entitlements emerges. But for this to happen it is not enough that elites are no longer able to control the political and economic game through status enclosure and authoritarianism. In order to craft truly universal social policies narrow corporatism and restricted targeting -and the political economy they sustain- have to be confronted as well. Contributory models based on formal wages and targeted social policies based on need will not disappear, but they have to take the back seat to a model of basic universalism where entitlements in transfers and services are not dependent on need nor labor formality.