COMPARING SOCIAL POLICIES IN LEFT GOVERNMENTS

This paper compares the leftist governments of Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, both among themselves and with the administrations before left’s entry into national executives. The analysis encompasses education, health, and conditional cash transfer programs. These areas were selected because they have distinct legacies among themselves, but similar in all three countries. The methodology used is cross-case and within-case comparative analysis. The results show that the Uruguay and Argentina left’s administrations differ from previous administrations. In Chile, however, it does not differ from previous governments to the same extent as its neighbors in health and education, although it also institutionalizes cash transfer as a way of coping with poverty. That is, leftist governments, in general, present distinct efforts from their predecessors, but differ in the degree to which this occurs reflecting the profile of each leftist country in their respective parliaments and of each actor involved.