Democracy and social welfare in Uruguay and Paraguay

The aim of this article is to assess the ways democracy affects social welfare, by analyzing two Latin American countries: Uruguay and Paraguay, one with a vibrant democratic history and a progressive political landscape, the other with a generally authoritarian past and a conservative dominant party. We maintain that welfare systems in these countries have been critically shaped by the impact of democracy, or by its absence, and by the strategies adopted by major social and political actors, especially parties: these strategies have been determined in turn by parties’ ideologies and by the workings of electoral competition. We also underline that the impact of democracy on social welfare is critically mediated by the role of previous welfare legacies, the presence of welfare constituencies defending acquired rights and privileges and by social and economic variables, as overall wealth levels, the formal or informal nature of labor markets and the political organization of domestic economies.