Who decides the formulation of social policy? What resources do actors bring to decision-making processes? How do those resources position them within decision making networks? This book addresses these questions by combining an institutional political economy approach to policy making with...

Front Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Abbreviations -- 1 Social Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean -- Progress and Persistent Challenges in the Social Sector -- Political Economy and Social Network Analysis: A Two-Pronged Approach to Social Policy Making --...

Predominant views on the political economy of Latin America and the Caribbean tend to emphasize that elite domination helps to understand the high levels of inequality. The contemporary fiscal version of that assertion goes something like “the rich are powerful and they dont like taxes, hence...

As the measurement of public opinion and attitudes toward gender issues has gained increasing attention in gender policy and research, the accurate design, implementation, and analysis of survey data has become paramount. In this paper, we examine the impact of the gender of the interviewer on...

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have made remarkable progress in improving the living conditions of their people since the 1990s. Poverty has declined by almost 50 percent, and average life expectancy has increased substantially, especially for children under the age of five. Most...