1,721,031 research outputs found
Regionalism through social policy: collective action and health diplomacy in South America
No full textThis paper is concerned with the place of social policy as a driver of region-building in South America. The contention is that while much has been written about economic integration, institutions and security communities in regionalism, a discussion of the significance of other regional projects has lagged behind. Social policy, particularly in the Americas, has been neglected as a policy domain in the account of regionalism. Changes in the political economy of Latin America in the last decade suggest that we need to engage afresh with regional governance and social policy formation in the Americas. By looking at the institutions, resources and policy action in the area of health within the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) this paper reconnects regionalism and social policy and explores two inter-related, yet largely unexplored, issues: the linkages between regional integration and social development beyond the historical hub of trade and finance; and the capacity of UNASUR to enable new policies for collective action in support of social development goals in the region, and to act as a broker of rights-based demands in global health governance. In so doing, the paper contributes towards a more nuanced understanding of regionalism and regionalisation as alternative forms of regional governanc
UNASUR: construcción de una diplomacia regional en materia de salud a través de políticas sociales
No full textLa lucha contra la pobreza y el acceso a mejores condiciones de vida, incluido el reconocimiento de derechos, son desafíos persistentes que afectan de manera desproporcionada a los países en desarrollo y sus poblaciones más vulnerables. Al mismo tiempo, la integración regional en América Latina hoy representa un conglomerado de proyectos que no solo aborda temas comerciales, sino también políticos y sociales, articulados alrededor de nuevos objetivos y prácticas, basados en solidaridad y autonomía. Esto se ha manifestado particularmente en el área de salud, donde –bajo la coordinación de UNASUR–, una innovadora estructura institucional lidera programas, recursos y políticas para mejorar el acceso a la salud en la región y, mediante una nueva “diplomacia regional”, la posición frente a actores internacionales en materia de acceso a medicamentos y derecho a la salud. Este artículo explora UNASUR Salud en la región y frente a actores externos, y argumenta que la región debe ser considerada como “espacio para la práctica política” tanto como “actor internacional”, redefiniendo a la vez qué es región y para qué sirve, así como las sinergias entre regionalismo y desarrollo socia
Advancing governance in the south: what roles for international financial institutions in developing states?
No full textThe current backlash in Latin America against neoliberalism and its main conveyors present the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) with an inexorable dilemma to their financial and ideological authority. The book attempts to understand the implications of the current changes in Latin American political economy for the (power) relationships between the IFIs and the local actors. It does so by exploring the risks associated with the narrow approach and practices of the IFIs in their promotion of political and economic governance in developing countries. The book argues that ‘good’ governance can be an area of contestation at the same time that can become an area of political engagement between local actors and the IFIs. As such it is expected that the ways IFIs staff interact with the local actors will affect the likelihood of policy change. Drawing on the lessons from the power relations involving the IFIs and the local actors in the promotion of governance reforms in Argentina since the 1990s, the book extends the analysis to the current challenges and dilemmas for the IFIs in face of the most recent redefinition of political and economic governance at the regional scale. Four guiding questions are covered in this book: to what extent the IFIs can affect models of the state and development? Can ‘good governance’ be imposed from outside? Who is governance good for? To what extent have the current political and economic trends in Latin America actually transformed power relationships between donors and recipient countries? In answering these questions, the book explores what ‘power’ currently means in the relationship between the IFIs and local actors in developing countries and the analytical implications for broader analysis of the complexities and tensions between sovereign authority, domestic policy processes and externally-driven demand
Regionalism, activism, and rights: new opportunities for health diplomacy in South America
No full textTackling germs, negotiating norms, and securing access to medicines are persistent challenges that disproportionally affect developing countries' participation in global health governance. Furthermore, over the last two decades, the excessive focus on global pandemics and security in global health diplomacy, rendered peripheral diseases that usually strike the poor and vulnerable, creating situations of marginalisation and inequality across societies. However, as the importance of regions and regionalism increases in global politics, and integration ambitions and initiatives extend beyond trade and investment to embrace welfare policy, there are new opportunities to explore whether and how regional commitments affect health equity and access to medicine in developing nations. What, if any, are the possibilities for meso-level institutions to provide leadership and direction in support of alternative practices of global (health) governance? Can regional polities become international advocacy actors in support of global justice goals? This article addresses these questions by analysing regional health diplomacy in South America. The article argues that regional organisations can become sites for collective action and pivotal actors in the advocacy of rights (to health) enabling diplomatic and strategic options to member state and nonstate actors, and playing a role as deal-broker in international organisations by engaging in new forms of regional health diplomac
Everyday political economy of human rights to health: dignity and respect as an approach to gendered inequalities and accountability
No full textSexual and reproductive health needs and rights are one of the bleakest examples of (racialised) gender health inequalities in Brazil. This is so despite legal and constitutional specificity recognising the right to health as right of citizenship. In this paper we argue that a ‘performance gap’ is revealed in contradictions between what the right to health as a normative framework encourages states to do, and institutional arrangements and power relations that underpin everyday gendered inequalities in health delivery. The contribution of this article is two-fold. First, it contributes to feminist political economy accounts of the neglect of sexual and reproductive rights by adding a perspective of human dignity as an approach to gender inequalities. Second, it explores ways in which health inequalities manifest in everyday practices, and how divergent expectations of what the right to health means for professionals and for disadvantaged black women limit the capacity of healthcare to make a difference to their well-being. The article also underlines the importance of complementing legal accountability in health with mechanisms that account for prerogatives of gender justice, equality and dignity
Rescaling responsibilities and rights: the case of UNASUR health
No full textRegionalism can be defined as an instance of policy making of cross-border formation advanced through institutional arrangements, bureaucracies, political motivations, and social mobilization. State and non-state actors engage in political projects to relocate the governance of a particular issue or policy domain beyond the scope of national politics. This is a process by which regional projects move from one level of policy deliberation, negotiation, and implementation to another in what Hameiri identified as region-building (Hameiri, 2012). In the vast research field of regionalism that has flourished since 1993, expectations of what regional governance can deliver, however, have been evaluated primarily in terms of economic and security governance (Mansfield and Solingen, 2010). While much has been written about economic integration, regional institutions, and security communities, a discussion of how significant other policy domains have been in the process of regionalism has lagged behind. Specifically, a rather neglected issue in the account of contemporary forms of regionalism has been the extent to which regional integration can promote social development. This has been particularly the case in the study of regionalism in the Americas, where regional motivations have often been defined by an unrelenting path of political economic projects, often marked by the reach of the US as a regional hegemon (Fawcett in Fawcett and Serrano, 2009; Tussie, 2009). This has not been simply a matter of academic neglect, but a consequence of a political decoupling of economic integration and social policies in regional governance. As in Europe, advancing a “social agenda” has often been undermined by the task of removing barriers to trade. However, while Europe saw efforts to build practices of social inclusion become institutionalized in the open method of coordination (OMC) in the 1990s (Scharpf, 2007), Latin America is now experiencing a “social turn” where regional cooperation is reconnecting with social policy-making beyond a rhetorical aspect (Grugel, 2005). This chapter analyses the place of social policy as a driver of current dynamics (re)defining region-building in South America
Social policy in post-neo-liberal latin America: the cases of Argentina, Venezuela and Bolivia
No full textPía Riggirozzi analyzes the challenges of embracing new models of citizenship and social development in Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela. Together with a new spirit of change, the spectacular economic recovery after 2003 allowed for the introduction of a new range of anti-poverty policies and social protection. She suggests that contingency and contextual circumstances also mean that as an approach it is vulnerable to the swinging moods of the international economy and/or from political opposition from domestic elites
Reasserting nationalism in an open economy
No full textHow far is there a regional trend away from neoliberalism in Latin America and how can we characterize the new forms of state activism that are emerging in the region? This book explores different expressions and approaches to post-neoliberal governance in Latin America and identifies the place of social and political inclusion, as well strategies for economic growth, within them. It explores the possibilities and constraints on the state, along with changing models of democracy, social policy and the political economy of development, bringing in examples from Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile
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