article
Nuevas perspectivas sobre desigualdad y política social en América Latina
Fecha
2022-07-29Autor
Otero-Bahamon, Silvia
García-Montoya, Laura
Fernández Dusso, Juan José
Institución
Resumen
It is widely known that Latin America is the most unequal region in the world (Ábramo, 2019; Lustig, 2020; Sánchez-Ancochea, 2020). Currently, the richest 10% of the region's population concentrates 71% of the wealth, while approximately one third of the population lives below the poverty line (ECLAC, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic not only deepened inequality, but also highlighted the enormous differences between territories, ethnicities, genders and social occupations in aspects as diverse as internet access, health services, drinking water at home and food security. Several structural factors make up this stark panorama of multiple inequalities: the legacies of the colonial structure that operated against Afro-descendants and indigenous people (Acemoglu et al., 2001); the economy based on the exploitation of raw materials (Williamson, 2015; Ocampo, 2017; Frankema, 2009); the limitations of States in the provision of good quality public services (Otero-Bahamón, 2020); incomplete democratizations (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2006; Boix, 2003); the outstanding capacity of certain power groups to shape public policy (Fairfield, 2015; García-Montoya, 2020); segmented social policies (Pribble, 2013; Garay, 2017); as well as corruption and clientelism dynamics (Berens, 2021), among others.