HERTEL-FERNANDEZ, Alexander

Retrenchment reconsidered : continuity and change in the post-authoritarian institutions of chilean social policy - Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, August 2009

This article analyses the evolution of four social and economic policies reformed under the Chilean military dictatorship – the value-added tax, the health-care policy-making structure, the health-care finance system and the pension system. It argues that the very institutional features that the military government designed to ensure long-run policy persistence have, in fact, facilitated dramatic transformation of these policies after the return to democracy. The findings of this article, particularly the unintended effects of institutional reform, question received notions regarding the logic of institutional 'lock-in' and path dependence in the analysis of welfare regimes.