The Argentine welfare state: Enduring and resisting change

Abstract

It is widely accepted that during the 1990s, the Argentine state experienced a general retrenchment. This article shows that, though this may have been true in the economic realm, this retrenchment did not take place in the diverse arenas of social policy. While privatisations and labour market flexibility dismantled the foundations of Keynesianism, the components of the welfare state experienced substantial growth. At the same time, the changes experienced by the welfare state in the past quarter century have not included a transformation of its basic principles, despite the profound changes experienced by Argentine society during this period. © 2009 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare.