Abstract
In 2020, as Latin American countries shuttered their economies, it became clear that effective lockdowns would require states to provide income support. In a region that has historically struggled to build systems of social protection, the effort to expand benefits was notable. Policies varied in scope and generosity, but in what seemed to signify a new era of state-building, Latin American democracies demonstrated a nearly uniform commitment to providing assistance to the poor. Why did some countries implement broader and more adequate programs than others and why did countries vary in their ability to sustain support over time? This Element argues that three factors explain cross-national and cross-temporal differences in policy effort: policy legacies, unified/divided government, and fiscal space. The Element shows that in settings of crisis, the democratic politics of social policy expansion shifts, with traditional factors like ideology and electoral competition playing a less central role.

Bio
Merike Blofield is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Hamburg, where her focus is on global health and social policy. Prior to moving to the University of Hamburg, she was Director of the Institute for Latin American Studies at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and a Professor of Political Science and Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Miami. With a focus on Latin America, her research has analyzed policy areas that intersect social, health, family, gender and labor policy.

The four organizers (Ewa Kaminska-Visser, Tobias ten Brink, Andreas Heinrich and Heiko Pleines) are the editors of the edited volume "Generosity of Social Policies in Socialist and Post-socialist States". The volume is to be published with Palgrave, within the book series Global Dynamics of Social Policy.

The volume will map and compare socialist and post-socialist approaches to social policies, their implementation and outcomes, with the focus on how the generosity of social policies – understood as the combination of their inclusiveness and the scope of benefits they offer – has been conceptualised in different socialist and post-socialist national contexts, how these conceptualisations have shaped the content of social policies, and finally, how the content of social policies has actually been implemented. The book will cover the geographic areas of the (former) Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as selected countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

The book will feature contributions from a number CRC projects (A03, A04, A05, B05, B09, B10 and B11), as well as research of colleagues from Leiden University, the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, Arkansas State University, and State University of New York.

The workshop's goal is to bring together the contributors in order to discuss the drafts of the chapters.