Postretrenchment Politics: Policy Feedback in Chile's Health and Pension Reforms

Through a comparison of three periods of health and pension reform in Chile, this article develops an explanation for the incremental form of social policy change that some Latin American nations have witnessed in recent years, despite the dramatic rise of left governments. It describes “postretrenchment politics,” which constitutes a realignment in the way politics plays out in countries that have undergone social policy retrenchment. In postretrenchment politics, the strengthened position of private business interests, combined with political learning legacies and lock‐in effects generated by reforms, results in incremental political change, despite renewed efforts by left parties to address inequality. Global capital also plays an important contextual role, and may influence postretrenchment politics. In postretrenchment politics, newly reformed systems may achieve greater equity, but they do so in fragmented form.     

结婚生意

“你愿意嫁给我吗？”多年前，我用最浪漫的语调向她求婚。我承认那一刻我的声音可能有些颤抖，但令我倍感诧异的是，直到两天后我才得到她肯定的回答：“我愿意。”难道在她看来，这紧张表明我对她不够真心？还是她或许真的需要时间考虑—下，还有什么理由让她对一个如此魅力四射、前程似锦的年轻男子的求婚迟迟不予答复呢？我至今也不知道答案，且已有决断：就此问题刨根问底毫无益处，我宁可浑然沉浸在幸福的无知中。