Elites, fiscal policies and privileges in Latin America and the Caribbean
CALL FOR RESEARCH GRANTS
CLACSO – OXFAM
This call for proposals seeks to deepen our understanding of the strategies employed by economic and political elites to design and utilize public policies for their own benefit, exacerbating socioeconomic inequality and undermining democratic quality. The call aims to develop an analytical framework that allows us to understand this phenomenon, determine its consequences, and formulate specific and feasible proposals to curb this state capture that threatens democracies in the region.
Inequalities fragment our societies, hinder a sustainable fight against poverty, generate violence, limit the guarantee of rights for the vast majority, condition economic growth and, ultimately, affect the quality of democracies.
Despite the progress made, Latin America and the Caribbean remains the most unequal region in the world in terms of income distribution. Wealth inequality is also extreme; in 2014, the richest 10% of the region held 71% of the wealth. Just 32 people possessed as much wealth as the poorest half of the region—300 million people. A person from a Latin American multimillionaire family has an annual income 1,154 times greater than the income of a person from a family in the poorest 20% of the region. The economic slowdown and the increasing number of people living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean make addressing this concentration of wealth a top priority.
The concentration of wealth and income goes hand in hand with the concentration of power and therefore affects the quality of our democracies because it perverts institutions and political processes, subjecting them to the interests of elites at the expense of the citizenry. These are processes in which a political or economic elite co-opts democratic institutions to induce the creation of policies that allow it to maintain its privileged position in society and use the state for its own benefit. These processes have resulted in democratic systems that fail to make sufficient progress in guaranteeing equal rights for the population; in captured states that deny rights to many at the expense of privileges for a few.
The Latin American and Caribbean region has demonstrated that certain public policies can combat economic inequalities and inequality of opportunity. One of the most important policies for this is fiscal policy, both in terms of its tax dimension and public spending, guaranteeing public services such as education, health, social protection, and gender equality.
Support for:
Swedish International Development Agency – SIDA
REGISTRATION CLOSES: MARCH 6, 2017
Studies resulting from the research grant competition “Elites, fiscal policies and privileges in Latin America and the Caribbean”
Fiscal justice in Brazil: obstacles and possibilities
Authors: Fernando Gaiger Silveira, Luana Passos
Country: Brazil
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Economic elites, State and Unified Health System: fragilities in social policies and Brazilian democracy
Author(s): Paulo Henrique de Almeida Rodrigues, Mariana Cavalcanti, Flávia Souza
Country: Brazil
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State reform and systemic corruption: The capture of the National Institute of Concessions. Colombia (2002-2018)
Author(s): Rubén Darío León Pineda
Country Colombia
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Socializing the costs: pension system reforms and their implications for public debt in El Salvador 1996-2017
Author(s): Armando Álvarez, Saira Barrera
Country: El Salvador
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Economic elites and the capture of fiscal policy institutions in Guatemala
Author(s): Wilson Romero A., Edgar Ramírez
Country: Guatemala
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Regulatory capture and opacity of Public-Private Partnership trusts: The experience in Mexico
Authors: Luis Augusto Chávez Maza, Fortunato Cuamatzin Bonilla, Eudoxio Morales Flores
Country: Mexico
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Forging Privileges: Discourses, Strategies and Practices of Agribusiness Entrepreneurs for Influencing Paraguayan Tax Policy
Authors: Ramón Fogel, Sara Costa, Sintya Valdez
Country: Paraguay
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The Power of the Law or the Law of Power? Technocratic Governance and Legality in Neoliberal Peru: The Case of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)
Author(s): Róger Merino
Country: Peru
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The de facto power of business elites in Latin American politics: A comparative study of eight countries
Author(s): Miguel Serna, Eduardo Bottinelli
Country: Regional
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