The restrictions to social insurance system enlargement in Brazil and Chile: a study in a perspective of the political economy of the world-systems

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes that have been occured in the social insurance system in Brazil and Chile since mid-1970. The analyze focus on the world-economy perspective in order to explain major changes both into the processes of capital accumulation and State intervention. In Chle, post-Second War investments in the leading activities, such as production and commerce, have been reached their end since mid 1970. Social movements that arose in parallel to urban population growth (due to those investments) generated a dictatorship government which imposed several unpopular measures in the social insurance system between 1974 and 1981. In Brazil, the investments in the leading activities undertook by dictatorship governments only started to decrease in the beginning of 80s. Therefore, social movements in Brazil arose as a result of the economic growth during the dictatorship era. Besides, unpopular measures came under democratic regime, mainly during the 1998- 003 years. By the end, the paper asserts that social insurance system has been changing in both countries in accordance to the capitalist world-economy conjunctions.