Mitchell A. Orenstein, Privatizing Pensions: The Transnational Campaign for Social Security Reform

摘要

Due to the apparent success of large conditional cash transfer programmes and, less prominently, assistance pension schemes, Latin America is now seen as a reference point for 'best practice' in global social policy. The same was true during the 1990s, when the region's supposed successes in partially privatising social insurance pension schemes were promoted as a global blueprint. Orenstein's book provides a clearly written and detailed account of how international organisations, global policy networks and key individuals were able to exert significant influence over global pension policy and override powerful domestic interest groups. Inevitably, Chile's pioneering reform features prominently in his account, as does the former Chilean secretary of labour and social security, Jose Pinera, who single-handedly converted key figures in the World Bank and other organisations to the supposed wonders of pension privatisation.