Inter-American Development Bank Office of the Chief Economist Working Paper 332 LATIN AMERICAN UNIONS AND THE REFORM OF SOCIAL SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS: INSTITITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTS AND POLICY CHOICE

Recent policy debates on the reform of social service delivery systems focus on the decentralization of services and the introduction of competition in order to improve the quality of services. Despite the common assumption that public sector unions oppose these reforms, their responses were diverse. This variation has an important impact on the passage and the final design of the reforms. This paper argues that the structure of union organization and the environment of party and union competition are fundamental for understanding union policy preferences and strategic choices regarding the reforms of social service delivery systems. The experiences of Mexico and Argentina with education and health reforms in the early 1990s illustrate the influence of these institutional features on the policy preferences and strategic choices of public sector unions. © 1994 Inter-American Development Bank 1300 New York Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20577 The views and interpretations in this document are those of the author and should not be attributed to the InterAmerican Development Bank, or to any individual acting on its behalf.