POVERTY AND SOCIAL-POLICY IN LATIN-AMERICA

Most indicators of human development in Latin America improved conside rably until the early 1980s. Unfortunately, the debt crisis which hit most countries in the region during the 1980s badly dented fire social record. Not only did it increase the number of people living in pover ty but it led to a profound change in the nature of the development mo del. Neo-liberal economic thought and the lessons of the debt crisis c onvinced one Latin American state after another that it should follow a different development path. Economic stabilization and structural ad justment had a profound effect on poverty in the region. Most families became poorer, particularly those living in the cities. Structural ad justment and the new economic model also modified the role of the stat e. Increasingly, Latin American governments stopped giving general sub sidies and introduced a strategy of targeting subsidies at the poor. I n places, the new strategy will no doubt provide an adequate safety ne t, but in others it will fail to provide sufficient help for the poor. All we can predict is that poverty will long remain regrettably commo n in most parts of Latin America. lit places, economic growth will und oubtedly reduce poverty but it is not at all easy to predict where it will be reduced. In this respect Latin America is Ddy much like the re st of the world Globalization has opened up local economies to interna tional competition and offered them the prospect of selling focal good s to foreign markets. Now many Latin American economies will benefit f rom the new situation will determine how the poor will fare. Unfortuna tely, the state's ability to deal with any subsequent poverty has been greatly reduced. That, too, is part and parcel of the process of glob alization.