Public Policy Design, Pension System Reform and Its Setback: the Argentinean Case
This dissertation analyzes the pension reform and its reversal, which took place in Argentina in 1994 and 2008, from the perspective of the policymaking process, in an attempt to understand what made it possible, in such a short period, to approve the first reform, including a capitalized pillar, and 14 years later, to approve its reversal, with the resumption of the previous model, which was public and based on mutualism. In 1994, Argentina carried out structural reform of the social security system, following the guidelines of the World Bank, presented in the report "Averting the Old Age Crisis”, privatizing part of the system and becoming a paradigm to be followed by other countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. The belief that the individualized accounts model would be more sustainable, accompanied by an increase in the rate of social security coverage over time and incentive to the capital market was not borne out and Argentina, in 2008, promoted the total reversal of the model, returning to the simple pay-as-you-go system, administered by the state. This reversal took place during the 2008 economic crisis. But this process is highly complex, involving factors that, separately, cannot justify it. To understand it, the policymaking process (in 1994 and 2008) is analyzed, using process tracing methodology. This dissertation carries out a literature review on the subject, involving the main authors of the most important theoretical lines on social security reform processes in Latin America, online research in the Argentine newspapers El Clarin, La Nacion La Politica Online and Pagina 12, and documentary analysis of the legislative process, based on John Kingdon's theory of multiple streams (1995), to understand the elements of the process, the identification of the actors involved and the negotiation process around the problems and alternative solutions presented. The results point to a favorable environment in which the streams of problems, solutions, and politics were aligned, opening up a policy window for the process of structural social security reform on both occasions (1994 and 2008), with the dominance of the executive branch's agenda as an important explanatory factor.