Resumen

AVILA URDANETA, Maritza. Health in the Decentralization Paradigm in Latin America. Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.3, pp.526-543. ISSN 1315-9518.

The principle objective of this work is to reflect on health in the decentralization paradigm of Latin America, a social policy implemented at the end of the 1970s. It is based on the premise that the increase of efficiency in social public expenditure has been transformed and constitutes the main challenge for social policy, representing the fundamental motivation for diverse modes of decentralization that have been implemented in Latin America. The study is a comparative investigation. Eight countries are mentioned: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Conclusions are that the decentralization process in Latin America reveals that the social political context affects the model applied by the countries under study, based on the changes and continuities of the implemented social policy patterns. Also, the absence of pure transference models for health competence is observed. The fiscal type predominates in Argentina, Chile and Brazil while the political type (legitimation of government situations, conflict and democratization), predominates in Colombia and Venezuela.

Palabras clave : Decentralization; social policy; health; Latin America.