Suchergebnisse

A most religious nation -- Jesus is my bosom friend: the development of American religion -- African Christianity: kingdom of Kongo -- The dead are not dead -- Children of Oduduwa: the Oyo empire -- Then why not every man? -- Children of the leopard: kingdom of Dahomey -- That voodoo that you do -- New African branches

AbstractAfter a decade of civil war and four consecutive conservative administrations, El Salvador's leftist FMLN won its first presidential election in 2009. How has public policy changed under this New Left government, and why? This article addresses the question in the area of public health care. An alliance of health sector leaders with both technocratic and diplomatic abilities capitalized on the policy window opened by the FMLN's electoral victory and worked within the parameters set by President Mauricio Funes, the FMLN, and civil society to universalize health care. The new minister of health, a professional highly esteemed inside and outside the country, was able to engage both a large social movement protesting neoliberal policy and an energetic health diplomat sent by the Pan American Health Organization. In designing its reform, this alliance benefited from international as well as "bottom-up" policy diffusion.

This article explains how Costa Rica and Panama, two Central American countries with nearly universal public healthcare programmes, have come to enjoy such broad coverage. It then describes the distinct paths each is taking towards reaching the populations still left out of healthcare coverage. Costa Rica is seeking to bring all residents under the umbrella of its ILO‐style social security plan. Panama is targeting the rural poor with a package of defined interventions aimed at maternal and child mortality. The article frames these cases within the literature on the varieties of universalism.

AbstractPublicly‐funded direct access‐to‐care models are so clearly inadequate in most of the United States that little attention has been devoted to them as alternatives to insurance expansions for low‐income populations. Louisiana's state hospital system is an unusually comprehensive access‐to‐care model in a particularly poor state. This paper describes a series of improvements made in the Louisiana State University (LSU) hospital system under the rubric of a healthcare effectiveness campaign begun in 1997. They have made Louisiana's access‐to‐care model a workable avenue for providing healthcare services for its low‐income population. But financial instability and shortfalls threaten the sustainability of the LSU hospital system both in terms of annual operating budgets and money for capital improvements.

Clark reviews Retiring the State: The Politics of Pension Privatization in Latin America and Beyond by Raul L. Madrid and Health Care Reform in Central America: NGO-Government Collaboration in Guatemala and El Salvador by Alberto Jose Frick Cardelle.