Due to the apparent success of large conditional cash transfer programmes and, less prominently, assistance pension schemes, Latin America is now seen as a reference point for ‘best practice’ in global social policy. The same was true during the 1990s, when the region's supposed successes in partially privatising social insurance pension schemes were promoted as a global blueprint. Orenstein's book provides a clearly written and detailed account of how international organisations, global policy networks and key individuals were able to exert significant influence over global pension policy and override powerful domestic interest groups. Inevitably, Chile's pioneering reform features prominently in his account, as does the former Chilean secretary of labour and social security, José Piñera, who single-handedly converted key figures in the World Bank and other organisations to the supposed wonders of pension privatisation.
The main focus of the book is on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, rather than Latin America, with substantial case studies on pension reform in Poland, Hungary and Kazakhstan. Orenstein does, however, provide some analysis about the diffusion of pension reforms across Latin America. He tentatively argues that shared ‘language and social similarities probably facilitated’ the rapid spread of the Chilean model across the region (p. 26), but does not provide specific details of this process. In a later chapter, Orenstein provides brief accounts of reforms in Peru, Argentina and Brazil. He argues that, in the latter case, World Bank and Chilean influence was greater than is sometimes claimed. Overall, his limited treatment of Latin America contrasts with more confident and robustly evidenced case studies from Europe and Asia.
Much of Orenstein's book focuses on the role of the World Bank, which is framed in mildly sympathetic terms. He refers to emerging disagreements in the Bank between reform hardliners and others seeking a more flexible approach, and argues that the Bank demonstrated an ability to learn from policy errors. Those familiar with the current wave of pension reforms being promoted by the Bank in parts of Africa might question this cuddly view. By contrast, little is said about the role of private-sector interests in the promotion of pension reform in Latin America. This is a pity, as it is likely that private financial companies exerted a major influence through a range of channels. The story of their involvement in global pension reform remains to be written.
The most interesting sections of the book are the accounts of the different levers used by the World Bank to encourage the new pension orthodoxy. Orenstein draws attention to the efforts made by the Bank and USAID in sponsoring large numbers of public relations trips to promote privatisation. In passing, he observes that Bank pension reform loans to Latin America were much more substantial than was the case in other regions – it would be interesting to know why this was so.
Orenstein's book makes an important contribution to the role of international agencies in national policymaking. He develops a helpful theoretical framework for exploring these complex issues. With the World Bank and the UK government paying for Latin American policymakers to visit Africa and Asia with the new gospel of conditional cash transfers, it is clear that this role is becoming ever more significant.
