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The New Left and Health Care Reform in El Salvador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Mary A. Clark
Mary A. Clark*
Affiliation:
Tulane University. [email protected]
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Abstract

After 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.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 97 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2015

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