Argentina: From an Emblematic Case to Its Institutionalization – An Analysis of the Universal Child Allowance for Social Protection

Abstract

The Argentine Republic, as a Federal State comprised of twenty-three provinces and an autonomous city (Buenos Aires), has distinguished itself in the context of Latin American countries for having developed early on a welfare system with ‘hybrid’ characteristics. From mid-1945 onwards, the foundation was laid for a protectionary system which combined different social risk insurance principles based on the contributory capacity of formal salaried workers, mainly men, with coverage for health care, old-age and disability insurance, protection for workrelated accidents or illnesses and a system of allowances aimed at guaranteeing the growth and expansion of the nuclear family of the workers. That is to say, a broad social security scheme that was based on a strong legal framework related to the right to work and to social security...