This collection offers a reappraisal of social policy in response to the scale of the challenges confronting Latin America. Divided into four sections - concepts, models, and practice; health and social security; education; and household and community - the book explores the functions of social policy and the prospects of its performing a new and more dynamic role. The authors place contemporary social policy in historical perspective, study the connection between growth and welfare, and consider the efficacy of the state in the social sphere from both macro and micro perspectives. Underpinning the collection are issues relating to the question of the social contract between state and citizen and how the exercise of citizenship connects society and state.