Jennifer Pribble, Ph.D.
jpribble@richmond.edu
University of Richmond
Address: 28 Westahampton Way
City: Richmond, Virginia - 23173
Country: United States
About Me:
Jenny Pribble is a Professor of Political Science and Global Studies at the University of Richmond. Her research focuses on issues of comparative political economy and her book, Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America (2013, Cambridge University Press) explains why some Latin American states have been more effective than others at reforming social policy in a universalistic direction. Jenny’s new research project analyzes subnational variation in public health quality and access in Chile. Jenny’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Latin American Research Review, the American Sociological Review, Comparative Politics, and Studies in Comparative International Development. She is quoted in multiple newspaper articles about Latin American politics and in 2019 she was invited to pen an OpEd for the Financial Times. Jenny received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008.
Research Interests
Latin American And Caribbean Politics
Health Politics and Policy
Political Economy
Development
Comparative Social Policy
Subnational Politics
Welfare State
Political Parties
Political Representation
Challenges To Democracy
Countries of Interest
Chile
Uruguay
Argentina
Publications:
Journal Articles:
Access to quality healthcare varies across the national territory inside Latin American countries, with some subnational units enjoying higher-quality care than others. Such territorial inequality is consequential, as residents of particular regions face shorter life spans and an increased risk of preventable disease. This article analyzes trajectories of territorial healthcare inequality across time in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The data reveal a large decline in Brazil, a moderate decline in Mexico, and low levels of change followed by a moderate decline in Argentina. The article argues that two factors account for these distinct trajectories: the nature of the coalition that pushed health decentralization forward and the existence of mechanisms for central government oversight and management.
Democracy and the welfare state are two of the most extensively studied concepts and themes in the field of comparative politics. Debate about how to best measure the two concepts has failed to contemplate the extent to which political and social rights are uniformly present across distinct regions of the national territory, despite the presence of substantial subnational research that underscores wide variation inside countries. We argue that this omission hampers our understanding of the two phenomena and we propose a new measure of democracy and healthcare universalism, which we call the Adjusted Measures of Democracy and Welfare Universalism. The new measures integrate territorial inequality into existing national-level indicators, providing a more accurate picture of country performance and opening the door to new, multi-level theory building.
Latin America's “left turn” expanded cash transfers and public services, contributing to lower poverty and inequality. Recently, right-leaning candidates and parties have begun to win back seats in the legislature, and in some cases have captured the executive branch. This shift has sparked debate about the future of Latin America's welfare states. This article analyzes social policy reforms enacted by two recent right-leaning governments: that of Sebastián Piñera in Chile (2010–14) and Mauricio Macri in Argentina (2015–). It finds that contrary to neoliberal adjustment policies of the past, neither Macri nor Piñera engaged in privatization or deep spending cuts. Instead, both administrations facilitated a process of policy drift in some sectors and marginal expansion in others. Policy legacies and the strength of the opposition help to explain these outcomes, suggesting that Latin America's political context has been transf
An estimated one million Chileans took to the streets in August 2016 to demand reform of the country’s privatized pension system, calling for an end to individualized retirement savings accounts, which were created in 1981 during General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. The mobilization, involving around 5 percent of the country’s population, was the largest since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990. Demonstrations of growing discontent have become common in Chile of late. The pension protests came in the wake of more than five years of student mobilization aimed at forcing a reform of the Pinochet-era education system. What accounts for this surge of protest in a country that has long prided itself on its consensus politics and absence of conflict? And what does it mean for Chilean politics and democracy more broadly? By some accounts, the protests reflect a deep disconnect between the country’s political elites—who have emphasized restraint, moderation, and neoliberal orthodoxy—and ordinary citizens, who are increasingly concerned about inequality, economic vulnerability, and social mobility. In that sense, they also symbolize the failure of Chilean political parties on both left and right to channel conflict and represent citizens’ demands.
Institutional effectiveness varies widely across Chile's 346 municipalities. Whereas some local governments seem to work with impeccable precision, others struggle to deliver basic services and welfare benefits to the population. This article seeks to explain why such variation exists; it combines quantitative and qualitative evidence to show how mayors can play a crucial role in building institutional effectiveness. The study focuses on the administration of Chile's municipal job placement offices. It finds that municipalities where mayors have held office for three or more consecutive terms exhibit stronger institutional capacity than those localities where electoral turnover is the norm. The analysis, therefore, underscores an interesting finding: electoral competition has the potential both to improve and to undermine administrative capacity.
The region of Latin America exhibits significant diversity with regard to the size and scope of social protection programs. In this article, I propose a new way of measuring a country’s “social policy regime,” moving past expenditure-based conceptions of welfare provision to incorporate the coverage of programs. Employing this new measure, I use cluster analysis to demonstrate that Latin American social policy regimes cluster into four distinct categories. I then employ the comparative historical method to test a theory of why countries fall into each of these four categories. The analysis provides evidence that a country’s record of industrialization, the nature of political incorporation, and levels of ethnic and racial diversity are key determinants of the size and scope of Latin America’s social policy regimes.
Why do Latin American countries exhibit stark differences in their ability to protect citizens from falling into poverty? Analysis of poverty levels measured by ECLAC in eighteen countries shows that political factors-including the democratic record, long-term weight of left-of-center parties in the legislature, and investment in human capital-are significant and substantively important determinants of poverty. These findings contribute to the growing literature that emphasizes the importance of regime form, parties, and policies for a variety of outcomes in Latin America, despite the weaknesses of democracy and the pathologies of some parties and party systems in the region.
This article presents the first pooled time series analysis of the impact that politics and policy have on inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors build on models consisting of sociological and economic variables, adding the strength of the democratic tradition, long-term legislative partisan political power distribution, and social spending to explain variation in inequality. They analyze an unbalanced pooled time series data set for income distribution in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries from 1970 to 2000. They show that the political variables add explanatory power. A strong record of democracy and a left-leaning legislative partisan balance are associated with lower levels of inequality, as are social security and welfare spending under democratic regimes. Thus, they replicate some and modify other well-established findings from studies of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in the very different context of Latin America and the Caribbean. They confirm that the partisan composition of government matters, and show that, in contrast to OECD countries, where social security and welfare spending consistently reduce inequality, such spending reduces inequality only in a democratic context in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Women make up a disproportionate share of the world’s poor, and Latin America is no exception to this trend. Nevertheless, very few studies of social policy in the region have investigated why the gendered character of welfare provision varies across countries. This article addresses that question through a comparative historical analysis of Chile and Uruguay and concludes that variation in the gendered nature of each state’s social policy regime resulted from a two-step process. In the first stage, female labor force participation, the mobilizing capacity of women, and policy legacies differentiated the two countries, placing Chile on a less equitable trajectory than Uruguay. These differences were then magnified during each state’s experience under authoritarian rule.
Books Written:
Systems of social protection can provide crucial assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society, but not all systems are created equally. In Latin America, social policies have historically exhibited large gaps in coverage and high levels of inequality in benefit size. Since the late 1990s, countries in this region have begun to grapple with these challenges, enacting a series of reforms to healthcare, social assistance, and education policy. While some of these initiatives have moved in a universal direction, others have maintained existing segmentation or moved in a regressive direction. Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America explores this variation in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Venezuela, finding that the design of previous policies, the intensity of electoral competition, and the character of political parties all influence the nature of contemporary social policy reform in Latin America.
Media Appearances:
TV Appearances:
Pribble discusses insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Pribble discusses Twitter's decision to ban President Trump and the impeachment process.
Pribble discusses the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
Pribble discusses the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the U.S. Senate.
Pribble interviewed about Chile's second round presidential election.
Pribble discusses the Senate vote to acquit former President Donald J Trump on the count of inciting insurrection.
Pribble discusses the transition and President Trump's refusal to concede.
Pribble discusses the 2020 election results, democratic backsliding in the United States, and the significance of Kamala Harris' election as Vice-President.
Radio Appearances:
Pribble gives an interview about the results of the 2022 U.S. mid-term elections.
Pribble discusses the House's vote to impeach President Trump for a second time.
Pribble discussion the results of Georgia's run-off election and President Donald Trump's final weeks in office.
Pribble discusses Senate vote to acquit former President Trump.
Pribble discusses Joe Biden's first 100 days in office.
Pribble is interviewed about Chile's first round presidential election. Her interview appears near minute 18 of the show.
Pribble is quoted in a story about the strong performance of Chile's far-right candidate, Jose Antonio Kast, in the first round presidential elections.
Pribble discusses far-right candidate José Antonio Kast in the run-up to Chile's second round presidential election.
Pribble discusses the acquittal of Donald J. Trump.
Pribble discusses President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet choices and the tenuous character of the U.S. transition.
Pribble discusses the 2020 election results, democratic backsliding in the United States, and media reactions to President Trump's false claims of fraud. Interview divided into two parts.
Ten minute interview about the origins of Chile's 2019 protests.
Pribble discusses ongoing protests in Chile, Piñera's cabinet reshuffle, inequality, and the APEC summit.
Pribble discusses the 2019 Argentine elections, answering questions about president-elect Alberto Fernández, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and Argentina's ongoing economic crisis.
Newspaper Quotes:
Pribble quoted about the wave of left-party victories in Latin America.
Pribble quoted about results of the Chile's election of the constitutional convention.
Pribble is quoted about Chile's 2021 first-round presidential election.
Pribble is quoted about the 2021 first round presidential election in Chile.
Pribble is quoted about the results of Chile's first round presidential election.
Pribble is quoted in this piece about far-right presidential candidate José Antonio Kast. The piece was picked up by more than 250 news outlets.
Pribble quoted about Chile's 2021 second-round election.
Pribble quoted about Chile's second-round presidential election.
Pribble comments on Gabriel Boric's victory in Chile's second round presidential election.
Pribble quoted about Chile's president-elect Gabriel Boric.
Pribble is quoted about Chile's successful COVID-19 vaccination roll-out.
Pribble is quoted about Uruguayan President Tabaré Vazquez' legacy.
Pribble quoted on Chile's decision to allow workers to draw on their private pension savings.
Pribble quoted about Uruguay's response to the Coronavirus crisis.
Pribble discusses Uruguay's response to the Coronavirus crisis.
Quoted about the underlying causes of protests in Chile, including weaknesses in the country's social safety net.
In-depth interview about feminist mobilization in Chile and the calls for a new constitution
Short opinion piece about whether Chile's public security reforms will bring social peace.
Pribble discusses the Chile's decision to rewrite its constitution.
Pribble discusses the difficulties of calming Chile's protests.
Pribble discusses the origins of Chile's protests.
Pribble discusses Piñera's proposal to calm the protests. Picked up by more than 100 outlets.
Pribble discusses protests that brought more than 1 million people in to the streets of Santiago, Chile.
Pribble discute las elecciones en Uruguay y la campaña presidencial. Entrevista en español.
Pribble discusses the first round election results in Uruguay's 2019 presidential race. Story picked up by more than 100 outlets.
Pribble discusses President Sebastián Piñera's decision to declare a state of emergency and deploy the military during Chilean protests. Story picked up by more than 300 outlets.
Pribble discusses Sebastián Piñera's decision to cancel the 2019 APEC summit.
Una nota de Pribble, publicado en los Financial Times, está citado.
Pribble comments on the likely foreign policy orientation of newly-elected president Alberto Fernández in Argentina.
Pribble discusses President Sebastián Piñera's decision to invoke the National Security Council to address Chile's protests.
Pribble discute la decisión del President Sebastián Piñera de invocar al Consejo Nacional de Seguridad.
Pribble quoted on the 2019 Uruguayan election.
Pribble discusses the state of Chile's unrest after one month of protest.
Quote about historic agreement to rewrite Chile's constitution.
Pribble discusses Uruguay's unexpectedly close second round election result.
Pribble discusses the 2019 inauguration of President Alberto Fernández in Argentina.
Quoted to provide a description of how Chile's school choice system works.
Quoted about Chile's education system in the context of Secretary DeVos' visit.
Discussion of Betsy Devos' confirmation as Education Secretary.
Discussion of Betsy DeVos' education policy proposals
Discussion of Chile's school choice policies and lessons for the United States.
Interview about President Sebastian Piñera's victory in Chile.
Discussion of President Mauricio Macri's victory in Argentina.
Blog Posts:
Pribble discusses Chilean President Gabriel Boric's cabinet reshuffle.
Pribble discusses Chile's proposed pension reform.
Pribble authored a short piece about the results of Chile's first round presidential election.
Pribble authored this short piece about the significance of Gabriel Boric's victory in Chile's December 2021 presidential election.
Pribble analyzes Uruguay's successful response to the Coronavirus pandemic, highlighting how the country's robust social welfare system, high levels of trust in democracy, and strong left parties have prepared it for the current public health crisis.
Pribble and co-authors analyze the early response to the Coronavirus pandemic in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Pribble and co-authors analyze the early Coronavirus response in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Article translated into Portuguese.
Pribble and co-authors analyze the early response to the Coronavirus pandemic in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Article in Spanish.
Discussion of President Mauricio Macri's presidency and growing poverty in Argentina.
Pribble analyzes Argentina's 2019 presidential campaign and the victory of Peronists Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Traducción de la nota sobre las elecciones presidenciales in Argentina (2019).
Pribble responds to questions about Chile's protests, with the Woodrow Wilson Center, Latin America Program.
This piece analyzes Uruguay's first round elections in 2019.
Pribble discusses the likely foreign policy orientation of President-elect Alberto Fernández.
Analysis of Chile's second round presidential election in December, 2017.
Comparison of Chile's school choice policies with proposals made by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Analysis of President Patricio Aylwin's rule on Chile's new democracy.
Other:
Pribble authored this article about Chile's reponse to the pandemic.
Pribble discusses Latin American countries responses to Covid-19 (in Spanish)
Pribble discusses the results of Chile's first round election in a round-table, sponsored by the Wilson Center's Americas Program.
Pribble discusses far-right presidential candidate José Antonio Kast's position on immigration.
Pribble authored this piece on the dangers that far-right candidate José Antonio Kast poses for Chilean democracy.
Pribble discusses the election results in Chile in a podcast that analyzes what Boric's victory tells about the country; how it might influence the constitutional convention; and what a successful Boric presidency might look like.
Pribble discusses the significance of President Joe Biden assuming the presidency for the region of Latin America.
Pribble writes commissioned OpEd about the origins of Chile's protests.
Pribble is quoted about President Sebastián Piñera's decision to cancel the APEC and COP25 summits.
Pribble discute la campaña presidencial en Uruguay y los resultados de la primera vuelta.
Research from my book, 'Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America,' was featured in Fareed Zakaria's opinion piece about the Brazilian elections and Jair Bolsonaro's likely victory.
Quoted about the lower house vote to legalize abortion in Argentina.
An interview about school choice programs in Chile and the United States.