Zoila Ponce de León, Ph.D.
poncedeleon@pitt.edu
Assistant Professor
University of Pittsburgh
Year of PhD: 2018
Country: United States (Pennsylvania)
About Me:
I am an Assistant Professor in Public Policy at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. I also hold a secondary appointment in the Political Science department and an affiliation with the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS). I earned my Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and my B.A. in political science from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. I grew up in Trujillo, Peru.
My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Latin American Studies, Journal of Experimental Political Science, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, and Revista de Ciencia Política.My book, Political Parties and Policy Reform: Expansion of Healthcare in Latin America (under review at Cambridge University Press), explores the variation in the expansion of social benefits across new democracies. Through an in-depth comparison of the healthcare reform processes in Chile, Mexico, and Peru that began in the 2000s, I show how the political process behind the formation of the reforms severely affected their success. I analyze the entire policymaking process, from agenda-setting and debate to implementation. This study is based on original data I gathered during 12 months of field research, including over 150 in-depth interviews with political elites, technocrats, and leaders of interest groups.
My research focuses on factors that influence the expansion of social benefits as well as political representation, including gender bias on legislator responsiveness, the expansion of the private healthcare sector, party-voter policy congruence and clientelism, and immigration attitudes. This work has been funded by the Centennial Center at the American Political Science Association (APSA), the Social and Economic Research Consortium (CIES), Washington and Lee University (Lenfest Grants 2019-2023), and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Dissertation Completion, Mellon Dissertation, Off-Campus Dissertation, and Burbank Research Fellowships, Uhlman Summer Research Awards 2014-2017, and Tinker Foundation Pre-dissertation Field Research Grant).
My article, Healthcare Reform out of Nowhere? Policy Reform and the Lack of Programmatic Commitment in Peru received the Journal of Latin American Studies Best Article Prize.
My book, Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases, 4th edition, with Tyler Dickovick, Jonathan Eastwood, and Robin LeBlanc (Oxford University Press) is out.
Puedes leer mi publicación en español más reciente aquí: Reforma del Sistema Sanitario y de Salud (Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social, CIES).
I have been interviewed by The Dialogue, Aljazeera, Brasil de Fato, and Global Finance, and contributed to The Washington Post, The Conversation, and the European Politics and Policy LSE Blog.
Research Interests
Health Politics and Policy
Latin American And Caribbean Politics
Political Parties and Interest Groups
Covid-19
Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
Public Policy Process
Comparative Political Economy
Comparative Politics
Comparative Social Policy
Immigration & Citizenship
Countries of Interest
Chile
Mexico
Peru
Brazil
Publications:
Journal Articles:
The reform approved in Peru in 2009 during a right-wing government deviates from similar attempts to expand access to healthcare. Left-wing parties in Peru were extremely weak during the policymaking process and the political parties were non-programmatic. Based on original field research, this paper demonstrates how parties that lacked core values uniting their leaders and had no commitment to the reform did not care for the definition of specifications regarding funding and implementation. Instead, technocrats dominated the process of policy formation, which accompanied by the lack of commitment from key political actors, led to poorly specified policy and deficient implementation.
Are elected officials more responsive to men than women inquiring about access to government services? Women face discrimination in many realms of politics, but evidence is limited on whether such discrimination extends to interactions between women and elected officials. In recent years, several field experiments have examined public officials’ responsiveness. The majority focused on racial bias in the United States, while the few experiments outside the US were usually single-country studies. We explore gender bias with the first large-scale audit experiment in 5 countries in Europe (France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands) and 6 in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay). A citizen alias whose gender is randomized contacts members of parliament about unemployment benefits or healthcare services. The results are surprising. Legislators respond significantly more to women (+3% points), especially in Europe (+4.3% points). In Europe, female legislators in particular reply substantially more to women (+8.4% points).
This article presents an analysis of the main political events of 2018. After the resignation of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK), the first year of Martín Vizcarra’s government began. His government faced numerous scandals triggered by the Lava Jato case, resulting in the detention of key politicians (including former presidents PPK and Ollanta Humala) and the transformation of the three branches of government. Moreover, a series of audio recordings uncovered a network of illegal under-the-table practices within the Judiciary, which included the protection of politicians and the negotiation of positions and reduction of penalties. In response, Vizcarra’s government promoted a group of institutional reforms via referendum, which are set in a context of institutional precariousness.
Latin American welfare states have undergone major changes over the past half century. As of 1980, there were only a handful of countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay) with social policy regimes that covered more than half of their population with some kind of safety net to insure adequate care during their old age and that provided adequate healthcare services. With the turn of the century, the economic and political situation changed significantly. The commodity boom eased fiscal pressures and made resources available for an increase in public social expenditure. Democracy was more consolidated in the region and civil society had recovered from repression. Left-wing parties began to win elections and take advantage of the fiscal room which allowed for the building of redistributive social programs. The most significant innovation has been expansion of coverage to people in the informal sector and to people with insufficient histories of contributions to social insurance schemes. The overwhelming majority of Latin Americans now have the right to some kind of cash assistance at some point in their lives and to healthcare provided by their governments. In many cases, there have also been real improvements in the generosity of cash assistance, particularly in the case of non-contributory pensions, and in the quality of healthcare services. However, the least progress has been made toward equity. With very few exceptions, severe inequalities continue to exist in the quality of services provided through the new and the traditional programs.
Books Written:
An engaging and accessible introduction to the subject, Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases, Fourth Edition gives students the methodological tools they need to answer the "big questions" in the field. Offering a hybrid format, the text’s unique structure offers the best of thematic and country-by-country approaches. Sixteen succinct thematic chapters--organized around the "big questions" in the field--are followed by a separate section at the end of the book offering full-length profiles and case studies for twelve countries. Each chapter integrates several standalone country case studies in Case in Context features; these features tie into the narrative, pose questions, and point students to the full case discussions in the country profiles section of the book.
Book Chapters:
In Balance de Investigación 2016-2021 y Agenda de Investigación 2021-2026.
This chapter provides an overview of the development of the public-private mix in healthcare in Mexico, Chile, and Peru. It outlines the development of the private sector in the 1980s and 1990s when the public health systems in all three countries struggled to provide insurance coverage to the majority of their population as well as access to healthcare services. This situation prompted the co-existence between the public and private sectors in a system characterized by fragmentation. One of the main consequences of these fragmented systems is the high out-of pocket expenditure citizens face. The states have sought aid from private providers to guarantee access to healthcare services for their populations. However, the governmental purchase of private services still remains marginal in the three countries. The important role of the private sector in the healthcare systems of Mexico, Chile, and Peru in terms of provision, insurance, and funding resembles a common trend in the Latin American region.
Other:
El proceso de reforma del sistema de salud iniciado en el 2009 se caracterizó por una carencia de compromiso político durante su implementación. Además, temas como financiamiento, viabilidad del proyecto con respecto a escasez de recursos humanos, infraestructura y sostenibilidad fueron excluidos del debate en torno a la reforma. Las medidas implementadas en los últimos años no lograron mejorar la capacidad ni la calidad del sistema de salud de manera sustancial. En ese contexto de precariedad, la pandemia provocada por el COVID-19 ha generado el colapso del sistema de salud público peruano, y expuesto la necesidad de una reforma de salud integral.
Media Appearances:
Newspaper Quotes:
LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR, "What Benefits Will Mexico’s Labor Program Bring?"
"Brazil's presidential runoff is between two populists"
Lava Jato aprofundou “caos político” no Peru e respinga nas 18 chapas presidenciais
Peru’s Rock Star Finance Minister
Latin America in 2020: Stories to watch
Blog Posts:
Women politicians more likely to reply to people who reach out in need, study shows
How gender affects the response rates of politicians to inquiries about healthcare and unemployment support