Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America

Download or read book Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America written by James W. McGuire and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some societies fare well, and others poorly, at reducing the risk of early death? Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America finds that the public provision of basic health care and other inexpensive social services has reduced mortality rapidly even in tough economic circumstances, and that political democracy has contributed to the provision and utilization of such social services, in a wider range of ways than is sometimes recognized. These conclusions are based on case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, as well as on cross-national comparisons involving these cases and others.