Candelaria Garay

Candelaria Garay is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government. Her research focuses on social policy, collective action, and party politics in Latin America. She received a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her book, Social Policy Expansion in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2016), characterizes and explains the recent expansion and cross-country variation in social policy programs (income transfers, pensions, and health-care services) to populations historically excluded from social protection in Latin America. The book is the recipient of the American Political Science Association’s 2017 Robert A. Dahl Award.

In her second book project (manuscript in progress), she explains why coalitions between labor unions and social movements of informal and/or rural workers have formed in some developing countries and not in others. She explores how and why these coalitions endure in some cases and the ways in which they interact with political parties and the electoral arena.

Other research projects focus on the implementation of environmental legislation, the expansion of local health infrastructure, the evolution of territorial inequality in third wave democracies, and the interaction of political parties and social organizations in nascent democracies.

Selected Publications

Books

Garay, Candelaria. Social Policy Expansion in Latin America. Cambridge University Press, 2016.