Inequality in Latin America: ECLAC’s Perspective

Equality has been at the center of ECLAC´s analysis of the region since structuralist times. In those pioneering writings, the distribution of assets and the concentration of power in the hands of elites were crucial aspects to understand (the lack of) equality in the region. Following this tradition, the last three documents that the institution submitted for consideration by the Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean at its three last sessions have put equality back in the center of the regional agenda, expanding the conception of equality beyond distributive fairness—whose scope tends to be confined to the distribution of transferable, quantifiable resources—taking in other dimensions and considering equality in a “relational” context of socialization, autonomy, and recognition.