Latin America in Times of Turbulence by Mariana Llanos & Marsteintredet Leiv

Author:Mariana Llanos & Marsteintredet, Leiv
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2023-04-17T13:44:55+00:00

What Did Legislatures Do during the Pandemic?

Along with analyzing the protocols and mechanisms that sought to guarantee parliamentary activity during the pandemic, it is relevant to consider how the virus affected the volume and content of legislative production. It should be highlighted that parliamentary sessions were not interrupted (or only were for a limited time in some cases), which facilitated the legislative work in a way that throughout 2020 most legislatures did not modify their production capacity or levels of activity. Nevertheless, substantive cross-country variations can be found in relation to the content of the processed bills.

The pandemic forced Latin America’s legislatures to devise tools to deal with the crisis and to contain its impact across multiple spheres. They approved regulations ranging from health protection to the temporary closure of schools, legal regimes for telework contracting, the reactivation of tourist activity, debt sustainability, and aid to the most vulnerable sectors. In addition, the management of the crisis compelled legislatures to change their agendas and temporarily suspend structural reforms that had begun before 2020 and sought to deal with the decline of revenues due to declining raw material prices. The priority was then to guarantee health services and stop the spread of the virus, pushing adjustment plans, prudent spending, and financial orthodoxy to the background. Moreover, fearing a humanitarian crisis, countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru mobilized additional funds to mitigate a range of effects. Among the economic measures adopted were the implementation of countercyclical plans that authorized monetary transfers, subsidies, and tax relieves for households and companies affected by declines in production and consumption.

One crucial area of activity of Latin America’s legislatures was the approval of budgets for the coming year, that is 2021. As shown in Table 6.2, practically all countries approved their budgets during the pandemic, except Brazil, Ecuador, and Guatemala.

Table 6.2 Legislative production in 2020 Country

Budget project presentation

Budget approval

Bills not oriented to the pandemic

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