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This work, in essay style, focuses on the generation of long-lasting jobs. It begins examining some basic relationships, while later adding other subjects, such as technical change, which leads to reflection on the theme of development and policies aimed at solving certain foreseeable problems. To generate long-lasting employment a development model is required, and this does not arise spontaneously from the free operation of the market, but requires political decisions. However, that is not enough; it is also essential for the commitment of the social partners, employers and workers, with their divergent interests but also their common interests, which are those that can enable the formation of a social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes some of the political factors that help us understand the trajectory of the Uruguayan welfare regime. Among the variables considered this essay stresses the long term and structural factors that have shaped the Uruguayan welfare. The essay reflects upon the possible impact that these variables might have in deterring the country from undertaking needed reform. We argue that in the past social-structural factors, combined with institutional variables and political competition have transferred the costs of social adjustment towards the sectors with less social organization. While this dynamic has helped fueled the stability of the political system it has also contributed to what we term an increasing dual pattern of representation. Based on this diagnosis we argue that a new distributional coalition is required in order to break this pattern of representation and its ill effect over the adjustment of the Uruguayan welfare regime. The unprecedented victory of the left on the general elections offers a unique opportunity to structure such a coalition. But the social heterogeneity of the political basis of the left might hinder such possibility, thus blocking a reformist process capable of redefining the welfare trajectory of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]