III. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STRUCTURAL REFORMS AND THE SOCIAL DIALOGUE Most Latin American structural reforms were not preceded by a social dia­logue. Two of these reforms were approved by authoritarian regimes with no social dialogue, whereas two others were approved under a democratic regime, but with significant manipulation and practically no social dialogue. The remaining reforms were developed under democratic regimes—most of them based on lengthy and heated debates, some manipulation, and a varied social dialogue approach(this section, unless specified, is based on Mesa-Lago and Müller, 2002). 5 5 I have participated in the reform process in the nine countries(except in Colombia), with diagnoses, actuarial evaluations, and recommendations. I also took part in Argentina and Bolivia reforms, as well as in the reform attempts in Ecuador and Nicaragua(which later were annulled) and in Guatemala where I avoided the substitutive reform. My studies—published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the ILO—are cited in the References. 25