Abstract
Since Uruguay’s return to democracy in 1985, a shift in economic and social policy has radically changed the country. The outcomes have been shaped by adjustment to international circumstances “by default”, stop-go market reforms and the inconsistent pace and content of reforms. Unlike other countries in the region, Uruguay has not followed a resolutely neo-liberal course, but rather a hybrid one. The end result has been a liberal labour regime coupled with a three-dimensional social policy balancing the market, the old corporatist welfare State and the new welfare state targeting specific beneficiaries.