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A recent literature has explored the political determinants of social spending in Europe and in global and regional samples, for example, in Latin America. We argue that social spending in the 1980-2000 period depende heavily on the prior evolution of welfare regimes in the pre-1980 period. This paper explores this proposition through an analysis of social spending and changes in social policy in three regions: East Asia, which had relatively minimal social commitments prior to the 1980s, Latin America, where social spending was relatively extensive but highly unequal in its impact, and Eastern Europe, where social spending reflected entitlements that covered large segments of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]