Part I. Universalism in the South: 1. Introduction; 2. Universalism in the South: definition and relevance; Part II. A Comparative Study of Policy Architecture: 3. Policy architectures and universal outputs today; 4. The long-term influence of policy architectures; Part III. Building Universalism in Costa Rica: 5. The foundations of the policy architecture in the 1940s; 6. Moving further towards unification in the 1970s; 7. Contradictory moves under market pressures since the 1980s; 8. Actors and ideas in comparative perspective; 9. The quest for universalism: implications for contemporary policymaking.