José Batlle y Ordóñez

Twice president of Uruguay in the early 1900s, Batlle built one of the first welfare states in the Americas: an eight-hour working day, free secondary education, legal divorce on the wife's request alone, abolition of the death penalty and state companies in banking, insurance and electricity. Uruguay's reputation as a secular, socially liberal country with strong public provision traces straight back to him. Critics then and since argue the state enterprises grew inefficient and the model became hard to pay for once export prices fell.