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Social Policy for Neoliberalism: The Bolsa Família Programme in Brazil
Abstract
The Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) is one of the largest conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in the world. CCTs have been described as a ‘magic bullet’ for development, and PBF is widely regarded as an exemplary programme. Examination of its conceptual underpinnings, features, impact and limitations shows that PBF provides substantial income support to the poorest. However, PBF is also self-limiting and it can offer only limited long-term gains to the poor. More significant outcomes require the expansion of the scope of PBF and other social programmes towards the universalization and decommodification of social provision in Brazil.
... En este proceso el Estado devuelve la responsabilidad de los costos de los servicios básicos a los ciudadanos y traspasa la provisión de estos a empresas privadas. La privatización de servicios tiende a aumentar los costos de acceso, en términos de su valor monetario (aumento de precios) y en términos de las condiciones de acceso (empleabilidad), disolviendo la universalidad de servicios fundamentales, previamente considerados derechos (Saad-Filho, 2015). En un escenario de bajo crecimiento y empobrecimiento del empleo, gran parte de los servicios sociales forzadamente se financian mediante acceso al crédito y otras formas de endeudamiento que se masifican en la población. ...
... Como en el caso de educación, el Estado subsidia los altos costos de los proveedores, permitiendo el acceso a los sectores más empobrecidos de la sociedad, generando deuda pública. También el Estado desregula el sector financiero y ofrece garantías de liquidez y pago para la extensión de créditos a consumidores con baja capacidad de consumo, garantizando su acceso a servicios fundamentales mediante la deuda privada (Saad-Filho, 2015). ...
... Como algunos autores han señalado, la existencia de un superávit de ingresos dado por el alza en el precio de los recursos naturales permitió un equilibrio relativo entre la satisfacción de las demandas de ganancias del capital y las demandas distributivas de la población. Sin embargo, esta resolución no implicó un retroceso del capital y del neoliberalismo en las sociedades latinoamericanas (Papadopoulus y Velázquez, 2016;Saad-Filho, 2015). El aumento del superávit nacional se mantuvo mediante la apertura intensiva a capitales extranjeros, con mejores tasas de retorno para los Estados, pero cuyo costo ha sido una intensificación de las dinámicas extractivas y la prolongación de conflictos socioambientales en sectores de extracción intensiva (Svampa, 2012). ...
El presente libro de la colección «Diálogos» de CLACSO, coeditado con la Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, busca avanzar en el cumplimiento de dos propósitos. El primero consiste en alimentar la discusión con la sociología crítica alemana, y en particular con una de las colectividades sociológicas de izquierda más vigorosas de Europa. Nos referimos a lo que podría llamarse la «Escuela de Jena» y cuyos referentes son Klaus Dörre, Stephan Lessenich y Harmut Rosa. El segundo propósito, más trascendental para el futuro regional, apunta al desarrollo progresivo de una nueva sociología del capitalismo y del cambio social desde y para América Latina.
... The country had moments of high economic development, known as the period of the "Brazilian economic miracle" (1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973), with economic growth rates of over 10% per year. The productive and upper middle classes were supported by reduced labor rights, a lowered minimum salary, job flexibility, fiscal incentives, credit, subsidized healthcare, housing loans, and free university education (Saad-Filho 2015). While the economy grew at astonishing rates, the concentration of income increased. ...
... Through official advertisements, the government announced that the "cake needed to be larger, so it could then be divided," propagating the idea that a condition for economic growth was the concentration of income and wealth. By the end of the regime, in 1985, the richest 10% held half the national income (Saad-Filho 2015). Income concentration was sustained through a policy of repression and torture of those opposing the regime, control over unions, and censorship of the press. ...
... According to Silva, the expansion of social protection during the Brazilian military dictatorship had the goal of making programs and social services contribute to minimizing the intense repression of the working classes and the population at large (Silva 2007). The population on the margins of "development" during this period, which was firmly structured on the concentration of income, was supported by a number of specific policies, such as the expansion of allowances and pensions to the rural population, allowances for people with disabilities, and funeral assistance, etc. (Saad-Filho 2015). ...
... While critical perspectives focus on the impact of human rights and social relations, this article examines gendered outcomes through the lens of Foucauldian governmentality and neo-liberalism of social policies. Saad-Filho (2015) and Seki (2015) have previously shown how CCTs are embedded in the current political--economic situation and used by the state as a way of governing the conduct of people through welfare. ...
... CCTs have spread as a response to the effects of neo-liberalism, which has caused displacement, inequality and social justice (Saad-Filho 2015). Corrragio (2007) also argues that these policies spring from neo-liberalism itself, as compensation for the failure to change structural causes of poverty. ...
... Conditions are essential, especially for countries which intend to make measurable improvements on human development; however, it may also be counterintuitive if the necessary infrastructure is not in place (Hume, Hanlon, and Barrientos 2012). On the other hand, these conditions are also assurances to taxpayers that transfers are not handouts, but rewards for behaviour that meets the social optimum (Saad-Filho 2015). Evidence from various CCT programmes has shown that these conditions may be enforced strictly or not (Cecchini and Madariaga 2011). ...
Social policies such as conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) have technical and measurable outcomes which are favourable for countries in the Global South, where development impact on health and education matters. This paper presents grounded narratives of women beneficiaries of the Philippines’ Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), and outlines how conditionalities have reconfigured beliefs and conduct among these women. Using the concept of governmentality, the process of meeting programme conditions presents itself as a form of exercising power to configure the habits and beliefs of the population. The paper contributes to the critical discourses, challenges and normative views on the impact of CCTs.
... Social protection, from its origins dating back some 2,000 years in Asia and Europe, has often been used as a means of securing political advantage and maintaining social order (Ravallion 2015). Indeed, low-cost social transfer programmes have been used by governments to maintain order in the context of high levels of inequality from the Poor Laws of nineteenth-century England to contemporary South Africa, Brazil, and China (Seekings and Nattrass 2005;Ngok 2013;Ravallion 2015;Saad-Filho 2015). Likewise, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia and the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) in Rwanda (see Chapters 3 and 4) were both motivated by distributional crises considered a political threat to dominant party incumbent regimes (Lavers 2019a(Lavers , 2019b. ...
... This emphasis has been reinforced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank's more recent embrace of poverty-targeted social transfers as a replacement for 'costly' and 'inefficient' food and fuel subsidies (Coady et al. 2015;Feltenstein 2017). Indeed, one of the main justifications for the expansion of social transfers has been that such programmes are a relatively inexpensive means of supporting the poorest without challenging market liberalism and existing patterns of wealth and accumulation (Mkandawire 2005;Saad-Filho 2015). The poverty focus is, in many cases, also supported by national political elites. ...
This book provides a systematic analysis of the political processes shaping the distribution of social transfers in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In doing so, the book addresses a notable gap in recent research on social protection concerning the politics of implementation. While considerable attention has been devoted to debating the merits of different policy designs and the political factors shaping the adoption and diffusion of different policy models, ultimately the ability of any social transfer programme to deliver on its promises is dependent on the effective implementation and distribution of social transfers in line with intended objectives. The chapters in this book examine international and sub-national variation in programme implementation in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and Rwanda, drawing on a common analytical framework that highlights the importance of state capacity and reach, rooted in histories of state formation, and contemporary political competition in shaping the distribution of social transfers. Comparative analysis of the case studies supports the view that variation in the capacity and reach of the state within countries is a centrally important factor shaping the effectiveness and impartiality of distribution. Yet state capacity alone is insufficient. Rather, political competition and power relations shape how this capacity is actually deployed in practice. As such, the book underscores the inherently political nature of implementation and questions common technocratic efforts to improve implementation by de-politicizing the social protection policy process.
... Urban food security hinges on household's purchasing power. Resultantly, urban poor households are extremely vulnerable to food insecurity due to persistently low incomes (Ndlovu et al., 2019;Ruel et al., 2017). Poor urban households are vulnerable to income and food price shocks due to dependence on food purchases and income from the informal sector (Ruel et al., 2017). ...
... Resultantly, urban poor households are extremely vulnerable to food insecurity due to persistently low incomes (Ndlovu et al., 2019;Ruel et al., 2017). Poor urban households are vulnerable to income and food price shocks due to dependence on food purchases and income from the informal sector (Ruel et al., 2017). ...
Urban household food insecurity is highly prevalent in Zimbabwe due to the persisting poor macro-economic environment, droughts, HIV and AIDS and climate change. This paper examines the effectiveness of cash transfers in alleviating urban household food insecurity in the city of Bulawayo. The assessment focuses on understanding the extent to which cash transfers improve poor households’ access to food. The study was conducted in Makokoba and Njube townships. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in gathering and analysing data. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select study participants. Semi-structured in-depth interviews (50), questionnaires (280), and key-informant interviews (11) were used to collect primary data. The study is anchored on Sen’s Entitlement Approach in examining the role of cash transfers in strengthening trade-based entitlements of ultra-poor households. We find that cash transfers have nominally alleviated urban household food insecurity in these townships. Households receiving cash transfers have not meaningfully improved access to food on a regular basis. They ate small quantities of food, skipped meals and had poor dietary diversity regardless of receiving cash transfers. Factors such as low transfer value, irregular distributions, weak targeting mechanisms, disbursement mechanism and poor communication have deterred the effectiveness of cash transfers in the two townships. We recommend a revamp in design and implementation processes of cash transfer programmes. Transfers meant for improving access to food should be implemented in conjunction with livelihood projects to enable poor urbanites to meet non-food basic needs.
... Aynı zamanda programın en yoksul kesimlerin tümüne ulaşamaması ve aktarılan gelirin ancak hayatta kalmayı sağlayabilecek düzeyde kaldığı, hedeflere ulaşma noktasında yetersiz olduğunu ifade etmiştir (Silva e Silva, 2021, s. 240). Saad-Filho (2015) da Programa Bolsa Familia'nın toplumun en yoksul kesimlerine önemli gelir desteği sağlamakla birlikte sınırlı bir etkisinin olduğunu ve sosyal hizmetlerin metadışılaştırılması gerektiğini ifade etmiştir. Neoliberal politikaların egemen hale gelmesiyle şartlı nakit yardımların da dünya genelinde yaygınlaştığı görülmektedir. ...
GİRİŞ Brezilya dünya genelinde büyük bir ekonomi olmakla birlikte yoksulluğun sosyoekonomik yaşamı derinden etkilediği bir coğrafyadır. Hem bölgesel anlamda hem de dünya genelinde önemli bir güç olan Brezilya ciddi iç çelişkilere sahiptir. Çalışmada, sözü edilen iç çelişkilerin neler olduğunun belirtilmesi amacıyla Brezilya'nın sosyoekonomik durumuna yer verilecektir. Güncel sorunların nedenlerinin anlaşılabilmesi, bir diğer ifade ile ülkede yaşanan yoksulluk, eşitsizlik ve ayrımcılıkların anlaşılabilmesi için sömürgecilik geçmişi ve sonrasında kapitalist sisteme eklemlenme biçimlerinin etkisini görebilmek amacıyla tarihsel bir arka plan verilecektir. Ayrıca çalışmanın asıl konusu olan Brezilya'da yoksulluktan etkilenen farklı gruplar ele alınacaktır. Bu anlamda ilk olarak, kentsel alanların çeperlerinde kurulmuş olan favelalarda yaşayan kentli yoksul kesimin yaşadığı sorunlar ve yoksulluk deneyimleri ele alınacaktır. Yoksulluktan yoğun olarak etkilenen bir diğer grup olan topraksız kırsal kesim ve sorunlarına değinilecektir. Aynı zamanda yerlilerin, kadınların ve çocuk işçilerin yaşadıkları yoksulluk hallerine yer verilecektir. Son olarak çalışma Brezilya'da yoksullukla mücadelede en aktif politikalardan olan Bolsa Familia'yı eleştirel olarak ele alacaktır. Sözü edilen hususlara ulaşabilmek amacıyla Brezilya'daki yoksulluk ve etkilenen toplumsal kesimlerle ilgili belgeler, raporlar, çalışmalar amaca uygun olarak kullanılacaktır. Özellikle yoksulluk, gelir adaletsizliği, kayıt dışı istihdam gibi verilerin elde edilmesinde Ekonomik Kalkınma ve İşbirliği Örgütü (OECD), Dünya Bankası (WB) gibi uluslararası kuruluşların verilerinden, raporlarından yararlanılacaktır.
... However, a society should also be economically and socially sustainable. In this sense, business models to provide an incentive to create sustainable initiatives should be considered, which should also consider including people by ensuring a universal minimum wage so that they can survive (Saad-Filho, 2015;de Bem Lignani et al., 2011). The problem of vulnerable women under domestic violence (Spencer et al., 2020) is also a concern that should be mitigated. ...
Postsecondary institutions such as public and private universities have a key role to play in the development of sustainable smart cities. This paper discusses aspects of this role in terms of historical contributions, examples of contributions from the standpoint of two universities, and potential future contributions. The treatment of these aspects from a system-oriented perspective is also addressed. Researchers working on leading edge technologies have resources that enable them to introduce disruptive solutions that enhance the well-being of society. On the other hand, it is clear that different university realities demand unique actions depending on whether they reside in developing or developed countries, although common social problems have also been identified. Overall, there is an opportunity for universities to test new ideas and implement them in communities, especially where they reside. We discuss the role of universities in a broad sense, where contributions are briefly described and acknowledged. The focus is on applications for sustainability and social good that have been or could be developed in universities as new research opportunities to improve the quality of life of the general population. We also argue that it is essential to consider university contributions to the creation of smart cities in the context of a system-oriented perspective.
... AKP reforms also reduced much social support to charity as they began to focus on neoliberal forms of social assistance, like means-tested aid and conditional cash transfers (CCTs). CCTs have spread globally in tandem with neoliberalism and the social crises it created (Fine, 2012;Saad-Filho, 2015. Similarly, microcredit programmes became a common tool of poverty alleviation in Turkey (Özden, 2014). ...
By analysing the dynamics of neoliberalism through a Polanyian lens, this article illustrates the complexities and consequences of neoliberalism in the Turkish context. It examines the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey as a manifestation of 'embedded neoliberalism'. The article delves into the AKP's ascent to power, its consolidation of authority, and, most notably, its subsequent shift towards authoritarianism and interventionism. It traces the evolution of the AKP's governance, highlighting its trajectory from a period of 'soft embeddedness' to 'authoritarian embeddedness'. During the 'soft embeddedness' phase (2002-2013), the AKP implemented neoliberal policies alongside improved access to credit and social programmes. However, as global economic conditions deteriorated and the contradictions of neoliberalism intensified by 2013, the phase of 'authoritarian embeddedness' ensued. This phase not only entailed overtly authoritarian politics but also witnessed an escalation of state interventionism in the economy further contributing to the crisis of the economy and state.
... AKP reforms also reduced much social support to charity as they began to focus on neoliberal forms of social assistance, like means-tested aid and conditional cash transfers (CCTs). CCTs have spread globally in tandem with neoliberalism and the social crises it created (Fine, 2012;Saad-Filho, 2015. Similarly, microcredit programmes became a common tool of poverty alleviation in Turkey (Özden, 2014). ...
By analysing the dynamics of neoliberalism through a Polanyian lens, this article illustrates the complexities and consequences of neoliberalism in the Turkish context. It examines the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey as a manifestation of ‘embedded neoliberalism’. The article delves into the AKP’s ascent to power, its consolidation of authority, and, most notably, its subsequent shift towards authoritarianism and interventionism. It traces the evolution of the AKP’s governance, highlighting its trajectory from a period of ‘soft embeddedness’ to ‘authoritarian embeddedness’. During the ‘soft embeddedness’ phase (2002–2013), the AKP implemented neoliberal policies alongside improved access to credit and social programmes. However, as global economic conditions deteriorated and the contradictions of neoliberalism intensified by 2013, the phase of ‘authoritarian embeddedness’ ensued. This phase not only entailed overtly authoritarian politics but also witnessed an escalation of state interventionism in the economy further contributing to the crisis of the economy and state.
... Bu çalışmalardan elde edilen veriler doğrultusunda hazırlanan, Türkiye'de kişisel gelir dağılımının yıllar içerisindeki seyrine dair grafik aşağıdaki gibidir; Grafik 1. Türkiye'de Kişisel Gelir Dağılımı (1963- Fakat katsayı gelişmiş ülkelerin çok üzerindedir. Brezilya'da "Bolsa Familia" gibi yardım programları yoksullara gelir transferi yaparak gelir eşitsizliğini azaltmayı hedeflemektedir (Filho, 2015(Filho, , s.1227 Makineleşme "tüccarlaşma" eğilimini de beraberinde getirmiş, toprak sahibi olmayan tarım işçilerinin sayısı artmış, pazar için üretim yapan küçük üreticiler büyük çiftçilerle rekabet edemez hale gelmiş ve nihai aşamada tarımda toprak sahibi olmayanlar ile yoksul olarak ...
... The first is the cost of implementation. CCTs are an inexpensive policy (Saad-Filho 2015, 1237Teichman 2008, 448), but PPPs are even cheaper. First, the policy is a legal framework with very low initial costs. ...
Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are a striking case of policy diffusion in Latin America. Almost all countries in the region adopted the model within one decade. While most theories of diffusion focus on the international transference of ideas, this article explains that surge of adoptions by analyzing presidents’ expectations. Out of all ideas transmitted into a country, only a few find their way into enactment and implementation, and the executive has a key role in selecting which ones. Policies expected to boost presidents’ popularity grab their attention. They rapidly enact and implement these models. A process-tracing analysis comparing CCTs and public-private partnerships (PPPs) shows that presidents fast-tracked CCTs hoping for an increase in popular support. Adoptions of PPPs, however, followed normal procedures and careful deliberations because the policy was not expected to quickly affect popularity—which, in the aggregate, leads to a slower diffusion wave.
... Urgent solutions are needed for a wide range of problems hindering the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world, and policy changes can give an essential contribution to the improvement of their circumstances. For example, cash transfer programmes (while heavily questionable on account of their conditions as well as side-effects) can drastically reduce extreme poverty (Saad-Filho, 2015); funding for education and health services can save lives and improve prospects for the vulnerable and better infrastructure can facilitate production and enrich the lives of the poor. They must have the same rights to information, mobile telephones, transport, water, sanitation and advanced healthcare as anyone else, even though these services cannot generally be financed, organised or provided entirely within, or by, small communities. ...
The field of development studies has always presented difficult challenges for policymakers, academics, practitioners, journalists and concerned citizens. Methodologically, these challenges can be usefully approached from two angles.
... However, these represent only a small part of social spending and are generally not conceived as social rights. Faced with such a situation, the studies by Saad-Filho (2015), Amarante andBrun (2018), Hecker (2020) and Weinmann (2020) show that the labor and social policy measures of these governments could hardly contribute to reducing structural inequalities and generating changes in the regressive social systems of Latin America, even when they have favored the reduction of poverty and Este escepticismo se apoya en algunos vacíos de las agendas de reforma de los gobiernos de izquierda, explicados a través de hallazgos empíricos en diversos campos. En el ámbito de la política social, lo concerniente a la redistribución se mantuvo en su mayoría moderado, pese a toda la retórica revolucionaria, mientras que los programas de transferencias monetarias condicionadas han alcanzado éxitos notables en la lucha contra la pobreza. ...
El artículo analiza la situación de América Latina después del auge de las materias primas. Argumenta que los países de la región no han logrado aprovechar las condiciones favorables de los altos precios de las materias primas para impulsar el cambio estructural en la economía, reducir significativamente las desigualdades y fortalecer proyectos progresistas en la región. La crisis actual es también el resultado del desaprovechamiento de esta oportunidad histórica y se ve agravado por las consecuencias del coronavirus. La nueva caída de los precios de recursos naturales en el 2020 señala que urge un cambio estructural en la región, pensando especialmente en una transformación ecológica que podría reducir fuertemente la demanda de ciertos recursos naturales.
... Through conditionality, CCTs require the uptake of education on the assumption that increased access to education will lead poor young people to acquire the human capital necessary to improve their employment outcomes (Saad-Filho, 2015). In turn, young people's enhanced productivity and earnings are expected to allow them to pull themselves and their families out of poverty over the long run. ...
This article considers the transformative potential of conditional cash transfers to address intergenerational poverty. Drawing on empirical evidence collected through qualitative research in the northeast of Brazil, it traces notions of intergenerational change and continuity amongst young recipients of the Bolsa Família programme (BFP) and their families. It argues that the BFP has contributed to raising expectations and aspirations of social mobility, through a policy narrative that explicitly links education to poverty reduction alongside some relatively limited but nonetheless significant intergenerational changes in material conditions and access to education. However, rising aspirations have not been matched by a concomitant expansion of opportunities available to poor young people in education and the labour market. The article thus highlights the contradictions that arise between policy narratives, the aspirations these narratives engender, and the realities of young people's everyday lives.
... Recent studies have explored the relationship among neoliberalism, social policy expansion, and authoritarian politics in contemporary China [6]. The expansion of social provision since the global spread of neoliberalism may sometimes promote neoliberal projects [37,38], but they increase social insecurity; reinforce, replicate, and construct atomistic society; and promote social control and segregation [39]. These studies suggested that the rise of authoritarian governments in which state government seek to retain power by promoting neoliberal policies. ...
Embedding the program of elderly care into community-based service system seems to imply that China is reorganising capacities of neighbourhood governance. The program, created by transformation of neighbourhood governance, represented the state government’s frustration with the institutional embodiment of neoliberalism. However, stimulating neighbourhood organisations in elderly care service through involvement of market instruments demonstrated the neoliberal approach. In this study, we provided a research framework in the context of embedded neoliberalism to explore the dilemma of neighbourhood governance in China. By interviewing 100 elderly people in five neighbourhoods in Nanjing, China, we examined the home-based elderly care (HEC) model to analyse the changes in socio-spatial relationships of neighbourhoods. We argued that the state-organised system of market instruments as a form of neighbourhood system weaken the spontaneity of elderly residents in developing social capitals. Moreover, the emerging program is struggling to operate because the devolution of conservative governance capacity from the state to the neighbourhood does not provide resources, leading to the restrained market provision. Thus, this transformation of neighbourhood governance can only be effective if there is a clear complementarity relationship between the role of state and market instruments. The attention of further studies on neighbourhood governance needs to re-examine the reciprocal relationships in the context of declining neoliberalism.
... Bantuan minimal semacam itu hanya membantu pekerja informal untuk mereproduksi tenaganya sebagai pekerjarendahan lagi. Bantuan sosial yang berfungsi sekadar "alat untuk mengelola kemiskinan", 59 dengan mengabaikan ketimpangan relasi kuasa sebagai akar persoalan, juga marak terjadi di negara-negara lain. 60 Watak bantuan sosial di era neoliberal berangkat dari asumsi menyesatkan bahwa kemiskinan hanyalah penyakit sampingan dari pertumbuhan ekonomi. ...
Transisi agraria di kawasan kapitalisme pinggiran seperti Indonesia tidak mengikuti je-jak negeri di kawasan kapitalisme pusat. Di sini, banyak orang terlempar dari pertanian dan tak menemukan kerya upahan di perkotaan yang diatur negara. Sebagian menciptakan pekerjaan sendiri sementara yang lain terdampar dalam kerja upahan informal (tidak dia-tur negara). Pandangan umum melihat dualisme ekonomi sebagai penyebab melimpahnya pekeryaan informal di negeri pinggiran. Perspektif itu gaga/ melihat sating ketergantung-an antara sektor formal dan informal dalam kapitalisme global. Meski ekonomi informal berkontribusi penting bagi laju ekonomi formal, tidak semua pelakunya punya sumbangan setara. Menyorot diferensiasi kelas di ekonomi informal menjadi prasyarat bagi tiap upaya membangun jembatan antara pekerja formal dan informal guna menentang kapitalis formal maupun informal demi merebut ruang hidup yang tersedia.
... Existing literature provides numerous examples of distributional crises that prompted significant social protection expansion, including the Great Depression and the New Deal in the US (Skocpol, 1992) and the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s (Haggard & Birdsall, 2002). Moreover, there are numerous examples in which dominant ruling coalitions have extended social transfers in response to perceived threats, from the Poor Laws of nineteenth century England to contemporary South Africa, Brazil and China (Ngok, 2013;Ravallion, 2015;Saad-Filho, 2015;Seekings & Nattrass, 2005). Ruling coalitions facing crises commonly resort to 'side-payments' in the form of goods and services, where resources are available (Doner et al., 2005). ...
The new phase of social protection expansion in the global south remains poorly understood. Current interpretations of the spread of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa tend to emphasize the influence of elections and donor pressure, often by drawing correlations from statistical data, and focusing on the moment of programme adoption. This study adopts a different approach that traces the actual process through which countries have not just adopted but institutionalized social transfers. We test a new theoretical framework through within and cross-case analysis of the degree to which social protection programmes have become institutionalized in eight African countries. Two main pathways emerge: the first confirms the sense that both donors and elections matter, but goes further in showing the particular ways in which these drivers combine. In particular, transnational policy coalitions tend to play a leading role in adoption, whereas governments pursue the further institutionalization of social transfers as a top-down response to competitive elections. However, we also identify an alternative pathway that involves electorally uncompetitive countries; here, the primary motivation is not elections but elite perceptions of vulnerability in the face of distributional crises, augmented by ideas and resources from transnational policy coalitions. Consequently, the latest phase of social transfer development results from the interplay of political survival strategies and transnational policy coalitions.
... To face this heterogeneity, Brazil has been developing social policies to reduce income inequality, food insecurity, housing deficit, and to raise the federal minimum wage (Saad-Filho 2015;Hall 2006;Rocha 2009;Campos and Guilhoto 2017;Maurizio and Vazquez 2016;Brito et al. 2017). However, since the recent corruption scandals, many Brazilians doubt the efficiency of public policies. ...
Several indicators on human development and capabilities have been introduced in recent decades that measure the level of absolute deprivations and freedoms of people. However, these indicators typically do not consider to what extent regions and countries efficiently spend their limited financial resources on improving human development. This is an important shortcoming because regions typically face different financial constraints in developing social policies and promoting human development. In this article, we advance methods from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure absolute capability values and the social efficiency of 129 Brazilian mesoregions, considering their heterogeneous financial means. We present a new indicator called Capability Index Adjusted by Social Efficiency (CIASE) that evaluates the human development performance of regions based on their absolute levels of deprivations as well as their social efficiency in translating limited financial resources into human development. Moreover, we introduce a Deprivation and Financial Responsibility based Prioritization Index (DFRP) that helps to identify priority regions for higher public expenditures in human development. Our results for the case of Brazil show that several poor regions perform relatively better in terms of social efficiency than in terms of absolute human development. Conversely, several rich regions perform relatively worse in terms of social efficiency than in terms of absolute values. Thus, our analysis shows how DEA methods can help to bridge perspectives that are often presented by politics as antagonistic, but instead could be strong allies for development: attending to human deprivation and promoting social efficiency.
... Targets for poverty reduction, gender equity, access to health and education were to be achieved through aid and domestically funded targeted programmes with such delivery tools as conditional cash transfers (CCTs), none of which contradicted the marketoriented nature of neoliberal strategies. Saad-Filho (2015: 1227 documents the successfulness of the original CCT, the Programa Bolsa Família in Brazil, in providing 'substantial income support to the poorest', but he argues that long-term and widespread progress would have required 'universalization and de-commodification of social provision'. ...
This article looks at the rise of right populist politics in both developed and developing countries, and its implications for social policy. The author locates the cause for the right populist surge in the legacies of neoliberalism, paying particular attention to the way neoliberal reforms have affected popular attitudes towards politics. The commodification of politics and social services has stoked mass cynicism towards reigning neoliberal elites, creating receptive audiences for populist slogans to ‘drain the swamp’ at the heart of governments. More controversially, the author argues that popular resentments toward neoliberal social policies based on the recognition of the rights of women, minorities, migrants and the poor have made communities susceptible to the racist and misogynist messages of the right populists. Through case studies looking at the United States, Brazil and the Philippines the author argues that the biggest impact of right populists on social policies can be found in their discourses and authoritarian practices of social exclusion.
... The Right has notably been much more successful at capturing and channelling this anger than the Left, precisely because of this uneasy association of the (New) Left with the neoliberal project. Examples of the latter include the New Democrats in the US in the 1990s, New Labour in the UK in the late 1990s and 2000s, and the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT -the Workers' Party) in Brazil in the 2000s (on the latter, see Braga and Barbosa dos Santos, 2019;Lavinas, 2017;Saad-Filho, 2015. Several of the contributions to this Debate explore these contradictions, especially Kiely and Putzel, but also Bugra, Gudhavarthy and Vijay, Stubbs and Lendvai-Bainton, and Riggirozzi. ...
This Forum Debate explores the confluence of neoliberal, populist, conservative and reactionary influences on contemporary ideologies and practices of social policy, with a focus on the poorer peripheries of global capitalism. Several fundamental tensions are highlighted, which are largely overlooked by the social policy and development literatures. First, many recent social policy innovations have been discredited by their association with neoliberalism. The rising political Right has been much more successful than the Left at exploiting this discontent, despite simultaneously deepening many aspects of neoliberalism once in power. At the same time, right‐wing movements have proactively used social policy as a political tool to fashion the social order along lines deemed amenable for their interests and ideologies, expressed along nationalist, racialized, ethnicized, nativist, religious, patriarchal or other lines, and to innovate practices of segregation, exclusion and subordination. While these synergies of neoliberal and right‐wing populism are observed globally, they need to be carefully and differentially interpreted from the perspective of late industrializing (or late welfare state) peripheral countries. Nonetheless, common themes occurring across both centres and peripheries, as identified by the invited contributions to this Debate section, include exclusionary identity politics, hierarchical and subordinating inclusions, and patriarchal familialism. In this context, segregationism is an ominous possibility of post‐neoliberal social policy.
... Other contributions to this Debate section explore relationships among neoliberalism, social policies, new right and authoritarian politics. They take as their starting point arguments that expansions of social provisioning in the period since the global spread of neoliberalism in the 1980s may sometimes facilitate neoliberal projects (Lavinas, 2013(Lavinas, , 2017Saad-Filho, 2015), and that they increase insecurity, reinforce, reproduce and structure inequalities, and facilitate social control, ordering and segregation (Fischer, 2018;Posner, 2012). They ask how new, right-wing populism and authoritarianism play into the relationships between neoliberalism and social policies globally. ...
This article explores the relationships among neoliberalism, social policy expansion and authoritarian politics in contemporary China. It argues that in the era of neoliberalism, rising new right and authoritarian governments, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to retain power by shifting politically to the right and promoting neoliberal‐looking economic policies. These policies have raised average living standards but also increased insecurity for most of the Chinese population, while new social policies have facilitated marketization. Social policy expansion includes minimal cash transfers as well as social old‐age and health insurance for hitherto excluded sections of the population. These policies have begun to erode long‐standing urban–rural segregation, but they have added new, underfunded, social programmes rather than widening participation in existing ones, re‐segregating provision so that urban elites and formal sector workers enjoy much more generous provisions than many people working informally and those without work. These social policies’ most significant dark sides thus include compounded income inequalities and the segmentation and stigmatization of the poorest. Authoritarian controls have enabled the Communist Party to avoid redistributive policies that would undermine its urban support, so that politics in China differ from the right‐wing populism of new, anti‐establishment authoritarian regimes.
... 2. See: CEPAL https://dds.cepal.org/bpsnc/lpi Lavinas (2018), Lavinas and Simões (2017) and Saad-Filho (2015) contend that at its core, this welfare model is still based on aggregate demand with severe implications for increased household consumption and debt (see also Lazzarato, 2012). This is particularly problematic for those who may have entered the ranks of formal employment but are still threatened by job insecurity and informality, as well as for unprotected groups of the population, including a large and growing part of the middle class, who are not eligible to receive social assistance in case of hardship but are vulnerable to economic changes and the risk of falling (back) into poverty (Ocampo and Gómez-Arteaga, 2017). ...
Targeted social policies and other more universal forms of social protection have shaped (the shifts in) the politics of popular support in Latin America. Since the early 2000s this has led to a tendency towards the election of left‐leaning governments, stimulating stronger political pressure for more extensive redistribution. Yet despite a wide range of cash transfers, subsidies and other social policies, the ‘post‐neoliberal’ ideal of welfare did not reshape the political and relational powers of citizens in the ways necessary to redress the structural determinants of poverty and inequality across the region. This article reveals a ‘dark side’ of social policy in Latin America, arguing that targeted and precariously funded welfare regimes are creating tensions between the socio‐economic and ecological spheres that undermine inclusive citizenship and democracy.
This volume is a comprehensive reference for conducting political analyses of emerging welfare systems in the Global South. These countries have adopted a development-oriented approach, one distinct from the social policy trajectory observed in industrialized capitalist states. However, the pervasive influence of globalization since the 1990s has significantly reshaped policy priorities in these regions. Notably, the political discourse surrounding social policy concepts developed in Northern capitalist states has gained prominence. Irrespective of the geographical focus of the chapters, the volume delves into fundamental social policy concepts and debates, including the ongoing discourse between ‘universalism’ and ‘selectivity’, the challenges posed by the welfare residuum, the intricate role of institutional norms and apparatuses in achieving justice or engendering feelings of shame among social assistance recipients, and the examination of ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ poverty. Additionally, the volume investigates the pendulum shift within social welfare policies, the complex politics surrounding the portrayal of welfare recipients, and the newly established link between poverty and shame. Comprising 12 chapters, the volume employs a case study–based approach to test the applicability and universality of social policy theories and concepts. The central focus lies in assessing the adaptability of concepts and theories developed in the Global North to comprehend the intricacies of welfare politics in the Global South. These case studies contribute to theoretical generalizations that can explain universal principles relevant to both the Global South and North.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of Brazil's socioeconomic policies and growth models under the Brazilian Workers Party from 2003 to 2016. It examines two key growth models implemented in this process: namely, primary-export led and domestic consumption-oriented growth models. By utilizing official statistics and secondary sources, it shows that primary exports were the driving force behind economic growth in Brazil until 2006. It also indicates that after 2006, despite not being the main facilitator of economic growth, the exporting sectors continued to support the current account balance in Brazil, thanks to increasing global demand and prices for Brazilian primary commodities. Nevertheless, the post-2006 period in Brazil witnessed an increasing weight of domestic consumption in growth dynamics. This mainly results from expanding social transfers and income distribution programs, growing employment, and increasing minimum wages. The study demonstrates that Brazil's inclusive growth model was not sustainable due to the strong dependence of domestic accumulation on foreign capital inflows and external demand.
We evaluate the impact of income redistribution on the Brazilian GDP using a GVAR model with 33 economies from 1980Q1 to 2018Q4. We detect a significant impact of redistribution on the GDP, with investment contributing to the diffusion of the shock. We find that Brazilian redistributive policies affect the GDP of trade partners, mainly Latin American economies. Hence, we argue that redistribution provokes spillover effects. We also examine if external redistributive policies affect Brazil's GDP, and our estimates support this hypothesis. We created a new multiplier - the redistribution multiplier - and obtained values greater than two over time. Our research highlights the existence of spillover effects caused by redistributive policies and the importance of the international economy in the analysis. Redistribution policy effects are not enclosed to domestic borders.
Ethiopia stands out as a leading example of state-led development in Africa. Tom Lavers offers in this book a comprehensive, multi-sector analysis of Ethiopia's development project, examining how regimes maintain power during the extended periods required to bring about economic transformation. Specifically, Lavers explores how the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF, 1991-2019) sought to maintain political order through economic transformation, and why the party collapsed, leading to the outbreak of civil war in 2020. The book argues that the EPRDF sought to secure mass acquiescence through distribution of land and employment. However, rapid population growth and the limits of industrial policy in the contemporary global economy led to a distributive crisis that was a central factor in the regime's collapse. This Ethiopian experience raises important questions about the prospects for economic transformation elsewhere on the continent. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core at doi.org/9781009428316.
Diversos indicadores não consideram a eficiência na utilização dos recursos financeiros e riqueza para gerar desenvolvimento humano local. Esta é uma lacuna importante na literatura, pois muitas regiões enfrentam diferentes restrições financeiras para o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas. Este trabalho avança na utilização do método Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) à luz da Teoria das Capacidades. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho é mensurar indicadores absolutos e relativos para avaliar a conversão da riqueza e gastos sociais em desenvolvimento humano em Minas Gerais. Os resultados demonstraram que há diferença entre o indicador absoluto (Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano) tradicional e os indicadores relativos. O indicador CIASE reordenou o ranking de desenvolvimento humano no estado, levando em consideração a eficiência social. O indicador DFRP revelou que regiões no Norte de Minas Gerais têm prioridade no recebimento de recursos públicos para a promoção do desenvolvimento humano. Verificou-se que as regiões ricas tendem apresentar melhor indicador absoluto de desenvolvimento humano, mas pior eficiência na utilização dos recursos públicos. Por outro lado, regiões relativamente mais pobres de Minas Gerais (i.e., região norte do estado) apresentam maior privação social, mas fazem bom uso dos recursos públicos para promover o desenvolvimento humano.
This article aims to contribute to street-level bureaucracy theory by bringing to the forefront the experiences and perspectives of the Global South. Our argument is that mainstream literature in this field overlooks the social tensions that are more explicit in developing societies, resulting in a structurally limited analytical framework. We identify two key factors from the Global South that are often underestimated: the high degree of social inequalities that fundamentally affect state–citizen relationships, and the ways in which the state itself reflects and reproduces these inequalities. Our critique represents a step towards decolonizing the field and highlighting the conceptual contributions that studies from and of the Global South can offer. By examining the experiences of the Global South, we can gain insights into the crises societies in the Global North are also experiencing. Our article aims to contribute to street-level bureaucracy theory by emphasizing the value of incorporating these perspectives into the study of street-level bureaucracy.
Neoliberalism is often studied as a political ideology, a government program, and even as a pattern of cultural identities. However, less attention is paid to the specific institutional resources employed by neoliberal administrations, which have resulted in the configuration of a neoliberal state model. This accessible volume compiles original essays on the neoliberal era in Latin America and Spain, exploring subjects such as neoliberal public policies, power strategies, institutional resources, popular support, and social protest. The book focuses on neoliberalism as a state model: a configuration of public power designed to implement radical policy proposals. This is the third volume in the State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain series, which aims to complete and advance research and knowledge about national states in Latin America and Spain.
Neoliberalism is often studied as a political ideology, a government program, and even as a pattern of cultural identities. However, less attention is paid to the specific institutional resources employed by neoliberal administrations, which have resulted in the configuration of a neoliberal state model. This accessible volume compiles original essays on the neoliberal era in Latin America and Spain, exploring subjects such as neoliberal public policies, power strategies, institutional resources, popular support, and social protest. The book focuses on neoliberalism as a state model: a configuration of public power designed to implement radical policy proposals. This is the third volume in the State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain series, which aims to complete and advance research and knowledge about national states in Latin America and Spain.
Recent political measures in Brazil, in conjunction with new environmental policies, could reverse previous achievements that had put the country at the forefront of social policy making. This article discusses the implications of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) for social policy. It is based on qualitative methods, namely, semi-structured interviews with subscribers from six administrative regions who participated through digital platforms. The results indicate that the factors determining consumer participation in CSA are health impact, strengthening local production, environmental concerns, and eating as a human right and political act. This article also demonstrates the need to promote participation among low-income and socially vulnerable families in CSA and to firmly connect food and nutrition security policy with health, and environment aimed at poverty alleviation. The novelty of this research lies in its consideration of the implications of CSA for environmental preservation and the promotion of a healthier and sustainable food system, namely for the low-income population, which can lead to the growth of eco-social policies in developing welfare states in the global south.
This paper investigates the effects of the Zambian Social Cash Transfer (SCT) on the state. It aims to contribute to our deepening understanding of neoliberal social policy in Africa by teasing out how donor-driven, evidence-based policymaking and neoliberalism reinforce each other, but also by highlighting how even a poverty-focused and targeted scheme like the SCT can rehabilitate the state along two key dimensions: by forging new epistemic connections with citizens and by opening up space for intra-state learning. While inevitably fraught with ambiguities under mature neoliberalism, both are important for developing a more encompassing vision and strategy for transformative social policy.
Politics of Impunity investigates the failure of the anti-impunity agenda in Brazil, from the release of the truth commission report denouncing the crimes of the military regime (1964-1985) in 2014, to the election of the former-paratrooper and far-Right leader Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. Connecting debates on critical military studies, transitional justice and memory studies, the book moves beyond the conditions of implementation of accountability measures, the so-called best practices for the delivery of justice and reconciliation in the wake of conflict. It examines the conditions of possibility of the global anti-impunity agenda: when, how and why the question of impunity came to dominate debates on large-scale political violence. The book provides an extensive analysis of Brazilian official documents of the truth commission, including semi-structured interviews with activists and practitioners. It opens a pathway for exchange and comparison between representations of militarism and different strategies for resisting military violence, from both the Global North and the Global South. Finally, the manuscript reveals non-Eurocentric ways to represent and think about militarism by investigating the work of local scholars and practitioners in Brazil.
Mainstream management studies’ arm’s length engagement with poverty exemplifies its performative neophytism as field. It is enabled by its problematic archetypes of the poor and their poverty: (a) that the poor are deficient; and (b) conceptualizing poverty as distance. They make way for mainstream management studies’ conceits: (a) that it is separate from poverty and dispossession it causes, and (b) that it possesses the resources to ‘solve’ poverty. These conceits safeguard the field and legitimizes its scholars’ inventions and interventions, many of which evidence suggests do little for poverty alleviation. It is time for management studies to cease its performative neophytism.
Three countries—Turkey, Thailand, and Brazil—exemplify the rise of neoliberal populism as a response to the crisis created in peripheral social formations by their integration into global capitalism. This essay thus begins by examining the social dimensions of neoliberal populism: namely, the formation of its social base, its policies of economic inclusion, and its organic relations with revisionist capitalist groups. Since these countries have undergone political crises resulting in regime changes with different authoritarian patterns, the essay then deals with three domains of struggle in which the specific dynamics of each country and the strategies and capacities of neoliberal populist parties can be decisive: political struggles with and among intrastate actors, the strategies followed by segments of capital and neoliberal populist parties, and the capacity of such parties to hold broad class coalitions together.
The twoStalemated populism most outstanding processes of radical transformationRadical transformationin independent IndonesiaIndependent Indonesia are the advances in the 1950s and early 1960s of the largest popular movementPopular movements in the world, led and patronised by reformist communistsCommunist and President Sukarno; and in the 1990s the democracyDemocracy movement against Suharto’s dictatorship, spearheaded by studentsStudentsand intellectualsIntellectual. However, the same struggles are respectively marked by the human and political catastrophe in the mid-1960s, and the inability of the pro-democratsPro-democrats to make a difference after 1998 despite economic and political liberalisationPolitical liberalisation. Previous studies of the first period point to the problems of fighting imperialism and private capitalismPrivate capitalism while at the same time neglecting democratisationDemocratisation as a means to contain authoritarian ruleAuthoritarian rule and the political accumulation of economic resourcesEconomic resources.
Las transferencias monetarias condicionadas son una política popular de alivio de la pobreza en todo el mundo. Sus efectos de alto impacto atraen la atención de los políticos, que pueden manipular estos programas para obtener votos. Este artículo analiza cómo la distribución espacial de los perfiles de votantes afecta la distribución de beneficios. La teoría aquí presentada sugiere que los espacios con mayor homogeneidad de tipos de votantes reciben menos beneficios que sus contrapartes más heterogéneas, lo que a su vez crea un incentivo de redistribución conflictivo—las mismas características que se asocian con mayores participaciones de beneficios también pueden comprometerlos, según su posición dentro del espacio objetivo. Esta expectativa se basa en la confianza de un político en los efectos multiplicativos; los beneficios crean un efecto dominó de otros tipos de beneficios que también generan votos, que los políticos pueden tener en cuenta. El estudio del caso de Bolsa Familia de Brasil, el programa de transferencias monetarias condicionadas más grande del mundo, proporciona pruebas sólidas para respaldar las hipótesis.
En la Argentina, los niveles, las tendencias y los factores asociados a los procesos de empobrecimiento y a la desigual-dad de las condiciones de vida suscitan amplio interés y despiertan intensos debates en el ámbito académico y en la esfera pública. Un elemento que aviva este interés surge de la constatación de un particular proceso cíclico que, bajo cambiantes escenarios sociopolíticos, parece reproducir niveles de pobreza más elevados que los que se habían logrado alcanzar a mediados de los setenta. Este libro trata de aportar algunas claves sobre el papel que juegan las desigualdades laborales en este proceso.
El libro reúne evidencias que sugieren que la heterogeneidad de la estructura ocupacional, la segmentación laboral y la marginalidad económica constituyen instancias estrecha-mente asociadas con una pauta rígida de desigualdad socio-laboral. Esta pauta de desigualdad se asocia con la pobreza: mientras que una parte de los hogares participa de sectores económicos dinámicos y accede a empleos forma-les, otra amplia franja permanece ligada a ocupaciones en microempresas, sin protección laboral y con ingresos que no garantizan su subsistencia. La política social-cuya cober-tura se extendió a partir de 2003-adquiere creciente rele-vancia entre los hogares peor posicionados de la estructu-ra ocupacional y los ingresos por transferencias desempeñan un renovado papel en su reproducción económica, aunque resulta limitado en el marco de las condiciones estructu-rales vigentes.
In this essay we re-describe the relationship between international law and the state, reversing the usual imagined directionality of the flow between the two. At its most provocative, our argument is that rather than international law being a creation of the state, making the state is an ongoing project of international law. In the essay, we pay particular attention to the institutionalised project of development in order to illuminate the ways in which international law gives form to, and actualises, states, and then recirculates from a multiplicity of points “within” them.
Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development (Early Release Articles, 2019)
Brazil’s social structure and associated distributive policies during the PT governments did not depart from neoliberalism but rather implemented a poverty-reducing variant of it. Through minimum-wage hikes, conditional cash transfers, legislation driving financial innovation, and the subsidizing of privately provided for-profit services, state power was used to include individuals in ever-expanding formal circuits of commodity production and consumption. Deprivation in multiple dimensions was indeed reduced through these policies, but in the process social mobility came to mean exiting poverty, getting a formal low-skilled job, and accessing credit at lower interest rates to pay for state-subsidized private health and education.
A estrutura social do Brasil e as políticas distributivas associadas a ela durante os governos do PT não se afastaram do neoliberalismo, mas sim implementaram uma variante de neoliberalismo redutora da pobreza. Por meio de aumentos do salário mínimo, transferências condicionais de renda, legislação que impulsionava a inovação financeira e o subsídio para serviços privados prestados com fins lucrativos, o poder do Estado foi usado para incluir indivíduos em crescentes circuitos formais de produção e consumo de mercadorias. A privação em múltiplas dimensões foi realmente reduzida por meio dessas políticas, mas neste processo a mobilidade social passou a significar sair da pobreza, conseguir um emprego formal pouco qualificado e obter crédito a taxas de juros mais baixas para pagar pela saúde e educação privadas subsidiadas pelo Estado.
The main feature of capital accumulation in Brazil during the administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) was the continuity of neoliberalism of two varieties: inclusive (2003–2006) and developmental (2006–2013). The PT’s attachment to neoliberalism was mitigated by the party’s (shifting) commitment to (mild) developmental outcomes, redistribution of income (at the margin), social inclusion (within narrow limits), and democratization of the state (bounded by the 1988 Constitution). Achievements in these areas were further constrained by the inability or unwillingness of the PT to confront the institutionalization of neoliberalism in the fields of economics, politics, ideology, the media, and class relations. The political crisis unfolding in Brazil since 2013 and the imposition of authoritarian neoliberalism after Rousseff’s impeachment can be examined from the perspective of the contradictions in the dominant varieties of neoliberalism under the PT and the limitations of the party’s political ambitions.
Em 2013, no Cadastro Único, havia 25,3 milhões de famílias: 23 milhões (91 por cento) com perfil de renda familiar
per capita de até ½ salário mínimo, faixa de renda em que se insere seu público prioritário. Dessas, 13,9 milhões de
famílias estão no Bolsa Família, as quais recebem um benefício médio de R$ 149,71. Essas famílias são compostas,
em média, por 3,6 pessoas. Sua maior parte (50,2 por cento) residente no Nordeste do país
Este artigo tem por objetivo analisar alguns resultados empíricos derivados de um survey aplicado na cidade do Recife para estimar os efeitos da política de transferência de renda mais importante do governo federal, o Programa Bolsa Família, sobre a autonomia das mulheres pobres. Pretende-se analisar os efeitos do programa no ambiente familiar, nas relações de gênero e nas oportunidades de inserção ocupacional da população adulta feminina. Com base em logits, vamos estimar probabilidades distintas para mulheres beneciárias e não-beneciárias contra um conjunto importante de fatores que determinam a autonomia das mulheres. Busca-se inferir se receber o benefício do Bolsa Família, entregue às mulheres, amplia seu grau de autonomia no âmbito das relações de gênero. Este artigo não pretende proceder a uma revisão da literatura de gênero sobre autonomia feminina, mas tão som
The recent global financial crisis has increased the scope of poverty and inequality. The gap between the richest and poorest nations has become wider. National income inequality has also been on the rise. The prospect of a shift in designing and implementing development and welfare policies is strong in this new environment. The neoliberal policies of the Washington Consensus are giving way to development models which look to a more active government role in both economic and social policies. Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of welfare policy a fundamental realignment is already taking place. Faced with the current economic and social challenges, policy communities have turned to a variety of instruments to ensure that growth and social inclusion go together. This book offers a systematic analysis of the growing convergence on these matters in the development and welfare state literatures, utilizing the experiences of a myriad of jurisdictions around the world. Drawing upon the expertise of leading international policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the field, this book critiques the theoretical underpinning of growth and development, examine welfare state perspectives on inclusive growth and social/economic development, and present lessons learned and best/worst practices from the experiences of developing and developed nations.
The current perception that cash transfers can replace public provision of basic goods and services and become a catch-all solution for poverty reduction is false. Where cash transfers have helped to reduce poverty, they have added to public provision, not replaced it. For crucial items like food, direct provision protects poor consumers from rising prices and is part of a broader strategy to ensure domestic supply. Problems like targeting errors and diversion from deserving recipients are likely to be even more pronounced with cash transfers and cannot be eliminated through technological fixes like the UID.
This paper addresses the role played bu CCTs in Latin America as of late. The idea that conditional cash transfers might facilitate a broader process of redistribution, reducing inequality and all but eliminating poverty, does not hold in principle, and still less in practice for a region such as Latin America. Anti-poverty cash transfers are unlikely to address resource inequality through market inclusion. Precisely the feature that has made CCTs so popular—their residual nature and cheapness—helps to make them ineffective in reducing poverty in the long term. Moreover, their very focus on extending commodification makes them much more likely to compound the vulnerabilities of the poor, even as state social spending becomes more unbalanced, leaving them further exposed.
An important dimension in assessing any anti-poverty pro-gram is to know how it affects the living standards of different sub-groups of the poor. is paper examines the impact of Brazil' s con-ditional cash transfer program on poverty in urban and rural areas, formally testing the hypothesis that the program has a rural bias because its eligibility cut-off and transfer size are not adjusted for spatial price differences. Grosh et al. (2008) argue that a program that does not adjust its eligibility cut-off for spatial price differ-ences will be biased toward the rural poor because they face a lower cost of living. Fiszbein and Schady (2009) find that eligible families in urban areas are less likely to participate in Bolsa Família, which they attribute to self-exclusion due to the cost of living differential and the implicitly lower value of the transfer in cities. Although the authors suggest that Bolsa Família might have a rural bias, no study has rigorously compared its impact in urban and rural areas. * Regional price differences are not negligible in Brazil: the Laspeyres price index based on the cost of food and housing, in-dexed to 1.000 for metropolitan São Paulo, is 0.447 in the rural Northeast region. 1 In other words, the cost of living in São Paulo is more than twice the cost of living in the rural Northeast. e real value of Bolsa Família' s eligibility cut-off and the purchasing power of the transfer are therefore significantly higher in more rural states than in São Paulo. is paper first presents a counterfactual static incidence analysis to determine the impact of Bolsa Família in 2009, using * Helfand, Rocha, and Vinhais (2009) decompose rural income growth over the period 1998-2005 into four different sources of income, and find that growth in "other income", primarily due to an increase in conditional cash transfers, explains around 16 percent of the decline in rural poverty over the period. eir study focuses exclusively on rural areas. Sean Higgins graduated in 2011 from Tulane University with a degree in economics.
The paper discusses the income inequality changes which have taken place in a few representative developing regions during the last 30 years. While inequality rose in the majority of the countries of these regions in the 1980s and 1990s, the last decade was characterized by a bifurcation of inequality trends. This divergence offers the possibility to contrast the experience of virtuous regions (Latin America and parts of East and South-East Asia) and non-virtuous regions (the European economies in transition and China) so as to draw useful lessons. Since the global economic conditions affecting inequality in these countries were not too dissimilar and since no major variations in endogenous factors were evident across the regions analysed, the difference in inequality trends between virtuous and non-virtuous regions was most likely due to institutional factors and public policies. An econometric test confirms that the reduction of inequality is possible even under open economy conditions if a given set of appropriate macroeconomic, labour, fiscal and social policies is adopted by governments.
This paper investigates the relationship between the impact of Bolsa Família Program in the Brazilian population and the result of the presidential elections of 2006. The database involves municipal information provided by MDS, IBGE and TSE. To control the experiment, the eventual influences of other variables in the determination of this relationship had been studied. All those variables come from specific characteristics of the cities, such as: city with predominant urban or not urban population; size of the city population; among others. The results state that the Bolsa Família was, in fact, a very important factor in the determination of the votes in Lula. It was, in itself, responsible by 45% of the total votes in Lula.
A review of the achievements of the Lula administration and an examination of the contrasting political and social programs that disputed the Brazilian presidential elections in October 2010 reveal that there has been significant progress toward the consolidation of a social democratic welfare state in Brazil and that further progress is possible but far from guaranteed under the new administration.
This article reviews the emergence of neo-developmentalist economic policies in Brazil, in the early 2000s, as a heterodox alternative to neoliberalism. These policies were implemented in the second Lula administration (2006–10), and continued under Dilma Rousseff. However, neo-developmentalism has not simply replaced neoliberalism; rather, these prima facie incompatible policy frameworks have been combined, and the ensuing policies have achieved significant successes despite the intrinsic fragilities and limitations of this hybrid structure. The article examines the achievements and limitations of these policies, and the (limited) scope for their continuation in Dilma’s Rousseff’s administration.
O objetivo deste trabalho é retratar a grande heterogeneidade de experiências, os desafios em comum e, fornecer algumas pistas sobre o futuro dos programas de transferências condicionadas (PTCs) na região.
Created in 2003 by the unification of four earlier initiatives, Bolsa Família currently provides cash transfers to 13 million people and supports more than one-third of the children that go to primary school in Brazil. This article extends and expands previous reviews on the origins, development and impact of the programme. The authors consider the political and economic dimensions in their evaluation of Bolsa Família’s contribution to the reduction of poverty and inequality. They argue that Bolsa Família’s ultimate impact will partly depend on a reduction of inequalities in public provision of health and education, which in turn may require a more active political role for the poor.
Debates on how to reduce poverty and inequality have focused on two controversial questions: Should social policies be targeted to low-income groups or be universal? Should benefits be equal for all or earnings-related? Traditional arguments in favor of targeting and flat-rate benefits, focusing on the distribution of the money actually transferred, neglect three policy-relevant considerations: (1) The size of redistributive budgets is not fixed but reflects the structure of welfare state institutions. (2) A trade-off exists between the degree of low-income targeting and the size of redistributive budgets. (3) Outcomes of market-based distribution are often more unequal than those of earnings-related social insurance programs. We argue that social insurance institutions are of central importance for redistributive outcomes. Using new data, our comparative analyses of the effects of different institutional types of welfare states on poverty and inequality indicate that institutional differences lead to unexpected outcomes and generate the paradox of redistribution: The more we target benefits at the poor and the more concerned we are with creating equality via equal public transfers To all, the less likely we are to reduce poverty and inequality.
This paper aims to estimate whether there is a difference in terms of labor supply among beneficiaries of transfer programs in Brazil. In particular, we compare beneficiaries of unconditional versus conditional programs, that is, we test differences in labor supply responses of receivers of Renda Minima versus Bolsa-Escola beneficiaries. The results suggest that female beneficiaries of unconditional programs (Renda Minima) are associated with less hours worked while male unconditional beneficiary presents higher probability of being employed compared to their counterpart conditional program beneficiaries.
This paper explores debates in social policy choices and whether such provisions ought to be guided by principles of 'universalism,' or more selectively through targeting. The author discusses the forces behind the shift from universalism toward selectivity in using social policies to combat poverty in the developing countries. He reviews lessons from such policies and considers the administrative difficulties of targeting in the poor countries. The paper focuses on the cost-effectiveness of poverty reduction efforts, the political economy bases of policy choices, and the consequences of policy choices for individual incentive.
The use of behavioural conditionality has spread globally and is linked to the growth of behavioural economics and libertarian paternalism. This comment questions the ethics and effectiveness of this powerful trend and considers the alternative of moving towards universalism and unconditionality.
Abstract
This article outlines a political economy analysis of Brazilian high inflation and stabilization. The
paper explains the distributive and monetary aspects of inflation and the gradual fragmentation of
the Brazilian currency. It also reviews the most important aspects of the Real stabilization plan, the
de-indexation of the economy, and its rapid “liberalization” and “internationalization.” The paper shows
that, in spite of the successful reduction of inflation, the Real plan was highly vulnerable to shifts in
international liquidity; partly for these reasons, it led to de-industrialization and high unemployment.
In addition to this, the Real plan contributed to an increase in income inequality and the development
of sharp social conflicts in Brazil. These weaknesses were the main factors responsible for the currency
crisis in January 1999. © 2002 URPE. All rights reserved
This document summarizes experience with conditional cash transfer or “co-responsibility” (CCT) programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, over a period lasting more than 15 years. During this time, CCTs have consolidated and spread through the region’s various countries as a tool of choice for poverty-reduction policy. CCTs are currently being implemented in 18 of the region’s countries, benefiting over 25 million families (about 113 million people) or 19% of the regional population, at a cost of around 0.4% of regional gross domestic product (GDP). The basic structure of CCTs entails the transfer of monetary and nonmonetary resources to families with young children, living in poverty or extreme poverty, on condition that they fulfil specific commitments aimed at improving their human capacities. Despite the, as yet, inconclusive debates on the appropriateness of these programmes and their results in different domains, they have been hailed as representing a major step in connecting poor and indigent families with school-age children to broader and more comprehensive social-protection systems. This document, which it is hoped will serve as a basis and input for discussion and progress in building social-protection systems premised on inclusion and universal rights, provides detailed information on the different components of CCTs. It also reviews their main characteristics in terms of the definition and registration of programme users, the targeting mechanisms used, the various types of benefits provided, and the conditionalities attached to them. It then analyses the historical trend of the indicators of CCT investment and coverage, and the information available on their effects in different domains. Lastly, it makes an assessment of the experience and the main challenges that these programmes pose in terms of their sustainability, legal framework, accountability, participation, institutionality and inter-sectoral characteristics.
In the new development strategy currently shaping Latin America, alternative social policy models have emerged. This article argues that far from being rival alternatives, each of these models considers the wide differences among countries. The region is emerging from a century of transformation – from a traditional agrarian economy to an urban industrial one – in which countries have taken diverse historical paths. Some have almost completed this transformation, others are taking early steps, and the vast majority are living through it. State-led transition has followed two successive development strategies. From the 1920s up to the 1980s, state developmentalism has mostly successfully assumed the twin challenges of economic and social progress. In the last two decades of the century, Latin American states adopted the policies of the Washington Consensus, which emphasized the importance of business in the framework of globalization and benefited the affluent few. However, an unambiguous shift in direction has been taking place in Latin America since the 1997 economic crisis. This article suggests that a new developmental welfare state model seems to be in the making. How will it evolve over the wider space of an increasingly integrated Latin America?
Online document. Incl. bibl., index
Incl. bibliographical references
This article reviews the 'pro-poor' macroeconomic policy alternative to the Washington consensus. The pro-poor approach draws heavily on heterodox economic theory, and offers a compelling view of an alternative economic strategy oriented primarily to the satisfaction of the basic needs of the majority of the population, the equitable distribution of income, wealth and power, and the preservation of macroeconomic stability. These aims point to a specific set of fiscal, monetary, trade and exchange rate policies. The paper argues that such policies should be supported by social programmes designed to achieve the desired pro-poor outcomes as rapidly as possible.
It has become common sense to argue that the reforms of social policies after the 1988 Constitution were somehow instrumental in explaining social progress, and that Lula’s policies mark a break with the 1988 Constitution. We suggest that both propositions are misleading. We argue that the financialization of government expenditures has led to worsening income distribution, and by limiting the ability of the state to increase social spending it has limited the ability of the state to reduce social inequalities. We argue that a recovery of Keynesian ideas about full employment and the euthanasia of the rentier are central for the development of a more just and civilized society in Brazil.
Este artigo ressalta as principais inflexões observadas na trajetória recente da mudança social do país por meio de três partes. A primeira busca localizar no governo Lula os sinais de retomada do projeto nacional de desenvolvimento apoiados na política social, enquanto a segunda parte descreve brevemente os padrões de mudança social dos últimos cinquenta anos no Brasil. A última parte apresenta as principais características recentes da mudança social.
In this report, the United Nations independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty focuses on non-contributory pensions or so-called social pensions. Social pensions consist of cash benefits received by persons above a given age that do not require prior compulsory contributions from beneficiaries, employers or the State. Social pensions are an important dimension of social security systems. States are obliged progressively to ensure the right to social security and the right to an adequate standard of living to all individuals within the country. These rights are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several international human rights treaties and International Labour Organization conventions. Considering the vulnerability of older persons, States must take appropriate measures to establish social security schemes that provide benefits to all older persons without discrimination of any kind and ensure equal rights for men and women. Today, large proportions of the population work outside the formal employment sector and traditional informal support systems for older people are changing under the pressure of increased longevity, widespread poverty, the impact of HIV/AIDS and migration. Contributory pension schemes (e.g. employment-based pensions) do not reach all older persons. Therefore, States must recognize that social pensions are critical elements for the progressive realization of the right to social security for older people. Non-contributory pensions can significantly reduce poverty and vulnerability among old people, in particular for women, who live longer and are less likely to benefit from contributory systems. The report provides recommendations on how to ensure that non-contributory pensions comply with core human rights standards. It also addresses the role of international assistance and cooperation in the field of social security.
It has become commonplace in the debates about economic and social policies in Brazil in the Washington Consensus era, that is, during the administrations of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to emphasize that social indicators (poverty, life expectancy, literacy rates, infant mortality, fertility rates, etc.) have shown marked improvement. However, the main complaint is that inequality levels have remained high, and that social policies are unable to eliminate inequality without being complemented by more efficient use of public money, in particular, better targeting to the poor. The superficial conclusion is that there is something right about social policies from the 1990s onwards, since after the 1988 Constitution there has been a certain amount of social progress (Schwartzman, 2000; Almeida, 2004; Barros and Carvalho, 2004).
Bolsa Família and the Roles of Law in (New) Developmental Policies Neri et al. propose that the first decade of the twenty-first century could be called the “decade of income inequality reduction or equalization of outcomes,” whereas the 1990s could be called the “conquest of economic stability” and the 1980s, the “decade of democratization.” Indeed, since 2001 improvements in both the rate of poverty and income inequality have been unprecedented in Brazil. Between 2001 and 2008, incomes of the wealthy grew at a moderate pace, while income gains for the poor increased dramatically, probably for the first time in Brazilian history. Studies highlight the fact that a significant portion of Brazil’s non-neglectable distributive gains achieved in the past decade are the result of a combination of economic and institutional reforms. They include the benefits from inflation control, changes in labor markets that comprise unemployment reduction and increases in the minimum wage, pensions and social security improvements, and a new generation of social assistance policies, with a remarkable example of these being the Bolsa Família Program (BFP), created in 2003.
Is the emergence and rapid expansion of Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) in Latin America associated with the turn to the left in Latin American politics? The paper applies a modified version of the Dolowitz and Marsh (2000) Policy Transfer Framework to successive waves of policy diffusion in nineteen countries in the region. The analysis did not find a “New Left” footprint in the motivations, actors, and lesson-drawing processes that characterised the expansion of CCTs. It concludes that social assistance is at the top of the agenda of governments in Latin America regardless of the ideological leaning of ruling coalitions.
This paper investigates whether the use of participatory budgeting in Brazilian municipalities during 1990–2004 affected the pattern of municipal expenditures and had any impact on living conditions. It shows that municipalities using participatory budgeting favored an allocation of public expenditures that closely matched popular preferences and channeled a larger fraction of their budgets to investments in sanitation and health services. This change is accompanied by a reduction in infant mortality rates. This suggests that promoting a more direct interaction between service users and elected officials in budgetary policy can affect both how local resources are spent and living standard outcomes.
Slater R. Cash transfers, social protection and poverty reduction
Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 250–259 © 2011 United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare.
Cash transfers form an important and growing part of social protection programming in many developing countries. This article evaluates the use of different types of cash transfers in different regional contexts as a tool for reducing poverty and inequality in developing countries. Particular attention is paid to knowledge about the appropriateness and cost-effectiveness of targeted versus universal cash transfers and about conditional versus unconditional transfers. The article finds that a fine balance is required. On the one hand, overambitious procedures for targeting or conditionality should be avoided where administrative capacity is low. On the other hand, to rule out any possibility of conditionality or targeting on the grounds of weak administrative capacity leaves only the option of universal transfers.
Conditional cash transfers such as PROGRESA/Oportunidades are being widely adopted in developing countries as an effective means of combating poverty and promoting human development. These programmes provide a cash subsidy to the mothers of school-age children conditional on their fulfilling certain requirements. This article argues that in reinforcing a maternal model of care, they not only deepen gender divisions but also establish a trade-off between children's and women's needs for long-term security. In assuming that women are exclusively responsible for fulfilling the requirements of the programme and are available to carry out the duties prescribed, they ignore women's economic vulnerability and can even contribute to it if women's involvement in, and need for, income-generating work is undermined, Programme design could be improved by encouraging a more dynamic model of gender and generational cooperation which has the potential to generate more positive outcomes for all household members, including fathers who are otherwise marginalised from the responsibilities of care.
In common with most Latin American countries, as governments embrace safety nets to attack poverty, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have become part of mainstream social policy in Brazil. Under president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995–2002), and especially since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003, targeted assistance in education, health and nutrition, now united under Bolsa Família, have expanded rapidly to benefit forty-four million (24 per cent of the total population), absorbing almost two-fifths of the social assistance budget earmarked for the poorest sectors. Despite its operational problems, Bolsa Família appears to have been effective in providing short-term relief to some of the most deprived groups in Brazil. Yet it could prove to be a double-edged sword. There is a risk that, due to its popularity among both the poor and Brazil's politicians, Bolsa Família could greatly increase patronage in the distribution of economic and social benefits and induce a strong dependence on government handouts. There are also early signs that it may be contributing to a reduction in social spending in key sectors such as education, housing and basic sanitation, possibly undermining the country's future social and economic development.
RESUMO Recupera-se, neste artigo, a trajetória de pesquisa sobre o trabalho no Brasil, envolvendo tanto a atual situação como a antiga manifestação da condição de agregado social. No presente, a condição de agregado social decorre do ciclo de financeirização da riqueza no Brasil. Palavras-chave: mão-de-obra; ocupação; serviço. ABSTRACT Based on research data on everyday work and, above all, on practices and histories of labor market, this text brings forward a reflexion on how "social agregado" were used, considering them as always related to narratives. The "social agregado" work is interpret as parts of meaning financial economic in Brazil.
Conditional cash transfers are a departure from more traditional approaches to social assistance that represents an innovative and increasingly popular channel for the delivery of social services. Conditional cash transfers provide money to poor families contingent upon certain behaviour, usually investments in human capital such as sending children to school or bringing them to health centres on a regular basis. They seek both to address traditional short-term income support objectives and promote the longer-term accumulation of human capital by serving as a demand-side complement to the supply of health and education services. Evaluation results reveal that this innovative design has been quite successful in addressing many of the failures in delivering social assistance such as poor poverty targeting, disincentive effects and limited welfare impacts. There is clear evidence of success from the first generation of programmes in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua in increasing enrolment rates, improving preventive healthcare and raising household consumption. Despite this promising evidence, many questions remain unanswered about conditional cash transfer programmes, including the replicability of their success under different
In the late 1990s the bilateral and multilateral development agencies placed increasing emphasis on poverty reduction in developing countries. This led to the establishment by the United Nations of the ‘International Development Targets’ for poverty reduction. The target of poverty reduction might be achieved through faster economic growth alone, through redistribution, or through a combination of the two. This article presents an analytical framework to assess the effectiveness of growth and redistribution for poverty reduction. It concludes that redistribution, either of current income or the growth increment of income, is more effective in reducing poverty for a majority of countries than growth alone.
O objetivo do Cadastro �nico para Programas Sociais (Cad�nico) � o cadastramento e a manuten��o de informa��es atualizadas de todas as fam�lias brasileiras com renda per capita inferior a R 120.00. Although the use of Cad�nico continues focusing on the selection of beneficiaries of the Bolsa Fam�lia, there is a wide range of uses that incipiently or already has been adopted, or that could be employed in the future. Three features of Cad�nico define their scope of use. First, its scope is
This report focuses on the dimensions of poverty, and how to create a better world, free of poverty. The analysis explores the nature, and evolution of poverty, and its causes, to present a framework for action. The opportunity for expanding poor people's assets is addressed, arguing that major reductions in human deprivation are indeed possible, that economic growth, inequality, and poverty reduction, can be harnessed through economic integration, and technological change, dependent not only on the evolvement of markets, but on the choices for public action at the global, national, and local levels. Actions to facilitate empowerment include state institutional responsiveness in building social institutions which will improve well-being, and health, to allow increased income-earning potential, access to education, and eventual removal of social barriers. Security aspects are enhanced, by assessing risk management towards reducing vulnerability to economic crises, and natural disasters. The report expands on the dimensions of human deprivation, to include powerlessness and voicelessness, vulnerability and fear. International dimensions are explored, through global actions to fight poverty, analyzing global trade, capital flows, and how to reform development assistance to forge change in the livelihoods of the poor.
- M L R Mollo
- A Saad-Filho
Mollo, M.L.R. and Saad-Filho, A. (2006) 'Neoliberal Economic Policies in Brazil (1994-2005):