The Global Rise of Social Cash Transfers

Cash Transfers ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

Human Beings ◽

Sociological Approach ◽

The Poor ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

The Right

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) proclaimed the equality of all human beings in dignity and rights. The right to social security, however, has been taken more seriously only since the 2000s, through calls for ‘Social security for all’ and ‘Leaving no one behind’. The book investigates a major response, social cash transfers to the poor. The idea of simply giving money to the poor had been rejected by all major development organizations until the 1990s, but since the early 2000s, social cash transfers have mushroomed in the global South and on agendas of international organizations. How come? What programmes have emerged in which countries? How inclusive are the programmes? What models have international organizations devised? Based on unique quantitative and qualitative data, the book takes stock of all identifiable cash transfers in all Southern countries and of the views of all major international organizations. The author argues that cash transfers reflect broader changes: new understandings of development, of human rights, of global risks, of the social responsibility of governments, and of universalism. Social cash transfers have turned the poor from objects of charity into rights-holders and agents of their own lives and of development. A repertoire of cash transfers has evolved that has enhanced social citizenship, but is limited by weak political commitments. The book also contributes to a general theory of social policy in development contexts, through a constructivist sociological approach that complements the dominant approaches from welfare economics and political economy and includes a theory of social assistance.

Changing Global Discourses

10.1093/oso/9780198754336.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 253-276

Author(s):

Lutz Leisering

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Macroeconomic Policies ◽

Welfare Benefits ◽

The Poor ◽

Long Run ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

The Right ◽

Discourse Coalitions

All major international organizations had rejected the idea of social cash transfers to the poor until the late 1990s. Why did they adopt the idea by the mid-2000s? It is argued that the 1990s witnessed new discourses among international organizations—on poverty, development, risk, human rights, and universalism—that created an ideational window of opportunity for cash transfers to emerge as a global idea. The new discourses provided new reasons for social security, by raising new global social questions and invoking new social responsibilities of international organizations and states. In particular, the right to social security, laid down in 1948 by the UN, was re-interpreted during the 1990s to require individualized welfare benefits for the poor. Powerful discourse coalitions and discursive practices propelled the new discourses. However, the move towards extending social security was checked by the enduring developmental thinking geared to achieving welfare in the long run by market means and macroeconomic policies.

Towards a Theory of Social Assistance

10.1093/oso/9780198754336.003.0010 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 335-353

Author(s):

Lutz Leisering

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Social Assistance ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Political Support ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

The South ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Global North ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

North And South

This chapter sets out a theory of social assistance (including social cash transfers), which covers both the global North and South, and discusses the future of income security in the South beyond social cash transfers. It is argued that social assistance constitutes a small but vital component of social security and social citizenship—‘residual but fundamental’. It is further argued that social assistance is ‘fundamental but not comprehensive’, i.e. the challenge of universalizing social citizenship extends beyond relieving poverty. To confront the problem of inequality and get the middle classes on board, cash transfers need to be embedded in a broader, multi-tiered architecture of social security, which increases political support also for cash transfers. Still, despite the fundamental contributions of social assistance and the positive effects of cash transfers in many countries of the South, these programmes remain Janus-faced, entailing inclusions and exclusions, recognition and stigma, autonomy and social control.

Making Sense of a Quiet Revolution

10.1093/oso/9780198754336.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 3-18

Author(s):

Lutz Leisering

Keyword(s):

Global South ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

Georg Simmel ◽

Making Sense ◽

The Poor ◽

Research Questions ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

Set Up

This chapter introduces the topic of the book, social cash transfers for the poor in the global South, and depicts the research questions, theories, methods, indicators, and data of the analysis. The research questions relate to what kind of social cash transfer programmes have been set up in the global South, how international organizations came to accept the concept and constructed models of cash transfers, what factors made for the global spread of cash transfers, and if cash transfers have brought social citizenship to the poor. Drawing on Georg Simmel, T. H. Marshall, John W. Meyer, and Franz-Xaver Kaufmann, the theoretical approach of the book combines sociological theories of social policy, constructivist institutionalism, and world society theory, to complement the dominant approaches from welfare economics and political economy. Research includes qualitative and quantitative data and methods, with a unique large N data set. A figure depicts the research plan of the book.

The Quest for Universalism

10.1093/oso/9780198754336.003.0011 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 354-382

Author(s):

Lutz Leisering

Keyword(s):

Cash Transfers ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

World Culture ◽

Current State ◽

The Poor ◽

The World ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

Policy Proposals ◽

New Inequalities

The ubiquitous global call for ‘social security for all’ reflects the world cultural principle of universalism, which is the ultimate background of the global spread of social cash transfers to the poor. This chapter examines the institutional varieties and the pitfalls of universalism. It is argued that universalism can be institutionalized in various ways (including the Basic Income), and that all involve substantial inequalities. The pitfalls of the global universalistic culture are highlighted, questioning widespread egalitarian and monistic notions of universalism. The limitations of the current state of cash transfers can be traced to these pitfalls. Universalism has a price: universalistic world culture is often phrased in vague terms, encouraging decoupling, doubletalk, and particularistic interpretations, as found in policy proposals by international organizations and in actual cash transfer regimes. Universal social citizenship creates new inequalities and spaces of social control, reflecting the double-edged nature of modern social interventionism.

Constructing new global models of social security: How international organizations defined the field of social cash transfers in the 2000s

Journal of Social Policy ◽

10.1017/s0047279415000720 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 325-343 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

MORITZ VON GLISZCZYNSKI ◽

LUTZ LEISERING

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Global Politics ◽

The Poor ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Development Policies ◽

Social Concerns ◽

Ideational Change ◽

Social Cash Transfers

AbstractSocial cash transfers to the poor have mushroomed in countries of the global South and on global agendas since the 2000s. Around 2000, there was no clear picture if social cash transfers would make it to global agendas. By the end of the 2000s, a repertoire of four models of social cash transfers had been codified by international organizations. Based on an in-depth analysis of all major documents by international organizations and applying a model of ideational change in global arenas, we trace the trajectories of the four models: who developed the models during the 2000s, how were they constructed, and what forces propelled the process? We find that the process was driven by an extension of the domains of international organizations (‘socialization of global politics’) and by an opening of global discourses and development policies to ‘social’ concerns. But organizational domains and global discourses, especially on development, also constrained the concept of social cash transfers, reducing it to four models that reflect a fragmented and incomplete universalism. We conclude that global social policy, conceived as ‘socialization of global politics’, is not a simple ‘uploading’ of ‘social’ ideas from European traditions, but an active process of social construction in global arenas.

Social Cash Transfers

10.1093/oso/9780198754336.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 307-334

Author(s):

Lutz Leisering

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Social Recognition ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Global Politics ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

The Poor ◽

The Social ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

Political Commitments

This chapter draws together the findings from the earlier chapters, depicting achievements, limitations, and backgrounds of the global rise of social cash transfers. Cash transfers have turned millions of the poor into rights-holders, indicating an entitlement revolution. Cash transfers bring material betterment, but also a social recognition of the poor as agents of their own lives and as contributors to economic development. The rise of cash transfers reflects far-reaching changes in domestic and global politics, namely a ‘socialization’ of politics, growing political commitments to the social, and powerful new frames. Still, the politics of ‘Leaving no one behind’ remain thin; categorically fragmented and particularistic rather than universalistic cash transfer regimes prevail, and political commitments are uneven. Generally, cash transfers are Janus-faced, reflecting social citizenship as well as social control. Based on the findings, the onion skin model of political commitments and frames developed in Chapter 2 is refined.

Basic Social Security

10.1093/oso/9780198754336.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 64-98 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lutz Leisering

Keyword(s):

Social Assistance ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Social Citizenship ◽

Georg Simmel ◽

Citizenship Rights ◽

The Poor ◽

Vital Component ◽

Social Cash Transfers ◽

North And South ◽

Historical Origins

This chapter traces the historical origins of social assistance (including social cash transfers) in North and South, and maps the field in conceptual terms. It is argued that the emergence of social assistance was part of the rise of the modern state, and later of the welfare state, involving a bureaucratization and nationalization of poverty. Since the 1990s and the 2000s, poverty and social assistance respectively have been ‘globalized’: international organizations have turned to the issue, and cash transfers have spread across the global South and have even become an electoral issue. Drawing on Georg Simmel and T. H. Marshall, the chapter shows that social assistance may involve exclusions and stigma, but can be a vital component of social citizenship rights if society recognizes the legitimacy of the claims of the poor. The chapter also shows how social assistance has contributed to social citizenship in European countries.

The Obligation to Afford Reparation to Injured Individuals

10.1093/oso/9780198808442.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Carla Ferstman

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

International Humanitarian Law ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

Human Rights Treaties ◽

The Law ◽

The Right ◽

Right Of Access ◽

The Relationship

This chapter considers the consequences of breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law for the responsible international organizations. It concentrates on the obligations owed to injured individuals. The obligation to make reparation arises automatically from a finding of responsibility and is an obligation of result. I analyse who has this obligation, to whom it is owed, and what it entails. I also consider the right of individuals to procedures by which they may vindicate their right to a remedy and the right of access to a court that may be implied from certain human rights treaties. In tandem, I consider the relationship between those obligations and individuals’ rights under international law. An overarching issue is how the law of responsibility intersects with the specialized regimes of human rights and international humanitarian law and particularly, their application to individuals.

Accountability in Global Governance

10.1093/oso/9780198861249.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gisela Hirschmann

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Global Governance ◽

Third Parties ◽

Human Rights Violations ◽

The European Union ◽

Economic Rights ◽

The Right ◽

Austerity Policy ◽

Comprehensive Study

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? Political scientists and legal scholars have shed a much-needed light on the limits of traditional accountability when it comes to complex global governance. However, conventional studies on IO accountability fail to systematically analyze a related, puzzling empirical trend: human rights violations that occur in the context of global governance do not go unnoticed altogether; they are investigated and sanctioned by independent third parties. This book puts forward the concept of pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. We can expect pluralist accountability to evolve if a competitive environment stimulates third parties to enact accountability and if the implementing actors are vulnerable to human rights demands. Based on a comprehensive study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the European Union Troika’s austerity policy, and global public–private health partnerships in India, this book demonstrates how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of studying alternative accountability mechanisms, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs’ legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.

The Right to Dignity of Refugees: A Response to Fleur Johns

AJIL Unbound ◽

10.1017/aju.2017.54 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 111 ◽

pp. 193-195

Author(s):

Elspeth Guild

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

International Protection ◽

Human Rights Abuses ◽

Refugee Protection ◽

Mass Migration ◽

International Refugee Law ◽

The Individual ◽

The Right

Fleur Johns' thesis about the increasing role of data in the verification of the condition of the world and how this impacts on international law is stimulating and bears reflection. This is an extremely interesting and innovative approach to the issue of data and its role in state engagement with mass migration. From the perspective of a scholar on international refugee law, a number of issues arise as a result of the analysis. One of the contested aspects of mass migration and refugee protection is the inherent inconsistency between two ways of thinking about human rights—the first is the duty of (some) international organizations to protect human rights in a manner which elides human rights and humanitarian law, and the second is the right of the individual to dignity, the basis of all human rights according to the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1949. The first enhances the claims of states to sovereign right to control their borders (mediated through some international organizations), while the second recognizes the international human rights duties of states and international organizations to respect the dignity of people as individuals (including refugees). Fleur is completely correct that human rights abuses are at the core of refugee movements. While there are always many people in a country who will stay and fight human rights abuses even when this results in their sacrifice, others will flee danger trying to get themselves and their families to places of safety; we are not all heroes. Yet, when people flee in more than very small numbers, state authorities have a tendency to begin the language of mass migration. The right to be a refugee becomes buried under the threat of mass migration to the detriment of international obligations. Insofar as mass migration is a matter for management, the right of a refugee is an individual right to international protection which states have bound themselves to offer.