scholarly journals Welfare Stereotypes and Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes: Evidence from Brazil’s Bolsa Família

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Layton
Keyword(s):  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Innovative Design ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Bolsa Familia

Some observers claim that conditional cash transfer programmes limit the stigma of taking welfare and thereby promote social inclusion for beneficiaries. This article uses data from the 2014 AmericasBarometer to test these claims in relation to Brazil’s Bolsa Família programme (BFP). The results show that, despite the programme’s innovative design, beneficiaries encounter the stigmatisation and negative self-stereotypes that characterise more traditional anti-poverty programmes. Many Brazilians, recipient and non-recipient alike, endorse explicitly negative stereotypes of Bolsa Família assistance recipients. Moreover, the level to which respondents endorse these stereotypes strongly predicts their level of support for the BFP. These results highlight the pervasive nature of negative stereotypes towards the poor, even in the context of the developing world, and are consistent with the predictions of social psychological theories of system justification.

scholarly journals From Fome Zero to Bolsa Família: Social Policies and Poverty Alleviation under Lula

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY HALL
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Maternal Nutrition ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Bolsa Familia

Under the administrations of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995–2002) and especially President Lula (2003–), conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have become adopted as mainstream social policy in Brazil. This follows a marked trend since the 1990s in Latin America towards the setting up of targeted safety nets to alleviate poverty. Lula consolidated and expanded CCTs, firstly under Fome Zero and later Bolsa Família, now the largest such scheme in the world. Its four sub-programmes (educational stipends to boost school attendance, maternal nutrition, food supplements and a domestic gas subsidy) benefit some 30 million of Brazil's poorest people, with a target of 44 million by 2006. Since 2003, spending on Bolsa Família has risen significantly to consume over one-third of the social assistance budget for the poorest sectors and it remained a flagship policy in the run-up to the presidential elections of October 2006. Although coverage of Bolsa Família is impressive, however, systematic evaluation of its social and economic impacts is still lacking. Evidence from other CCT programmes in Latin America suggests that positive results may be achieved in terms of meeting some immediate needs of the poor. However, there have been many implementation problems. These include poor beneficiary targeting, lack of inter-ministerial coordination, inadequate monitoring, clientelism, weak accountability and alleged political bias. Given the heightened profile of cash transfers in Brazil's social policy agenda, key questions need to be asked. These concern, firstly, the extent to which Bolsa Família does indeed contribute to poverty alleviation; and secondly, whether it creates greater dependence of the poor on government hand-outs and political patronage at the expense of long-term social investment for development.

Transforming Subjects into Citizens: Insights from Brazil’s Bolsa Família

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Hunter ◽  
Natasha Borges Sugiyama
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
The State ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Bolsa Familia

Welfare programs distribute benefits to citizens. Perhaps even more importantly, by conveying powerful messages about how the state views poor people, welfare programs shape people’s views about themselves as subjects or citizens. Theoretical debates on how public policies can enhance democratic citizenship inspire our study of Brazil’s Bolsa Família (Family Grant). Has this conditional cash transfer program, which forms a major point of contact between the state and millions of poor Brazilians, elevated feelings of social inclusion and agency? A prominent perspective in the welfare-state literature would not expect a positive outcome given the strict means testing and behavioral requirements entailed. Yet our focus group research with Bolsa Família recipients suggests that the program does foster a sense of belonging and efficacy. Policy design and government discourse matter. This innovative welfare program yields rich insights on alternative paths to citizenship development for middle- and low-income countries in the third wave of democracy.

scholarly journals Familialist poverty regulation : the case of the ‘Bolsa Família’ Programme in the Northeast region of Brazil

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávio Eiró
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Northeast Region ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Political Machine ◽  
Bolsa Familia

This thesis’ object is the poverty regulation in Brazil within the framework of the ‘Bolsa Família’ Programme, a conditional cash transfer social policy assembling several elements of the debate and the experience of poverty in Brazil. This work explains how the mechanisms of poverty regulation interact with local citizenship practices. In effect, the access of the poor to social rights and the exercise of their political rights are both object of a process of regulation by family values in a context of strong social inequalities. Beyond the fact that social assistance depends on family organisation, the implementation of the ‘Bolsa Família’ Programme is based on informal rules, reflecting the dominant social representations of poverty in Brazil. In addition, the allocation of social benefits depends in part on personalised rapports between the programme’s beneficiaries and political candidates and elected representatives. This work is based on a case study in the Northeast region of Brazil—in a middle-sized municipality of the Ceará state. An ethnographic approach allowed the identification of the logic of operation of a political machine involving social assistance, elected officials, social workers and beneficiaries. More generally, this thesis examines the interactions between the poor and the society as a whole, from a local perspective of contemporary issues of poverty regulation and contributes to the study of the political and electoral use of social assistance.

Anti-Poverty Transfers and Poverty Reduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Barrientos
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer Program

This chapter examines the role that public policy initiatives—specifically anti-poverty transfers—have played in the reduction of poverty and inequality in Brazil. A number of anti-poverty initiatives are considered in turn, and not just the widely known Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program. The analysis establishes that such transfers—including conditional cash transfers—have proved surprisingly effective, even helping to tackle long-standing income inequality. It is recognized that explicit anti-poverty initiatives were not the only drivers of the reduced incidence of poverty and inequality: factors such as growth and improved access to labor markets also played a role. However, progress is now threatened by the recent economic and political crisis.

scholarly journals The Association between Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes and Cohort Fertility: Evidence from Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Ferreira Soares ◽  
Everton Emanuel Campos de Lima
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Parity Progression ◽  
Monetary Transfers ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cohort Fertility ◽  
Reproductive Cycles ◽  
The Relationship

Brazil’s Bolsa Família Programme (BFP) aims to combat poverty and social inequalities through monetary transfers to families. A much-discussed indirect effect of the programme was its correlation to the fertility of the beneficiary families. In this paper, we use a cohort fertility approach with parity progression ratios that differs from existing literature, which mainly used period fertility measures, to better understand the relationship between fertility and the BFP. This study analyses the relationship between the BFP and the reproduction of Brazilian women. We use data from the 2010 Brazilian micro-censuses, the only census after the start of the BFP in 2004, to reconstruct the childbirth history of women with incomplete reproductive cycles (women aged 25 to 29), and estimate parity progression ratios (PPRs) and cohort fertility rates (CFR). In addition, we estimate propensity score matching (PSM) models comparing fertility outcomes of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the programme. Our results show distinct differences in CFRs and PPRs. On average, BFP beneficiaries had more children than women not covered by the programme. This finding remained consistent even after controlling for educational gradients and other covariates. Our empirical findings show that women opt for a “rational” strategy, where they tend to have children in more rapid succession up until three children. These findings contradict the recent literature that has not found any correlation between BFP and fertility. The results also suggest that cohort analyses may fill certain gaps left by previous studies of period fertility. This paper is one of a few that have analysed the relationship between a conditional income transfer programme and cohort measures in Brazil.

Governmental programmes associated with food insecurity among communities of descendants of enslaved blacks in Brazil

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Camilla Christine de Souza Cherol ◽  
Aline Alves Ferreira ◽  
Rosana Salles-Costa
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
Food And Nutritional Security

Abstract Objective: To assess the access to government programmes and their association with food insecurity (FI) in families from quilombolas communities in Brazil. Design: An analysis of secondary data from the 2011 Quilombolas Census was performed in Brazilian territories. The Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale (Escala Brasileira de Insegurança Alimentar, EBIA) was used to assess the household FI status. The relationships of governmental programmes with the levels of FI were estimated using logistic regression models. Setting: Greater national survey census of food and nutritional security of the recognised Quilombolas Brazilian territories. Participants: Totally, 8743 quilombolas families. Results: The prevalence of household FI was 86·1 % (moderate/severe FI: 55·9 %, 95 % CI 54·8, 56·9). After adjustment for socio-demographic variables, access to rural development programmes (Food Acquisition Program: OR: 0·6, 95 % CI 0·4, 0·8, P-value < 0·01) and health programmes (Center for Family Health Support: OR: 0·5, 95 % CI 0·5, 0·7, P-value < 0·001) is inversely and significantly associated with moderate/severe FI. The Brazilian conditional cash transfer programme (Bolsa Família) was associated with quilombolas families with moderate/severe levels of FI (OR: 3·3, 95 % CI 2·8, 4·0, P-value < 0·001). Conclusions: The prevalence of FI was high among quilombolas families. Despite reduced participation in governmental programmes, rural development, agriculture and conditional cash transfer programmes are fundamental to the autonomy of quilombolas communities. In spite of the low participation, when families are able to access these programmes, the study revealed the importance of these initiatives in reducing the likelihood of severe levels of FI.

Do Conditional Cash Transfers Empower Women? Insights from Brazil’s Bolsa Família

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Natasha Borges Sugiyama ◽  
Wendy Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfer Programs ◽  
Bolsa Familia ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTConditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have emerged as an important social welfare innovation across the Global South in the last two decades. That poor mothers are typically the primary recipients of the grants renders easy, but not necessarily correct, the notion that CCTs empower women. This article assesses the relationship between the world’s largest CCT, Brazil’s Bolsa Família, and women’s empowerment. To systematize and interpret existing research, including our own, it puts forth a three-part framework that examines the program’s effects on economic independence, physical health, and psychosocial well-being. Findings suggest that women experience some improved status along all three dimensions, but that improvements are far from universal. A core conclusion is that the broader institutional context in which the Bolsa Família is embedded—that is, ancillary services in health and social assistance—is crucial for conditioning the degree of empowerment obtained.

Sharing Stories, Sharing Bias: How Descriptions of Context Shape Negative Stereotype Use in Response to Accounts of Economic Adversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M B Fallin Hunzaker ◽  
Marcus Mann
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Hardship ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Situational Characteristics ◽  
Context Shape ◽  
And Control

Abstract Research shows that observers use negative stereotypes to construe victims of misfortune as responsible for their own fate. In two experiments, we test three situational characteristics’ (injustice, scale, and control) effects on observers’ tendency to use negative stereotypes when communicating stories about others’ economic hardship. Study 1 examines predictions, based on social psychological theories of equity and justice, that stereotype use should increase in response to accounts of misfortune that are the result of unjust under-reward. Contrary to predictions, Study 1 found that participants used more stereotypes when retelling accounts in which the protagonist’s misfortune was not the result of unjust rewards. Study 2 investigates competing predictions to Study 1, based on research regarding how portrayals of scale (whether the misfortune affects one vs. many) and control (whether another actor has control over the misfortune of another) affect perceptions of misfortune. Study 2 results indicate that stereotype use increases in response to accounts of large-scale, uncontrollable misfortune. Together, these studies suggest that qualities of portrayals (such as scale and control) are crucial in understanding stereotype transmission processes above and beyond the role of perceptions of injustice (i.e., the unequal distribution of rewards).

Linking Promises to Policies: Law and Development in an Unequal Brazil

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogo R. Coutinho
Keyword(s):  
Conditional Cash Transfer ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
Fundamental Goal ◽  
Bolsa Familia

The 1988 Brazilian Constitution contains a wide variety of social and economic rights and expressly embraces development as a fundamental goal. For the results to be effective, however, constitutional provisions of this type require permanent implementation and articulation of public policies that, in turn, are intensely mediated by the law. Assuming that the legal dimension of social policies ultimately matters for development, the article seeks to identify and discuss the distributive effects caused by some Brazilian welfare institutions and their legal arrangements. After describing the regressive outcomes produced by the tax and pensions systems and arguing that such effects reinforce Brazilian's historically rooted deep inequality, the article discusses Programa Bolsa Família, a conditional cash transfer in Brazil, and presents the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on law and development (the LANDS project).

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