Towards a Theory of Social Assistance

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.

Social Cash Transfers in the Global South

Social cash transfers have mushroomed in the global South since the 2000s. This chapter maps the new landscape of cash transfers. What programmes have emerged in which countries, and how firmly are they institutionalized? How inclusive are the programmes, who is included, and who is left behind? Do cash transfers contribute to social citizenship? How do countries and continents differ? The chapter draws on a unique self-constructed database, which covers all identifiable cash transfer programmes in all Southern countries, and defines new indicators of inclusiveness. While the literature focuses on cash transfer programmes, the chapter focuses on entitlements to cash transfers (entitlement approach) and on cash transfer regimes (the ensemble of all cash transfer programmes in a country; systemic approach). The analysis reveals a massive spread of entitlements, with limitations, and great variations between programmes and between countries, indicating different notions of who is deserving and who is not.

Models of Social Cash Transfers

Around 2000, poverty had moved to the top of global agendas, but there was no clear idea what policies would be appropriate. By the mid-2000s, a consensus among international organizations on social cash transfers had emerged. This chapter investigates what models of cash transfers were proposed by international organizations, and why, considering that global actors of all political leanings had rejected the idea of cash transfers well into the 1990s. The analysis draws on unique qualitative data on all major international organizations involved. It is argued that the idea of social cash transfers marks a paradigm shift in global anti-poverty policy, driven by pioneering country examples, sectional interests of international organizations, and new discursive frames. However, the idea of cash transfers was discursively reduced to four partial models that define the field to the present day, reflecting mandates of lead organizations and adding up to a fragmented and incomplete universalism.

Making Sense of a Quiet Revolution

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

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.

Changing Global Discourses

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.

National and International Drivers of the Spread of Social Cash Transfers

This chapter seeks to explain the remarkable spread of social cash transfer programmes in the countries of the global South. General explanatory models of social policy development are discussed, and then specified and tested for social pensions, using multivariate quantitative analysis (event history analysis, 1971–2011). Theories familiar from explaining the historical rise of Northern welfare states have to be modified and extended to accommodate development contexts. Three major groups of drivers of the spread of social pensions are found: socio-economic modernization and political regime type; global norms; and pension reform events. By way of qualitative analysis, three mechanisms are identified, by which global ideas and norms influence domestic policies: cultural linkages, theorization, and quantification. These mechanisms also help to explain the diffusion of new ideas within transnational communities and within domestic political arenas.

Social Cash Transfers

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.

Case Study

This chapter provides a case study of the most common and particularly successful cash transfer programme, ‘social’ (non-contributory) pensions, based on a unique database that covers all social pensions in all countries of the global South, with differentiated variables. The chapter charts the massive spread of social pensions since the 1990s, and investigates if and how social pensions have created social citizenship rights for older persons. While ‘universal’ (non-means-tested) social pensions are often seen as embodying social citizenship rights, in this chapter a more complex social citizenship index is constructed. Using this index, a fuzzy set analysis reveals that the contribution of social pensions to social citizenship cuts across the distinction ‘universal’ vs. means-tested. Moreover, social pensions are located in the overall arrangement of old-age security in a country, giving rise to four models of social citizenship in old age.

Basic Social Security

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.