To understand the origins of Bolsa Familia, one must situate it in the history which development has taken place. Brazil is a former colony that gained independence from the Portuguese in 1822 after three hundred years of colonial rule. Compared to parts of Asia and Africa, Brazil was decolonised very early, reflecting a wider trend of early decolonization in Latin America. Yet, despite their newfound sovereignty, the political leadership in Brazil remained highly disorganised and Brazil did not establish a coherent state until 1930, over a hundred years after their independence (Haggard and Kaufman: 2008). Brazil has a long history of developmentalism. Critical realignments in Brazil’s social welfare was characterised by challenges to the
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The opening of the political system increased the leverage of interest groups and stakeholders, while ‘severe inflation and fiscal constraints had the countervailing effect of strengthening the hands of technocrats’ (Haggard and Kaufman, 2008: 277). Institutions must be understood through the economic context and social policy interests (Haggard and Kauffman, 2008: 281). Thus, social security spending in Latin America is high when compared to that of East Asia and Eastern Europe in the period from 1945-2003 (Haggard and Kaufman: 2008). Struggles for succession and social protests from below have generated welfare concessions, yet these factors did not have an enduring significance (Haggard and Kaufman: 2008). Thus, by ‘situating institutional arguments within the context of broader political realignments and development models’, I will build a stronger understanding of the emergence of welfare and development models in Brazil (Haggard and Kaufman, 2008: …show more content…
This is what I will attribute to ‘social security’ in Figure 1. Revealing the similarities and differences between social security and human capital accumulation, I will show the dominant drivers of and limits to social security. Human capital accumulation (HCA) can be defined as ‘the development of a set of skills leading to [the] increased education, health and productivity of potential workers’ (Galor and Moav, 1999: page #). This which can be represented in the investments in ‘health’ and ‘education’ (Figure 1). Thus, social security is a precondition, whereas HCA is is a central driver of human and economic
The opening of the political system increased the leverage of interest groups and stakeholders, while ‘severe inflation and fiscal constraints had the countervailing effect of strengthening the hands of technocrats’ (Haggard and Kaufman, 2008: 277). Institutions must be understood through the economic context and social policy interests (Haggard and Kauffman, 2008: 281). Thus, social security spending in Latin America is high when compared to that of East Asia and Eastern Europe in the period from 1945-2003 (Haggard and Kaufman: 2008). Struggles for succession and social protests from below have generated welfare concessions, yet these factors did not have an enduring significance (Haggard and Kaufman: 2008). Thus, by ‘situating institutional arguments within the context of broader political realignments and development models’, I will build a stronger understanding of the emergence of welfare and development models in Brazil (Haggard and Kaufman, 2008: …show more content…
This is what I will attribute to ‘social security’ in Figure 1. Revealing the similarities and differences between social security and human capital accumulation, I will show the dominant drivers of and limits to social security. Human capital accumulation (HCA) can be defined as ‘the development of a set of skills leading to [the] increased education, health and productivity of potential workers’ (Galor and Moav, 1999: page #). This which can be represented in the investments in ‘health’ and ‘education’ (Figure 1). Thus, social security is a precondition, whereas HCA is is a central driver of human and economic