Social Protection for the Poorest: The Adoption of Antipoverty Cash Transfer Programs in the Global South

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) represent an innovation in social assistance policy by conditioning welfare benefits on recipients’ behaviors associated with human capital development. Although social assistance has expanded throughout the developing world in the 21st century, the political logic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Politics & society 2015-12, Vol.43 (4), p.551-582
Main Author: Brooks, Sarah M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
21st century
Antipoverty programs
Benefits
Conditioning
Cultural capital
Democracy
Democratization
Developing countries
Divided government
Human capital
Innovations
Interdependence
LDCs
Left wing politics
Logit analysis
Low income groups
Money
Neighbors
Politics
Protection
Social capital
Social development
Social policy
Social protection
Social security
Welfare benefits
Welfare policy
Welfare recipients
Welfare reform
Welfare state
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Summary:Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) represent an innovation in social assistance policy by conditioning welfare benefits on recipients’ behaviors associated with human capital development. Although social assistance has expanded throughout the developing world in the 21st century, the political logic guiding CCT adoption differs sharply from that of unconditional cash transfers, and from the politics of social insurance development. Striking spatial and temporal correlations in their adoption also raise the specter of policy interdependence. A dynamic logit analysis of social assistance reforms in developing nations from 1990 to 2011 reveals that although CCTs have been impelled by democratization in developing countries, the model is not embraced systematically by the left or the right of the political spectrum. Rather, CCTs are more likely to be adopted in contexts of divided government and where regional neighbors, and more democratic countries in the region, have previously adopted them.
ISSN:0032-3292
1552-7514
DOI:10.1177/0032329215602894