An investigation into the evolution of poverty reduction strategies in Brazil and Argentina over the past two decades, focusing on programs like Bolsa Família and Asignación Universal por Hijo.
In today’s Latin America, social policy is a battleground. At stake is not just poverty relief, but the very meaning of citizenship and whether transformation is still possible in times of austerity and conservative backlash. Through a critical and comparative lens, this book reveals how political agendas, institutional legacies, and economic crises have shaped—and undermined—social protection systems. It reveals the dilemmas faced by social policy in times of democratic erosion, economic crisis, and rising inequality across the Latin American region.
Publication date: November 27, 2026
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Introduction
1 Poverty and Social Inequality in Latin America
1.1 Theoretical Perspectives on Poverty and Inequality
1.2 Methodologies for Measuring Poverty and Inequality
2 The Geographic, Ethic, and Gender Dimensions of Poverty and Inequality in Latin America
2.1 Rural Poverty in Latin America
2.2 Poverty and Ethno-Racial Inequalities in Latin America
2.3 Gender Dynamics in Poverty and Inequality in Latin America
3 Social Protection and Poverty Reduction Policies: The Early Development of Welfare Regimes in Argentina and Brazil
3.1 The Evolution of the Welfare State Debate
3.2 Building an Emerging Welfare State in Brazil: Public Policies to Address Poverty under Neoliberalism
3.3 Neoliberalism and the Erosion of the Argentine Welfare State Since 1976
3.4 The Rise of Targeted Social Policies in Argentina
4 Social Policy in Argentina from Kirchner to Milei: Between Welfare State Construction and Neoliberal Rollback
4.1 The Kirchnerist Decade: Néstor and Cristina Kirchner’s Administrations
4.2 The Government of Mauricio Macri and Argentina’s Shift to the Right
4.4 The Government of Javier Milei: Authoritarian Populism and Economic Ultraliberalism
5 Ideological Disputes and the Cycles of Expansion and Retraction of Social Policy in Brazil from 2003 to 2024
5.1 Social Policies in Lula’s Government: Between Focalisation and the Consolidation of Social Protection
5.2 Dilma Rousseff’s Government: Advances, Limits, and the Crisis of a Political Cycle
5.3 Reforms and Instability in Michel Temer’s Government
5.4 Jair Bolsonaro’s Government and the Dismantling of the Brazilian State
5.5 Lula da Silva’s Return to Power: Challenges and the Reconstruction of a Polarised Brazil
Final Remarks
References
Index