Conditional 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.
This article analyzes Luiz Inácio da Silva's resounding reelection victory in the wake of corruption scandals implicating his party and government. Voters with lower levels of economic security and ...schooling played a critical role in returning Lula to the presidency. Least prone to punish the president for corruption, poorer Brazilians were also the most readily persuaded by the provision of material benefits. Minimum wage increases and the income transfer program Bolsa Família expanded the purchasing power of the poor. Thus, executive power and central state resources allowed Lula to consolidate a social base that had responded only weakly to his earlier, party-based strategy of grassroots mobilization for progressive macrosocietal change. Although Lula won handily, the PT's delegation to Congress shrank for the first time, and the voting bases of president and party diverged. The PT benefited far less than the president himself from government investment in social policy.
This article compares and contrasts two important phases of social incorporation in Brazil: (i) an early punctuated period that integrated formal sector workers and civil servants under President ...Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) and (ii) a later more extended sequence that strived to include the informal sector poor, beginning with the military regime (1964-1985), gaining momentum with the 1988 Brazilian Constitution and the presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002), and continuing under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). It captures the shift from a welfare state based on corporatist principles to one that comes closer to basic universalism. Whereas Vargas's incorporation project addressed workers as producers, later governments incurporated the informal poor as beneficiaries of public policy programs - including income support policies - in a more individualist and liberal fashion. Reprinted by permission of the Institut für Iberoamerika-Kunde
Has democracy promoted poverty alleviation and equity-enhancing reforms in Brazil, a country of striking inequality and destitution? The effects of an open, competitive political system have not been ...straightforward. Factors that would seem to work toward this goal include the voting power of poor people, the progressive 1988 Constitution, the activism of social movements, and governance since 1995 by presidents affiliated with center-left and left parties. Yet these factors have been counterbalanced by the strong political influence and lobbying power of organized interests with a stake in preexisting arrangements of social protection and human capital formation. An analysis of four key federal sectors, social security, education, health care, and public assistance, illustrates the challenges for social sector reforms that go beyond raising basic living standards to enhancing socioeconomic inequality.
A clear development goal is to provide the poor with the benefits essential to human dignity without rendering them vulnerable to patronage politics. This is difficult to accomplish, especially in ...large federal countries where public policy requires cooperation between national and local authorities. Brazil's Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) confronts such a challenge. Have federal authorities managed to administer this complex and large-scale anti-poverty program while avoiding local "politics as usual?" The findings, based on survey data and focus group evidence from Northeast Brazil, a regional bastion of clientelism, suggest that municipal politicians do not use the Bolsa Familia for vote buying. The success of the Bolsa Familia in remaining insulated from clientelistic networks yields lessons that go well beyond Brazil. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
► Healthy behaviours were related positively to attention for both genders. ► More health attention was paid by universalist, but not smoking and drinking, males. ► Health attention was positively ...related to age, universalism, and hedonism among women. ► Health attention was negatively associated to BMI and smoking among women. ► Universalism was positively related to education but negatively to drinking among women.
The purpose of the study was to examine middle to older aged Australians’ healthy eating, eating out, and physical activity behaviours and to investigate their relationships with likely antecedents such as demographics, personal values, health background, and attention to weight and health habits. A mail survey was conducted among a random sample of men and women aged between 38 and 79years; 1105 usable questionnaires were obtained. Structural equation modelling was used to examine relationships between the variables. The results showed that there were distinct relationships between predictive variables and behavioural and BMI outcomes for men and women. For example, healthy eating, eating out behaviours were positively associated with body weight for women but not men while attention to weight and health habits was positively related to hedonism values for women but not for men. The interrelationships among the predictors and the outcome variables appear to be more complex for women than men. The implications of the findings for nutrition communication are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to examine baby boomers’ food shopping behaviours and to investigate their relationships with demographics and personal values. A questionnaire concerning food shopping ...behaviours, personal values and demographics was mailed to a random sample of 2975 people aged 40–70 years in Victoria, Australia. Usable questionnaires of 1031 were obtained. Structural equation modelling was employed for data analyses. The analyses revealed that demographics and personal values influenced shopping behaviours via different pathways among male and female baby boomers. For example, self-direction positively impacted on shopping planning for men but negatively influenced price minimization for women. Among women only, age was positively related to shopping planning and negatively to price minimization. Thus, both personal values and demographics influenced baby boomers’ shopping behaviours. Since values are more likely to be amenable to change than demographics, segmentation of the population via value orientations would facilitate targeted interventions to promote healthy food shopping.
