Citizen’s Income and Welfare Regimes in Latin America: From Cash Transfers to Rights (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)

Citizen's Income and Welfare Regimes in Latin America promotes the Basic Income (BI) proposal as a model to reform policies of income transfers in Latin America. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-26 Front Matter....Pages 27-27 Brazil: The Lost Road to Citizen’s Income....Pages 29-49 The Argentine “Universal Child Allowance”: Not the Poor but the Unemployed and Informal Workers....Pages 51-66 Targeting and Conditionalities in Mexico: The End of a Cash Transfer Model?....Pages 67-85 Basic Pensions in Latin America: Toward a Rights-Based Policy?....Pages 87-112 A Regional Citizen’s Income to Reduce Poverty in Central America....Pages 113-137 Front Matter....Pages 139-139 Are Latin Americans—Brazilians in Particular—Willing to Support an Unconditional Citizen’s Income?....Pages 141-167 The Politics of Citizen’s Income Programs in Latin America: Policy Legacies and Party Character....Pages 169-186 Should Citizen’s Income Become a Goal for Feminism in Latin America?....Pages 187-209 Citizen’s Income and Democratization in Latin America—A Multi-Institutional Perspective....Pages 211-232 Citizen’s Income and the Material Basis of the Constitution....Pages 233-258 Epilogue....Pages 259-266 Back Matter....Pages 267-275 "Social protection systems in Latin America developed in a fragmented manner, offering varying access to benefits and benefit levels to population groups. In the context of widespread informal and precarious work, social insurance institutions could only provide limited coverage. In this context, progress towards a Citizen's Income policy in Latin America depends on the possibility of reappraising its importance for an integrated institutional system, which promotes the empowerment and economic independence of the people. A Citizen's Income policy is not only a cash transfer to alleviate poverty or a basic income for food. It is a basic right to improve democracy and encourage a more autonomous development of people living in profoundly unequal societies"-- Provided by publisher This book describes the Basic Income proposal as a model to reform policies of income transfers in Latin America. A study that covers many topics and many countries, looking back at both the genesis and support of current focalized and conditional programs and forward to see how and whether the BI proposal can be adapted for use in the region.