Abstract
This article aims to analyze those public policies that address the social problems of poverty in six Latin American countries: Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. The research question posed here is: what motivated these countries to implement policies aimed at transferring income? In theory, we consider that such public policies are the result of a re-democratization process, and the rise to power of a reformist political elite and of political parties or political coalitions bent on the idea of implementing a Welfare State. To check this theory, we have adopted the compared policy methodology and the neo-institutionalism approach, as well as the “synthetic theories” and the “argumentative turn”, all of which value ideas, knowledge and discourse.
Keywords:
social policy; welfare; poverty; the Bolsa Familia program; Latin America.
