The Bolsa Família case: a road to the unconditional basic income

• Autor(a) principal: Souza, Thiago da Costa Monteiro de
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/130845
• topic: Universal Basic Income; Bolsa Família; Brazil; Bolsa Família Program; Public services; Liberty; Labor; Politics; Feminism; Renda Básica Incondicional; Serviços Públicos; Liberdade; Política; Feminismo; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências Políticas

The theory of the Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) has been debated for centuries (Suplicy, 2006). However, one of the major obstacles to the implementation of the UBI is lack of empirical testing. Basic Income pilots have been put into practice in recent years around the world (Standing, 2013). Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs that resemble the UBI, to a certain degree, as is the case of the Bolsa Família (BF), have also been implemented. This project is internationally considered as an example of success in combating historical poverty and inequality in Brazil. Observing what lessons may be learned from the Brazilian experience, the present work thus aims to analyze the Bolsa Família program so that contributionsto current UBI studies may also be considered. To achieve this end, based on the theoretical foundations of the UBI (Van Parijs, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, Mckay, 2001, Vanderborght, 2005, 2006, Standing, 2013, Pettit, 2007, Purdy, 1988, Merrill and Neves, 2021), some central topics are addressed, namely: (i) Freedom, (ii) Labor, (iii) Politics and (iv) Feminism. In addition, existing Basic Income projects are taken into account (Widerquist, 2019; Suplicy, 2006). Subsequently, the present study focuses on the Bolsa Família experience, narrating the genesis of the program, as well as its implementation and evolution over the years, which makes it possible to look into how the Brazilian socioeconomic indexes (Campello et al, 2013; Neri, 2018) have been affected since the creation of this Income Transfer policy. The main developments of the Bolsa Família project are then analyzed from the theoretical perspective of the UBI with a focus on the aforementioned topics, that is, Freedom, Labor, Politics and Feminism. From a preliminary stance, it may be observed that the Bolsa Família was enhanced especially up until 2013, when the Brazilian trade balance was going through a thriving moment of positive economic rates. However, upon reaching a period of crisis and unemployment, there were multiple setbacks in socioeconomic achievements obtained between 2003 and 2013. Hence, this work suggests that, if there were greater investments in quality public services, alongside investments in consumerism brought about by the BF, socioeconomic fluctuations would not have affected the beneficiaries of the CCT so strongly. Nevertheless, without intending to be an end in itself, the present work aims to engage and encourage the debate on setting up a functional and improved Unconditional Basic Income project.