PERSPECTIVES ON CASH TRANSFERS demand, while neo-liberalism was the re- Mexico’s Targeted and sponse to a crisis characterised by a drop in incomes and insufficient stimuli for Conditional Transfers: Between capital investments. Keynesianism solved the fundamental problems that at the time Oportunidades and Rights stopped the sustained growth of the world economy – the lack of dynamism of inter- nal demand. Because of this, in the Ford- Pablo Yanes ist-Keynesian model mass production and mass consumption were articulated in the Oportunidades, Mexico’s ince the 1980s there has been a pro- framework of the so-called mass society. conditional cash transfer found change in Latin America not Its central characteristic was work as a programme, which is linked to Sonly in the characteristics of the demand factor and its exploitation was regime of accumulation but also in the so- based on sustained increases in producti the education of children of a cial regime. That is, both economic and vity in a context of full employment and certain age and provision of social policy are being transformed. In a social networks for security, protection health services, is often described way, the turn towards pro-market policies and social inclusion. as an outstanding success. In 2011 has corresponded with a turn towards However, a time arrived when the targeted and conditional cash transfer Fordist-Keynesian model lost functiona it will cover 5.8 million families. programmes (TCCTP) in social policy. lity. The unions became very strong and But Oportunidades warrants a full employment allowed them to negoti- critical analysis for its Regime of Accumulation ate advantageous conditions; social and Social Regime “conditions” deny any autonomy conquests became institutionalised and “What are we talking about when we refer expanded to other social groups within a to the poor and the scheme is to the neo-liberal regime of accumulation?”.1 perspective of universality; a strong fiscal based on a system of rewards and Some authors, such as Luis Arizmendi, load was maintained to finance the welfare punishment which assumes that would rather speak about cynical capita state and the share of salaries and wages the poor do not know what they lism, recovering the profoundly anti-liberal in the structure of income distribution in so- and freedom restricting sense of the current ciety increased. It is no coincidence that want. Its record in reducing model. Others such as Toni Domenech refer the call to replace the Fordist-Keynesian income poverty has also been to the model as counter-reformed capital- regime happened during the discussion limited. More can be learnt from ism, putting the emphasis on its intention on the fiscal crisis of the State and the recent modifications that cover to rebuild the relations of accumulation, need to reduce taxes on businesses as eliminating all of the de-commodificating well as any obstacle that inhibited invest- the hitherto excluded, the very factors that characterised the Fordist- ment. Work, in consequence, no longer young children and the senior Keynesian regime, particularly in the welfare had to be seen mainly as a factor of de- citizens. However, it is new state in Europe. Regardless of whether it mand but as a production cost. Unlike de- proposals of a basic income is called cynical, counter-reformed or de- mand that had to be strengthened and regulated, all of which it is, the current encouraged, work as a production cost transfer – universal, to individuals regime, which we can call neo-liberal for had to be reduced systematically. and without conditions – that the sake of simplicity, has been the domi- Just as there was a very radical shift in hold out more promise. nant form of reproduction of the capital the regime of accumulation in the last 30 system in the last 30 years. years, the same happened with the social The genesis of this regime is the crisis policy model. If, using the Esping-Andersen of the Fordist-Keynesian model and the terminology, the Fordist-Keynesian model growing loss of functionality of the model was matched with a welfare state that after 30 years of unquestioned domi- oscillated between the social-democrat nance in the western world. The global model, and the corporate model, then ascent of neo-liberalism, which was even the neo-liberal regime is matched by a called the only thought, was possible be- residual-liberal social policy model. cause it provided a coherent response to The central features of the social policy the crisis that accumulation was under- model of the neo-liberal regime of accu- going at the time. mulation have been privatisation and re- Pablo Yanes ([email protected]) is Keynesianism had been an articulated commodification to varying degrees and general director of the Social Development response to a gigantic crisis of over-pro scales, of social rights, particularly educa- Evaluation Council of Mexico City. duction of merchandise and insufficient tion, healthcare, housing and pension and
Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 21, 2011 vol xlvi no 21 49 PERSPECTIVES ON CASH TRANSFERS retirement benefits; the abandonment of the appearance, making them the desirable a study (Fiszbein and Schady 2009) that universality logic of rights and the elevation policy model for the region.3 It is no coin- includes a strong defence of the idea of of targeting from a tool to a structuring cidence that today in Latin America, in conditions in the chapter “The Economic principle, the search for the supremacy accordance with the non-contributing Rationale for Conditional Cash Transfers”. within the regime of the market over the social programme database created by the There, the authors formulate the idea of State and of private over public, along with Social Development Division of the Eco- the “microfoundations of paternalism” the growing shift (both active and passive) nomic Commission for Latin America and (ibid: 50). According to the study, a reason of public responsibilities to families. Like- the Caribbean,4 there are TCCTP in 18 to justify the introduction of conditions is wise, there has been a reduction in the field countries which cover 25 million families that the poor do not always behave exact- of social policy, separating it from rights and (around 113 million people), or around ly as could be expected from rational inscribing it into targeted and conditional 19% of the population of Latin America agents with perfect information. programmes aimed at eradicating poverty. and the Caribbean.5 What imperfect information, myopia, and However, it is very interesting to note incomplete altruism have in common, for Poverty and Targeted that according to the same sources despite our purposes, is that they may cause a and Conditional Transfers their large coverage, spending on TCCTP family´s privately chosen level of investment Within this context of a paradigm shift for represents only 0.40% of the GDP of the in human capital to be too low, compared the creation and execution of social policy, countries in the region. According to the with its own ‘true’ private optimal. If they are pervasive, then these distortions in pri- the subject of income distribution stopped proponents of these programmes, it seems vate decision-making provide some contem- being mentioned and social policy was that there is a major achievement in being porary support to the time-honoured no- reduced to a single objective, the so-called able to cover a large number of poor people, tions that governments may ‘know better’ “fight against poverty”. There was a virtual by spending few resources and yet obtain- what is privately good for poor people than displacement of the subject of inequality ing big results. It would be possible, ac- do the poor themselves, at least in some realms (Fiszbein and Schady 2009: 50). and everything was focused on poverty cording to this logic, to fight poverty with and, in particular on extreme poverty. very few public resources. Another reason stated is that condition- Since the 1980s, at least in Latin America, It is important to clarify, however, that ing the transfers to “good behaviour” debates have sprung up on how to measure between the different TCCTP, in the region practices supports the cooperation of tax- poverty, including on the minimalistic there are differences both in coverage and payers and the more affluent members of threshold of the World Bank, $1.25 per in design for the fulfilment of the condi- society in funding these programmes. day. Beyond the World Bank, poverty has tions (strong in Mexico and flexible in Again: been measured predominantly by unidi- Brazil), but they all share common traits: The second main conceptual argument for mensional criteria, as poverty of monetary • They are targeted with the known conditioning a cash transfer is that govern- income, that is also set at a very low level. problems of both inclusion and exclusion ments typically do not behave like textbook When the measurements have been made errors. benevolent dictators. Policy decisions gener- from a multidimensional perspective, in- • They demand that the beneficiaries ally result from decision-making processes that involve voting, lobbying, bureaucratic corporating unmet basic needs, there has adhere to certain conditions. and interagency bargaining, and a variety been a strong debate on the thresholds to • They are transfers to families, not people. of other forms of what one broadly might determine when those needs have been • The transfers are small and there is an call political economy. Under some circum- met. Finally, only in exceptional cases has income ceiling that cannot be crossed. stances, conditioning cash transfers on ‘good the lack of time been incorporated in the • Their behaviour is pro-cyclical and the behaviour’ may increase public support for them, making the programme either feasible dimensions of income and basic needs as transfers are strongly determined by the or better-endowed (ibid: 50). an element of poverty.2 evolution of economic growth. The wave of measurements in Latin • They lack a preventive dimension with After decades of hammering home the America has been based on low satisfaction regard to insufficient income. theory of rational expectations or the thresholds that imply in terms of policies, • They favour childhood as a subject of school of public choice, of designing that with relatively little public interven- attention (particularly those in the economic and social policies on the tion and a small shift in resources there schoolgoing ages). hypothesis of homo economicus and con- could be important reductions in poverty. • They are not conceived and designed sidering that individual economic deci- Poverty measured with limited criteria as rights. sions are based on rational decisions for would correspond to a low intensity social • They are not permanent or stable, but cost minimisation and benefit maximisa- policy with a small fiscal impact. rather transitory. tion, the 2009 World Bank study and the Here, the TCCTP that proliferated dur- With these characteristics, TCCTP are design of the TCCTP established an excep- ing the decade of the 1990s in Latin Amer- structured around an anthropology of tion. The poor do not behave in a rational ica, helped by promotion form the multi- poverty, the poor, and a set of social repre- manner, cannot make correct decisions, lateral lending organisations, particularly sentations about them that lead to the do not know what they really need, and the World Bank and the Inter American inclusion in these programmes of the idea must thus be guided. Should they fail to Development Bank (IADB), made their of conditions. The World Bank sponsored meet the conditions set forth for their own
50 may 21, 2011 vol xlvi no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly PERSPECTIVES ON CASH TRANSFERS benefit, they must be punished with exclu- are ignorant and burdened with many It is about deciding whether Oportuni- sion from the cash transfer programme. children, and the logic of domination that dades or TCCTP are the right way to over- Since the dominant social mentality is sees the poor as part of the so-called dan- come poverty in a sustained manner. It is that the poor make bad decisions and gerous classes. Thus, with the introduc- about deciding if their central hypothesis tend towards vagrancy, irresponsibility, tion of conditions and their theoretical that poverty is a consequence of a lack of laziness and vice, it is necessary in order justification, the logic of a citizenry with human capital in people is correct; if it is to keep taxpayers from complaining demandable rights and a state forced to true that the poor require conditions and about these programmes to include con- materialise them is shifted towards a a system of rewards and punishment in ditions for political and argumentative logic of a state with programmes that de- order to go to school and take care of their reasons. There should be no confusion, mand that the “beneficiaries” fulfil so- health; if the instrumentation and operation TCCTP are not part of welfare, they are called co-responsibilities, as the condi- of the programme extends the enjoyment part of workfare. The proponents of tions are called. of social rights and builds citizenship. TCCTP, however, have failed to demon- For 2011 the programme has a register strate that the improvements that are ob- Oportunidades, a Model to Follow? of 5.8 million families and a budget of served in some programmes in school at- Oportunidades is the federal government’s $4.8 billion. On an average, each house- tendance or attendance to health clinics main social programme; its predecessor hold receives a transfer equivalent to $827 are derived from the conditions rather was Progresa. Oportunidades consists of a annually or $69 monthly.6 The amount of than the improved income of the family conditional cash transfer that includes support for families varies heavily, but the due to the transfers. scholarships for children as well as a small ceiling, when there are scholarships in- In the studies about the conditions amount of financial support for food and volved for high school studies, is $203 a there is no evidence for the supposed link energy. It also has a nutrional supplement month per household. Regardless of the between the transfer and the associated for small children and pregnant women. fact that its budget is meaningful, Oportu- conditions. The introduction of conditions The scholarships increase proportionately nidades represents a very small fraction of seems much more linked to political rea- with school advancement and they are the federal budget, only around 1.68%. sons, of the punitive perspective and of larger for girls than for boys. The condi- The programme has been modified in the logic that binds together aid and con- tions to get the cash transfer are school recent years, with new components that trol (see also Lo Vuolo 2010). attendance, regular medical check-ups have partially altered its initial design. In As Hanlon, Barrientos and Hulme and participation at self-care courses. The 2005, a monthly $20 transfer for people (2010) have noted in their comparative majority of the beneficiaries live in rural aged 70 or above in the context of the study on conditional transfers in the world. areas but the urban component has been “The Countryside Can’t Take Any More” growing rapidly. Currently, Oportunidades mobilisation and the impact of the introduc- Despite the importance of conditions, their effectiveness has not been studied sepa covers 5.8 million households in Mexico. tion in Mexico City of the Universal Senior rately from the programmes that include The Oportunidades programme in Mexico Citizen Pension programme. them, and it tends simply to be assumed has been promoted by the World Bank and The introduction of the senior citizen that they work. In fact, there is almost no the Inter American Development Bank as dimension was a large shift (even as it evidence that conditions make any major the emblematic example of poverty fight- maintained targeting and conditionality), difference (p 131). ing programmes and both institutions, and a product of social and political pres- Likewise, they highlight the worrying have suggested to the governments in the sure. It represented an adjustment in the fact that in Latin America, governments region that they recreate the programme objective of breaking the intergenerational assign millions of dollars to the adminis- in their own countries. As we previously transmission of poverty – the heart of the tration of the conditions without rigorously mentioned, regarding the ECLAC data Oportunidades programme consists of analysing how much they contribute to there are currently 18 countries with such scholarships for children aged between programmes and if the said contributions programmes in Latin America and the 9 and 21 years. The new programme was match the cost involved. Additionally, Caribbean. It can be said that, with Opor- no longer about addressing the poverty conditions cannot be considered neutral: tunidades, Mexico became an exporter of of today’s children but about today’s in studies regarding Mexico (Hanlon et al social technology. senior citizens. However, this aspect of 2010: 133), it has been noted that punitive It is not about denying that the pro- the programme is almost closed due to conditions penalise those who most need gramme, previously called Progresa, that the existence of a programme of transfers the transfers, as those in the most des- has been progressively applied in Mexico for senior citizens called Setenta y Más perate situations are those who cannot during the last 11 years does not have posi- (“Seventy and Over”). meet the conditions, and thus lose out on tive effects on the incomes of families Likewise there have been two new the transfers. especially in the short term, and that it modifications in recent years. In 2007 the As has been pointed out elsewhere does not help in improving some social so-called energy component was added, (Yanes 2010), behind the technical reasons indicators. Because of its continuity, cov- which consists of a cash transfer to homes there is a political reason that sees the poor erage and the outlay of resources, it would in order to compensate for spending on from a colonialist logic of poor Indians who be impossible for this not to be the case. energy sources (power, coal, wood, fuel or
Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 21, 2011 vol xlvi no 21 51 PERSPECTIVES ON CASH TRANSFERS candles) which, although it could be in- through Setenta y Más. And we are not families, the logic of transmission of re- cluded in the nutritional dimension of the talking about small budgets. In the case of sponsibilities towards families, particularly programme, goes beyond it. Apoyo Infantil Vivir Mejor, the budget ex- women. Some obligations of families: The most important change, however, ceeded $649 million and for senior citi- “Support the scholarship holders in primary happened in 2010. A new transfer was zens, through Setenta y Más, the budget education so that they regularly attend added, called Apoyo Infantil Vivir Mejor reaches $1.1 billion. Both new components, class and take better advantage of their (“Live Better Child Support”) which con- small children and senior citizens, make up education” (ibid: 30). It is a very vague sists of a small monthly transfer of little about 25% of the programme’s budget. meaning, to support them so that they over $8 for every child under 9, with attend class, but it is a very delicate thing a ceiling of three transfers per family. Setenta y Más to make families (understood to be the This transfer, even if it is very small, The case of Setenta y Más is very interest- mother), responsible for the improvement alters the idea of a programme built on ing because it expresses the transition of schooling, which should be the objec- a logic of increasing human capital, from an individually targeted and condi- tive and sole responsibility of the school understood fundamentally as an increase tional programme to a territorially targeted system and not the mother’s obligation. in school enrolment. one that has no conditions. By 2010, the Likewise, it is stated in the same chapter Until 2010, the cash incentives in Opor- programme had incorporated a little over that another obligation is to “receive and tunidades began in the third grade and at 2.3 million people in rural areas and small consume nutritional supplements delivered nine years of age. This had been strongly cities. Strictly speaking, Setenta y Más was at the healthcare unit for children and criticised as it was noted that the families not a programme designed by the federal pregnant women” (ibid: 30). This estab- with the youngest children, those under 5, government, but decided from within lishes the amazing obligation of having to are those most in need of support, but the Congress as a response to peasant mobili- consume the supplements that are deliv- response was that the programme could sations that demanded a rural pension. It ered regardless of will, taste or flavour. not be built on incentives for increasing is a programme with universal coverage for There is also an obligation with respect to birth rates, assuming that given a cash all people over 70 residing in localities of senior citizens that remain in Oportuni- incentive, the poor would have more up to 30,000 inhabitants and, contrary to dades rather than in Setenta y Más. The children in order to get more transfers. Oportunidades it has no co-responsibilities obligation is of “delivering to the senior There is no serious evidence that sup- or conditions. citizens the monetary support intended for ports this belief and, to the contrary, there Setenta y Más is a large programme in them” (ibid: 30). As the mother of small are historical examples that point in the both coverage and resources whose purpose children in the home is usually the titular opposite direction, as are the union con- is to keep growing by increasing the size receiver of the transfers in Oportuni- quests in South American countries called of the locations where it applies, but which dades, the absurd situation of the money Asignaciones Familiares, in which workers does not receive either the attention or intended for the senior citizens being de- have additional economic support per the publicity that Oportunidades does. In livered to the daughter who, in turn, must child until the child reaches adult age, Mexico, the country offered as an example deliver it to the senior citizen, ensues. This 18 years and this has not had an impact of successful programmes such as Opor- introduces a lamentable relationship of on birth rates. tunidades, there are also schemes built power within the family nucleus in which It can be said that the refusal to support with a different logic (with territorial tar- the senior citizen is rendered child-like families with very young children is based geting and no conditions), which shows and has no direct access to resources that more on prejudice than on scientific evi- that there are different paths for transfer are his by right, and so depends completely dence. But with the manifestation of the policies, and also that it is possible to go on the intervention of the daughter. world crisis in 2008 as a food crisis amongst from a model of individual targeting to Even worse, according to the same op- poor families, the federal government in territorial targeting as a halfway point to- erational rules, the support is terminated Mexico decided to alter the policy and wards universality, and from conditional when “the senior citizen leaves the house- added transfers for children under 9. transfers to unconditional transfers. All of hold” (ibid: 33). So, the possibility of an Oportunidades, without renouncing its this within the same country, Mexico, and nature of conditional and targeted trans- within the same government agency, the fers, has had to introduce adjustments that Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (Ministry modify its initial concept of catering only of Social Development). available at to children of school age, of having as its It cannot be a coincidence then that strategic objective only the breaking of policymakers worldwide have widespread Akshara-The Executive Partner intergenerational transmission of poverty knowledge about Oportunidades but little 8/3/1089, Plot No 46, and of only granting transfers for children to no idea about Setenta y Más. Srinagar Colony from 9 to 22. Because of the social and The reading of the operational rules Hyderabad 500 034 political dynamic, the programme now (Diario Oficial de la Federacion 2010) for the Andhra Pradesh involves children under 9 and adults over 70, programme permits one to also dissect, in Ph: 23736262 first within Oportunidades and later the chapter on the obligations of beneficiary
52 may 21, 2011 vol xlvi no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly PERSPECTIVES ON CASH TRANSFERS independent life or at least a separate In his analysis of the link between edu- There is, on the contrary, more of a roller- house is negated. The senior citizen under cational poverty and income poverty as a coaster dynamic, with slow ascents and Oportunidades must get her support from central hypothesis of the Progresa and sudden falls that negate a firm and sustained the daughter and will lose it should she Oportunidades programmes, Julio Boltvinik diminution of poverty. It seems more to live in a different home. (2004) analyses the evolution of both head in the direction of a more sustained This serves to illustrate the contrast be- poverties in Mexico and highlights the diminution in the intensity of poverty. The tween being a senior citizen under Opor- argument that: lasting effect is that the poor are less poor, tunidades and under Setenta y Más, two Several issues must be raised. First, while but there are no fewer poor, and the fall federal transfer programmes aimed at the educational poverty in adults declined rapidly into poverty is an ever present danger that same group of people. In the first case, during these 30 years (1969-2000), poverty is highly dependent on the economic cycle. the citizen receives a $25 monthly trans- of income was basically constant (from 72.6% fer, in the second, it is $40. In the first in 1968 to 68.5% in 2000). Comparing only Income as a Right of Citizenship: the end-points, the hypothesis that a low ed- An Alternative View programme there are conditions, in the ucational level is the main cause of income second there are none. In the first he must poverty (which is behind the design of Pro- I have highlighted the fact that in Mexico, get the money through his daughter, in gresa) should be rejected. In the period at the federal level there are two coexist- the second he gets it directly. In the first 1980-2000, we found that while equivalent ing models for cash transfers – two pro- programme she loses her income if she educational poverty declined by 60% from grammes – in terms of the size of the 43.7% to 26.3%, income poverty increased leaves the household, in the second she by 41% from 48.5% in 1981 to 68.5% in 2000. funds they administer and their coverage: only loses it if she moves to a location with At least in the recent history of Mexico we can Oportunidades and Setenta y Más. But these over 30,000 inhabitants. state that the evolution of income in homes alternatives are present not only in Mexico But the deeper debate on Oportuni- (and thus income poverty) is not associated City and not only at the federal level. dades and the TCCTP resides in the sturdi- with the educational level of the adults. Thus, In Mexico, the Mexico City government if Oportunidades had been created in 1980 it ness of the central hypothesis which states would have lost its central bet: the children has a law, signed in 2003 and reformed in that to break the intergenerational trans- and youths who were studying in 1980 and in 2008, that establishes as a right a univer- mission of poverty in order to access subsequent years would not have been able to sal pension for all citizens over the age of better employment, the accumulation of access productive activities and well remuner- 68 who have lived in the city for the previ- so-called human capital is required, mainly ated employment (Boltvinik 2004: 345). ous three years. It is an unconditional through the educational system. In addition to the central matter of the transfer that by law cannot be less than Or if, for example, the correct starting link between schooling, education and in- half a monthly minimum wage. Currently, point is that education is a positional asset come, the TCCTP also suffer from very im- the pension is equivalent to $75 per person in which everyone moves and, thus, even portant vulnerabilities in their aim to and covers 520,000 people. if the poorer sectors have access to more combat poverty and break its intergenera- Likewise in Bolivia, the government of years of education, the more favoured also tional transmission. Amongst them are Evo Morales built the Renta Dignidad have more schooling which maintains the the exclusion errors that are part of all tar- which is also a universal unconditional gap between the two groups in quantity geted programmes, ex post intervention pension for those over 60 years of age and and also in terms of quality. only for the identified poor and thus a lack which is financed partly from the income In the same manner in the central hy- of a preventive dimension to keep the at from hydrocarbon sales. In Argentina, pothesis in Oportunidades that more risk population from becoming poor. It as- Cristina Fernandez’s government practically schooling is equated with better income is sumes that the fight against poverty is a made the asignaciones familiares univer- the supposition that the labour market straight-line and those who leave it never sal by establishing them for the children functions in a quasi-perfect manner and come back and thus the policies and pro- of those outside the formal labour market that there is a high positive correlation be- grammes ignore those who go over the as well as the unemployed. It consists of a tween schooling and income. Likewise, it line or threshold of poverty. monthly transfer of $50 per child until she is assumed that compensation is estab- However, one of the largest vulnerabili- is 18 years old and even if it has a small lished fundamentally in individual nego- ties is the dependence on the effect and im- conditional component (which affects tiations between an employer and the pact of these programmes on the evolution 20% of the transfer) it can be said that it holder of different capabilities and the of the economic cycle. They are pro-cyclical leans much more towards the logic of uni- market will adequately reward the skills programmes that get results, mostly modest versality and unconditionality than towards and knowledge obtained during the edu- ones, in the growth phase of the economic TCCTP logic. cational period. So labour markets are cycle and lose, in one or two years of crisis, This means that in Latin America not fundamentally exchanges between indi- all that was gained in the previous years. all programmes are of the Oportunidades viduals, and not large social conglomerates Seen as midterm trends we cannot say that or TCCTP type. It is relevant that ECLAC, in in which state regulation (via a salary policy, in Mexico and Oportunidades, we have its 2010 report, Time for Equality: Closing for example) or collective bargaining (via reached a firm and sustained tendency that Gaps – Opening Trails, proposes the need the pressure exerted by unions) are not has found points of no return in the fight to advance towards a system of redistri relevant issues. against poverty. butive citizen cash transfers with an
Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 21, 2011 vol xlvi no 21 53 PERSPECTIVES ON CASH TRANSFERS emphasis on homes with small children, to targeting; it centres on the person and in Mexico (27 million) and Familias en Acción in . Colombia (12 million). By the way, according to senior citizens and the unemployed not on the family and it permits a reorder- the ECLAC database, El Bono de Desarrollo Hu- ECLAC (2010b) argues: ing of social relations based on the expan- mano in Ecuador covers the largest percentage of a country’s population (44%) ECLAC (2010b). There are, on the other hand, good reasons sion of autonomy and individual freedoms. 6 All calculations are based on an exchange rate of to defend a basic system of partial guaranteed By implying an important movement of 12 Mexican pesos for one US dollar. 7 On November 2007, within the framework of the incomes. The first, as has been previously resources, BI would force progressive fiscal Forum of Cultures held in Monterrey, Mexico, mentioned, is the equality of social rights reforms that would imply important redis- a declaration titled “Declaración universal de derechos humanos emergentes” was approved. that concerns the citizens. The homes that tributive processes. Likewise, BI constitutes face situations of exogenous shock or bio- In the third point of its first article one can read: a way to overcome poverty, not just to con- The right to basic income, which assures all indi- graphical changes and that are affected by viduals, independently of their age, sex, sexual poverty and vulnerability tend to be de-capi- tain it or diminish it in small or transitory orientation, civil status or employment status, talised beyond the effect of the shock, pre- proportions, and, above all, it creates a the right to live under worthy material condi- tions. To such end, the right to an unconditional, cisely because they lack guaranteed mini- preventive dimension so that those that regular, monetary income paid by the state and mums, or at least instruments that soften the cease to be poor do not fall back into pov- financed by fiscal reforms, is recognised as a flow of income in the face of adverse situa- right of citizenship, to each resident member of tions. In practical terms, and even more in erty. Because of the amounts that BI would society, independently of their other sources of involve, it would provide an effective income, and being adequate to allow them to ethical terms, avoiding the collapse of the cover their basic needs. economies of homes that represent a good material support that will permit people part of the population and Latin American to meet basic needs and make life projects. References production is as necessary as avoiding the Because it would be a right and a social collapse of the financial systems (by subsi- Boltvinik, J (2004): “Políticas Focalisadas de Combate dising its deficiencies) (p 208). guarantee, the dimension of citizenship a la Pobreza en México. El Progresa/Oportuni- would be broadened and people could es- dades” (Targeted Poverty Fighting Policies in Mexico) in Boltvinik, J y Damián, A (ed.), La Pob- Because of all of this it is urgently needed cape the vices of patronage, insecurity and reza en México y el Mundo. Realidades y Desafíos, to question the underlying anthropology of uncertainty that are common in TCCTP. (Poverty in Mexico and the World, Realities and the conditional cash transfer programmes. Beyond all of this, in the BI initiative Challenges) (México: Siglo XXI editores). Diario Oficial de la Federación(Official Journal of the It is necessary to make the existence of a there is a proposal for a society and a Federation) (2010): “Reglas de Operación del Pro- point of view with a strong classist and rac- concept of rights of citizenship that is dif- grama de Desarrollo Humano Oportunidades” (Operational Rules for the Oportunidades Human ist content regarding the poor and poverty ferent from that of the TCCTP. It is not Development Programme), 31 December. that is evident in conditional programmes. only a technically powerful proposal in ECLAC (2010a): Social Development Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the effects and results, it is not only an alter- Caribbean, “Non-Contributive Social Program Poor as Citizens with Rights native course of action for current social Database in Latin America and the Caribbean”. – (2010b): “La hora de la igualdad. Brechas por cerrar, It is fundamental to centre the discussion policies and poverty fighting policies caminos por abrir” (Time for Equality: Closing in other terms so that a logic of emancipa- (although it is also that), but rather it is Gaps – Opening Trails), Thirty-Third ECLAC Session Period, Brasilia, Brazil, 30 May-1 June. tion that does not burden the poor with part of an emancipation project that seeks Fiszbein, Ariel and Norbert Schady (2009): “Condi- obligations but rather sees them as citi- to end the social subordination derived tional Cash Transfers. Reducing Present and Future Poverty”, The International Bank for Reconstruc- zens with rights and free of poverty can be from material dependence and the inca- tion and Development/The World Bank, A World opened. Social policy – and particularly pability of having a guaranteed material Bank Policy Research Proyect. cash transfers – will then cease to be an existence. It is because of this that the BI Hanlon, Joseph, Armando Barrientos y Hulme, David (2010): Just Give Money to the Poor: The Develop- instrument of social control and become initiative is inscribed within the move- ment Revolution from the Global South (Kumarian an instrument of citizenship building ment of emergent human rights7 and is Press). Lo Vuolo, Rubén (2010): “Las perspectivas del ingreso merely a mediation for the materialisation proposed as a freeing process which, if it ciudadano en América Latina” (The Perspectives of demandable rights. It is thus evident materialises, would represent for human of Basic Income in Latin America). Lo Vuolo, R, D Raventós and P Yanes (2011): “La crisis that the debate regarding the best way to society a civilising leap, a break point in económica, los subsidios condicionados y el In- carry out income transfers to the popula- which the fear and lash of hunger would greso Ciudadano-Renta Básica” (The Economic Crisis, Conditional Subsidies and Basic Income). tion is, at its heart, political and axiomatic cease to be the glue of daily life, the Yanes, P (2010) “Después del neoliberalismo: hacia – and not technical as it is often presented. invisible hand of social order. una nueva política socio-económica” (After Neo- liberalism: Towards a New Socio-Economic Policy), More precisely, it is a debate regarding the Sin Permiso, Dic 26 www.sinpermiso.info content and manner of executing the Notes rights of the citizenry. 1 Several of the ideas mentioned here can be found It is this dispute regarding the content in Yanes (2010). 2 Such is the case of the “ Método de Medición Inte- where the Basic Income (BI) proposal, which grada de la Pobreza” (“Integrated Poverty Meas- available at is starting to make inroads in Latin America urement Method”) developed in Mexico by Julio Boltvinik Kalinka. and other regions, separates itself from the 3 Several of the ideas in this section have also been Delhi Magazine Distributors TCCTP. The BI initiative, by being uncondi- developed in an unedited text by Lo Vuolo et al (2011). Pvt Ltd tional, universal, guaranteed, individual and 4 ECLAC (2010a). 110, Bangla Sahib Marg lifelong is shown to be a powerful alterna- 5 The programmes with the largest number of ben- New Delhi 110 001 tive as it overcomes the problems derived eficiaries in absolute terms are the Bolsa Familia in Brazil (52 million people, around 50% of all Ph: 41561062/63 from inclusion and exclusion errors common TCCTP beneficiaries in the region), Oportunidades
54 may 21, 2011 vol xlvi no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly