Delivering Effective Social Assistance: Does Politics Matter?

Abstract

The paper examines the significance of politics in the rise of social assistance programmes in developing countries in the last decade. It finds this is a two-way process. Politics is crucial to the adoption, design and implementation of social assistance programmes. They also have a feedback effect on local and national politics. The paper develops a framework for distinguishing the different dimensions of influence. It applies this framework to study the development of social assistance in India, Brazil and South Africa. It employs a comparative perspective to identify key approaches, findings, and knowledge gaps in the politics of social assistance.

Investigating the Political Economy of Social Protection Expansion in Africa: At the Intersection of Transnational Ideas and Domestic Politics

“…There is a growing recognition within development studies that politics matters for social protection in general (Graham 2002, Pritchett 2005, Hickey 2009) and with specific reference to sub-Saharan Africa (Hickey 2008, Niño-Zarazúa et al 2011. This existing research has convincingly argued both that politics shapes social protection processes (Graham 1995, Barrientos and Pellissery 2012 and that causal links run in both directions; social protection can also transform politics, potentially building social cohesion (Mkandawire 2004(Mkandawire , 2005 and social contracts (Hickey 2011). However, while this research has identified broad political factors that influence social protection -namely institutions, actors,…”

Dynamics of Designing and Implementing Social Safety Net Programmes in Developing Countries

“…This is also a limitation of this paper. However, we have adopted social constructionist perspective to capture different political discourses under some common assumptions developed by Hickey (2006) and Barrientos and Pellissery (2012). This paper mainly focuses on low income and developing countries and ignores developed countries.…”

“…Political discourses have a role in prioritizing and implementing such pro-poor policy. The objective of this paper is to understand the dynamics of political discourses that influences in adopting and sustaining Social Safety Net Programmes in these countries utilizing the common assumptions proposed by Hickey (2006) and Barrientos and Pellissery (2012). The analysis of this paper identifies that the assumptions developed by Hickey, Barrientos and Pellissery are not adequate enough to capture political discourses around SSNPs in the developing countries.…”

The Politics of Promoting Social Protection in Zambia

“…1 The approach is based on an 'adapted political settlements' framework incorporating insights from the literature on welfare state development and social protection in both industrialized countries and the global south (e.g. Huber and Stephens 2012;Kpessa and Béland 2013; see also Barrientos and Pellissery 2012;Hickey 2007;Niño-Zarazúa et al 2011); on the role of ideas in shaping political behaviour and institutional change (Schmidt 2008); and the role of global policy networks (Stone 2008). The framework is expanded in depth in Lavers and Hickey (2016).…”