In the last decades several scholars have investigated the interplay between informal economy and various aspects of national political economies, such as the level of wealth, the degree of inequality, the size of state regulation and the weight of the welfare state. With reference to the latter, Williams (2013) has recently analyzed the relationship between the degree and the nature of informality and welfare systems in EU member states, showing a sort of “replacement effect”. Whether this relation holds true outside the boundaries of the European Union still needs to be probed. In particular, that connection might be more challenging in the case of developing countries, where larger informal economies exist, and where the implications of the process of democratization on the state should be taken into account. On this point, one must consider that the nexus between democratization and social welfare is not unquestioned. Despite the fact that – typically - the process of democratization is “expected to go hand in hand with expectations of social welfare improvements” (Carbone, 2012: 157), in depth case-analysis highlighted that the impact of the first on the latter is multifaceted and needs to be carefully assessed (Filgueira, 2005; Carbone, 2012). Building on these strands of literature, the paper takes Brazil as case study and deals with two main research questions: 1) what has been the impact of the process of democratization on the size and nature of public social provision?; and 2) has the “replacement effect” identified by Williams (2013) between social welfare and informal economy occurred in Brazil? To this end the paper overviews key developments that characterized the recent democratic history of the country in three periods - the two presidential mandates of Cardoso (1995-2003), the two presidential mandates of Lula da Silva (2003-2011), and the first presidential mandate of Rousseff (2011-2015), using a mixed method that combines both quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
Coletto, D., Madama, I., VITTUCCI MARZETTI, G. (2015). Democracy, social welfare and the informal economy in Brazil. Intervento presentato a: Democracy, Inequality and Power: Redefining Classic Concepts for the Twenty-First Century - Policy & Politics Annual Conference 2015, Bristol.
Democracy, social welfare and the informal economy in Brazil
COLETTO, DIEGO;VITTUCCI MARZETTI, GIUSEPPE
2015
Abstract
In the last decades several scholars have investigated the interplay between informal economy and various aspects of national political economies, such as the level of wealth, the degree of inequality, the size of state regulation and the weight of the welfare state. With reference to the latter, Williams (2013) has recently analyzed the relationship between the degree and the nature of informality and welfare systems in EU member states, showing a sort of “replacement effect”. Whether this relation holds true outside the boundaries of the European Union still needs to be probed. In particular, that connection might be more challenging in the case of developing countries, where larger informal economies exist, and where the implications of the process of democratization on the state should be taken into account. On this point, one must consider that the nexus between democratization and social welfare is not unquestioned. Despite the fact that – typically - the process of democratization is “expected to go hand in hand with expectations of social welfare improvements” (Carbone, 2012: 157), in depth case-analysis highlighted that the impact of the first on the latter is multifaceted and needs to be carefully assessed (Filgueira, 2005; Carbone, 2012). Building on these strands of literature, the paper takes Brazil as case study and deals with two main research questions: 1) what has been the impact of the process of democratization on the size and nature of public social provision?; and 2) has the “replacement effect” identified by Williams (2013) between social welfare and informal economy occurred in Brazil? To this end the paper overviews key developments that characterized the recent democratic history of the country in three periods - the two presidential mandates of Cardoso (1995-2003), the two presidential mandates of Lula da Silva (2003-2011), and the first presidential mandate of Rousseff (2011-2015), using a mixed method that combines both quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
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