IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/124846.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social protection and state-society relations in environments of low and uneven state capacity

Author

Listed:
  • Alik-Lagrange, Arthur
  • Dreier, Sarah K.
  • Lake, Milli
  • Porisky, Alesha

Abstract

Grounded in social-contractual ideas about relationships between the governed and those who govern, the provision of social benefits to citizens has historically been predicated on expectations of acquiescence to state authority. However, the rapid expansion of noncontributory social assistance in sub-Saharan Africa, often supported by global donors through technical assistance programs, raises myriad questions about the relationship between social protection and the social contract in fragile and low-capacity contexts. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, but drawing on the theoretical and empirical literature on social protection from around the world, this review parses out the redistributive, contractual, and reconstitutive effects of social protection programming on citizen-state relations. We argue that program features—including targeting, conditionality, accountability mechanisms, bureaucratic reach, and the nature and visibility of state-nonstate partnerships—interact dialectically with existing state-society relationships to engender different social contract outcomes for differently situated populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Alik-Lagrange, Arthur & Dreier, Sarah K. & Lake, Milli & Porisky, Alesha, 2021. "Social protection and state-society relations in environments of low and uneven state capacity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124846, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124846
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/124846/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Coady & Margaret Grosh & John Hoddinott, 2004. "Targeting of Transfers in Developing Countries : Review of Lessons and Experience," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14902.
    2. Maxine Molyneux & With Nicola Jones & Fiona Samuels, 2016. "Can Cash Transfer Programmes Have ‘Transformative’ Effects?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(8), pages 1087-1098, August.
    3. Ariel Fiszbein & Norbert Schady & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Margaret Grosh & Niall Keleher & Pedro Olinto & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2009. "Conditional Cash Transfers : Reducing Present and Future Poverty," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2597.
    4. Giovanni Carbone & Alessandro Pellegata, 2017. "To Elect or Not to Elect: Leaders, Alternation in Power and Social Welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(12), pages 1965-1987, December.
    5. Nicola Jones & Rebecca Holmes, 2011. "Why is Social Protection Gender‐blind? The Politics of Gender and Social Protection," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(6), pages 45-52, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ehl:lserod:110766 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Kate Pruce, 2023. "The Politics of Who Gets What and Why: Learning from the Targeting of Social Cash Transfers in Zambia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(4), pages 820-839, August.
    3. Crespo, Cristian, 2020. "Two become one: improving the targeting of conditional cash transfers with a predictive model of school dropout," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123139, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Henderson, Heath & Follett, Lendie, 2022. "Targeting social safety net programs on human capabilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Dodlova, Marina & Giolbas, Anna & Lay, Jann, 2016. "Non-Contributory Social Transfer Programmes in Developing Countries: A New Data Set and Research Agenda," GIGA Working Papers 290, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    6. Meskoub, M., 2015. "Cash transfer as a social policy instrument or a tool of adjustment policy: from indirect subsidies (to energy and utilities) to cash subsidies in Iran, 2010-2014," ISS Working Papers - General Series 610, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    7. Patel-Campillo, Anouk & García, V.B. Salas, 2022. "Breaking the poverty cycle? Conditional cash transfers and higher education attainment," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Zurab Abramishvili & Lasha Lanchava, 2015. "Education for the Poor," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp542, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    9. Basil Msuha & Luitfred D. Kissoly & Arnold Kihaule, 2024. "Design and Implementation of Social Safety Nets in Tanzania: A Systematic Review," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 14(1), pages 180-203, January.
    10. Lendie Follett & Heath Henderson, 2022. "A hybrid approach to targeting social assistance," Papers 2201.01356, arXiv.org.
    11. Robson, Matthew & Vollmer, Frank & Doğan, Basak Berçin & Grede, Nils, 2024. "Distributional impacts of cash transfers on the multidimensional poverty of refugees: The Emergency Social Safety Net in Turkey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    12. González-Flores, Mario & Heracleous, Maria & Winters, Paul, 2012. "Leaving the Safety Net: An Analysis of Dropouts in an Urban Conditional Cash Transfer Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(12), pages 2505-2521.
    13. Baird, Sarah & McIntosh, Craig & Özler, Berk, 2019. "When the money runs out: Do cash transfers have sustained effects on human capital accumulation?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 169-185.
    14. T. M. Maleva & E. E. Grishina & E. A. Tsatsura, 2017. "Regional social assistance systems: Why and how targeting policy is introduced," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 363-371, October.
    15. World Bank, 2016. "Republic of Angola Poverty and Social Impact Analysis," World Bank Publications - Reports 25105, The World Bank Group.
    16. Fiszbein, Ariel & Kanbur, Ravi & Yemtsov, Ruslan, 2014. "Social Protection and Poverty Reduction: Global Patterns and Some Targets," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 167-177.
    17. Puja Vasudeva Dutta & Yuko Okamura, 2015. "Reaching the Poor and Vulnerable," World Bank Publications - Reports 22328, The World Bank Group.
    18. Yuriko Takahashi, 2017. "Varieties of Conditional Cash Transfers in Latin America," Working Papers 1619, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    19. Armando Barrientos, 2016. "Inequality, Poverty, and Antipoverty Transfers," Working Papers id:11190, eSocialSciences.
    20. Rinehart, Chloe S. & McGuire, James W., 2017. "Obstacles to Takeup: Ecuador's Conditional Cash Transfer Program, The Bono de Desarrollo Humano," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 165-177.
    21. Namibia Statistics Agency & World Bank, 2017. "Does Fiscal Policy Benefit the Poor and Reduce Inequality in Namibia?," World Bank Publications - Reports 27538, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social contract; Social protection; state capacity; state society relations; sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124846. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.