Conditional Income Transfer Program as a Means to Development in Brazil: An Intersection With Amartya Sen’s Concepts

Abstract

The paper aims to examine the ability of income transfer programs in promoting development. More specifically, it utilizes the conception of development defended by Amartya Sen, to confirm or not the hypothesis that the Brazilian approach with the structuring of the Bolsa Familia Program serves the purpose of promoting the economic and social development of the country. For this purpose, the methodology used will be deductive, based on bibliographic research and official data. The article begins by analyzing how income distribution policies operate in the expansion of real freedoms and, more specifically the Brazilian reality with the Bolsa Familia Program, a public policy of direct income transfer, aimed at families in situations of poverty and extreme poverty throughout Brazil, which seeks to guarantee these families the right to food and access to education and health. It then exposes Sen’s conception of what is development, which goes beyond narrower views that limits it to GNP growth or industrialization, encompassing this perspective in a broader concept of development as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In the end, the paper makes an intersection of the Bolsa Familia Programs with Sen’s concept of development, presenting as a final result the conclusion that the program proved to be a relevant tool in removing causes of deprivation of freedom and, therefore, is a move in the right direction of the development process.