Welfare Relations and the Allocation of Social Risks in a Colonial Welfare State: The Experience of Marginalised Communities in Puerto Rico

This paper presents the results of a qualitative research on the welfare relations between the state, market, family and community in 7 marginalized communities in Puerto Rico. The purpose is to know which actors guarantee the welfare of the population by satisfying their social needs and risks. Also confirm whether interviewees perceive guarantees of a residual/liberal welfare regime. After conducting 20 semi-structured interviews in the field it was found that there is a mix of actors on the welfare relations and the allocation of social risks. However, it was possible to find that the state is the main a guarantor on risks associated with education, disability, work-unemployment and old age-pensions. The market is the main guarantor in the areas of housing, food and health. The family is the main guarantor in the areas of maternity / paternity and housing (with the market). Is there a residual/liberal welfare regime? It can be argued that interviewees perceived a high degree of state-centrism in areas of education, disability, unemployment and old age, with public residualism in areas of housing, food and health. The family is associated with the care, except on the areas of housing and maternity/paternity where it plays an important role in the satisfaction of social risks. Nevertheless, a high degree of welfare commodification is perceived, and welfare is recognized as the responsibility of individuals. Finally, there is a dualism of benefits in the areas of housing, food and health between beneficiaries who generate revenues lower/higher than the poverty lines, and a dualism of benefits in the areas of disability, work-unemployment and old age-pensions between beneficiaries working on the formal/informal sector. The state satisfy social needs between these two sectors of the population through targeted cash benefits programs and social security programs and the market interact mainly through wages.