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ECPR

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Precarious Employment, Social Welfare and Citizenship: Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela in Comparative Perspective

Citizenship
Civil Society
Cleavages
Institutions
Public Policy
Welfare State

Abstract

High levels of informality and precarious employment characterize Latin American societies. Depending upon the nation, anywhere from a third to one half of the economically active population works in the informal sector. These workers are typically unorganized and lack legal protections enjoyed by formal sector workers. As a result, they suffer high degrees of poverty and inequality. Policymakers across the region attempt to address these problems through social welfare policies. Despite their efforts, this analysis argues that the two prevailing social welfare models – the neoliberal and populist – have done little to mitigate inequality while significantly weakening citizenship for this segment of society. As demonstrated by examination of the Chile case, under the neoliberal model, those who receive social welfare benefits from the public sector through targeted assistance receive benefits not on the basis on social right, but relative need. Accordingly, aid recipients are treated as consumers rather than citizens with rights. Moreover, the mode of benefits distribution produces high degrees of stratification, which undermines the informal sector’s capacity for organization and collective action. Under the populist model, as manifested in the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan cases, social welfare benefits are provided on the basis of political loyalty or affiliation, not on the basis of social rights associated with citizenship. The paper will draw upon concrete examples from these three cases to illustrate how these types of welfare systems promote weak forms of citizenship for the most disadvantaged segments of Latin American society and thereby exacerbate rather than mitigate their marginal status.