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

Alik-Lagrange, Arthur, Dreier, Sarah K., Lake, Milli and Porisky, Alesha (2021) Social protection and state-society relations in environments of low and uneven state capacity. Annual Review of Political Science, 24 (1). 151 - 174. ISSN 1094-2939

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.annualreviews.org/journal/polisci
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors
Divisions:	International Relations
Subjects:	J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited:	28 Aug 2024 11:17
Last Modified:	23 Nov 2024 04:54
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/124846

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