Variations of consolidation: cash transfer programme reforms in Chile and Ecuador

Resumen

ABSTRACT Conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTPs) have increasingly become the core policy instrument with which to address poverty in Latin America. At the end of the 2000s, however, these programmes were at a crossroads: whether to become finely tuned safety net programmes or the basis of universal social protection systems. This article looks at the cases of Chile and Ecuador and the opposing paths they took at this crossroads. Although institutions played a central role in shaping CCTP design and reform, these governments’ choices were strongly influenced by their different visions of the role of the state and the market in dealing with poverty and development.