Social Policies and Political Identity: Analysis of Bolsa Família Program in Brazil

There are few studies analyzing how policies impact on political identity construction. Following the cognitive approach in policies, recent studies show that State actions creates new social actors: individuals that become beneficiaries but who didn’t constitute their identities in relation to the State before. Therefore the State is a space of cultural and symbolic production, where new identities are constructed and new political lessons are learned.

The social construction of target groups framework (SCTG), from Helen Ingram and Anne Schneider, brings a new element to the relation between policy and political identity analysis. It makes explicit the contentions that occur in the definition of what are the social problems which will receive attention from the government, their possible solutions and who will be the beneficiaries. This framework allows us to understand the political and social consequences and motivations inside policies design. The social construction of target groups becomes an important attribute, because it affects the relation between beneficiaries, govern and public approval.

There are two main dimensions for SCTG: political power and image. Political power measures the organization and mobilization capacity of groups affected by policies. It can be high or low, depending on the group influence to bring their decisions into account. Image can be positive or negative, affecting the way beneficiaries understand themselves and their space in the political sphere.

This paper analyzes the social construction of image between beneficiaries from the national conditional cash-transfer Bolsa Família Program in Brazil as a dimension of the political identity. It analyses the role of the State, the media and sociability relations. These three elements are tightly connected and the beneficiaries are aware of the constant contention around the program’s legitimacy. They react actively to the negative image constructed by the media and that is reproduced inside their sociability relations.