Challenges of federal coordination of Social Assistance Policy: the states’ role in financing

Abstract

This article analyzes the degree, variation, and determinants of the states’ co-responsibility in financing the social assistance policy. The study verifies whether the mechanisms of coordination and federative induction contributed to this process. Based on a literature review on federalism and determinants of decentralization of social policies in Brazil, we conducted a documentary analysis and examined quantitative data on the states’ configuration and co-financing of social assistance policy using the State Social Assistance Funds between 2000 and 2018. The study explored whether induction and coordination mechanisms contributed to increasing expenditures in the sector. On the one hand, the results showed that these mechanisms have an impact on the states’ financing of social assistance policy. On the other, they generated great heterogeneity among the states regarding their responsibilities in the federal funding arrangement.