Constitutional Entrenchment and Social Policy in Brazil

The 1988 Constitution promoted the expansion of social policy in Brazil, but other constitutional rules on fiscal policy limited the sources and funding of social spending. This paper discusses how the original text of the Constitution and its successive constitutional amendments entrenched both social and fiscal policy in Brazil, turning distributive conflicts into constitutional disputes over public resources. It also discusses how this constitutional regulation has constrained the policy options of different administrations regarding social spending. The paper concludes that these policies' strategic entrenchment produced an anti-poverty Constitution that falls short of a significant reduction of inequality in Brazil, shedding light on the limits of transformative constitutionalism in highly unequal societies

Political science · Brazilian Legal Issues · Politics and Society in Latin America · Social and Political Issues