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Paper short abstract:

This panel explores the political economy of privately managed social cash transfers. We are particularly interested in exploring how the type of political settlement that are dominant in a given society influence privately managed social cash transfers.

Paper long abstract:

Politics matter, yes, but how? This paper explores the political economy dynamics of social cash transfers managed by private or non-state actors (NGOs, UN etc.). Where private actors’ social cash-transfer projects have rarely been drawn attention to, state-managed transfer projects have been extensively studied. Earlier studies of relations between NGOs and the state in aid-recipient countries from the 1980s and 90s, when a substantial part of donor aid was shifted from governments to international and national NGOs in the wake of structural adjustment reforms, tended to assume that the provision of public goods by NGOs would undermine the state legitimacy. However, as several studies of NGO-state relations have shown, the picture is more complex. Cash-transfer projects and service delivery by NGOs can complement the state and in some instances even increase the government’s legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens. Recent research on state-managed cash transfers suggest that ruling elites can use social cash transfers to reach out to previously marginalized populations and secure their votes, or alternatively that specific population groups can become marginalized and excluded from access to social cash transfers. The political economy of privately managed social cash transfers can therefore be expected to take different forms depending on the type of political settlement and the forms and types of patronage and clientelism that are dominant in a given society.