Chile: Social solidarity, assistance or universality? a qualitative study from attachment regimes approach

Abstract

The universalization of social rights carries the recognition and materialization of a series of guarantees, translated into social services provided by the State to society as a whole. The establishment of the neoliberal model in Chile broke with an institutional tradition that, since the first decades of the 20th century, sought to expand the rights of the majority. The post-dictatorship governments not only did not guarantee universality but also promoted a system strongly based on the categorization of the poor population, segmenting access to the right to public assistance according to categories or certain attributes that make some people deserving, proving your situation to access benefits. Moving from social policies focused on the poorest to strategies that guarantee rights to the population implies a new type of State and that citizens recognize themselves as united around shared principles of solidarity and linked by social ties that reflect them. The objective of this study was to identify, based on the attachment regimes approach, the predominant bonds recognized by informants from a qualitative sample. The mechanisms of social integration and regulation are identified, along with the protection deficits and denial of recognition in each attachment regime. The results show that the excessive targeting of state action, along with the legitimacy of individual effort, are at the base of the way in which the principles of social solidarity are understood in Chile.