Abstract

This book explores the transformation of Argentina’s welfare policies between 1983 and 2019, tracing the deepening connections between social policy, financial markets, and household economies. It identifies three distinct phases in the financialization of welfare, showing how financial logic, instruments, and debt relations have gradually reshaped both policy design and the everyday lives of welfare beneficiaries.

Introducing the concept of social debtfare policies, the book reveals how financial tools – especially credit– have come to function as mechanisms for addressing social needs. It argues that the adoption of credit as a policy tool establishes a debt relation between the state, position as a creditor, and welfare users, who become debtors. This shift reverses the classic logic of social protection: rather than citizens holding rights as creditors of the state, welfare users increasingly become debtors to it.

By uncovering this financialisation process, the book illuminates how the Argentinean state adopted financial expertise, narratives, practices and instruments to administrate growing social conflicts and distributive struggle.