ABSTRACT
At first glance, Brazil seems to be resolutely swimming against the tide when it comes to social protection: the 1988 Federal Constitution—enacted during a period of reform and liberalization elsewhere—had a very clear social democratic slant, enshrining social rights typical of Western European welfare states and beginning a break with a strongly corporatist heritage. It established a three-pronged social security network, composed of a free and universal health care system (the Unified Health System, or SUS), an expanded pensions system responsible for retirement pensions and other work-related insurances, and a social assistance system meant to provide services and cash transfers to very low-income families.
