Social Protection and Chronic Poverty: Portugal and the Southern European Welfare Regime

This paper aims to assess the extent to which social policies address chronic poverty in south European Union countries and particularly in Portugal. The Southern European welfare regime (Leibfried, 1993; Ferrera, 1996; Bonoli, 1997; Matsaganis et al, 2003), which includes Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, has been seen as less developed and less generous in covering social risks. Despite different country profiles, in what Portugal present some distinctive features, South European countries also exhibit several target inefficiencies that make social policies much less successful in tackling extreme and chronic poverty. Possible explanations of that fact may rest in institutional factors, such as the central role of family and the less accountability of the state, the high tolerance of inequality and poverty, and, in broader terms, in attitudes toward inequality and poverty embedded in social and political practices.