ABSTRACT
The article analyzes the Brazilian welfare model according to elements central to the emergence and to the development of social protection systems. It is intended to discuss to what extent the absence or incompleteness of those elements weaken the model built in the 1988 Constitution. The general precepts of social protection are initially presented to characterize and discuss those issues as for the Brazilian case. It is argued that the pattern inaugurated in the 1988 Constitution timidly altered structural elements of the dynamics of social welfare states, such as de-commodification of social relations and values concerning social protection, making it fragile in face of retrenchment measures.
KEYWORDS:
Public policy; Social welfare; Brazil