Please join us on March 2 at 12:30 as Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro (Brown) talks about research from her forthcoming book Persistent Citizens.

Despite widespread reforms in recent years, expanded social welfare programs in Global South democracies still fail to reach many of those who need them most. This research draws on original focus group data from Brazil and Argentina to develop a new concept of “state-centric persistence” to explain these gaps in access.
State-centric persistence – unmediated, individualized pursuit of state benefits – is increasingly important in the Global South. Her book connects existing research on claim-making and administrative burden to argue that self-efficacy, entitlement,
and indignation encourage persistence. It analyzes original survey data to show evidence that these attitudes, along with knowledge of social rights, are associated with greater persistence.