Efficiency, Welfare Effects, and Political Feasibility of Alternative Antipoverty and Adjustment Programs

This document presents an exploratory contribution to the understanding of the political economy of poverty alleviation. Usually, governmental decisions to apply macroeconomic measures that minimise the negative effects of adjustment on the poor, or to implement programmes specifically aimed at reducing poverty, assume that the majority of the population will support them. While there are many studies on the rationality of public choices, there are very few on the political conditions required for the implementation of anti-poverty programmes. This paper presents an indicator for assessing the political feasibility of such programmes. To take into account the influence weights of each social group, the authors have retained seven elements. Among these are: exercise of economic power, group size and the expectations of gains from the policy. Taking as an example alternative policies in India and Ecuador, the authors show that coalitions comprising a majority of non-poor will ...