Programa Maranhão Solidário: uma avaliação política

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the Maranhão Solidário Program, a social intervention characterized by partnerships among the Executive Branch, non-profit social entities, individuals and companies. The aim of this research is to evaluate, from a critical and political perspective, the creation and restructuring of this program. For this, a theoretical and methodological framework was developed around the categories of decentralization of social policies, solidarity, and vulnerability. This evaluative research adopts a qualitative approach, utilizes historical materialism as its theoretical framework, and employs the dialectical method. The procedural techniques used were bibliographic and documentary research, with particular emphasis on the normative instruments and documents produced by public institutions involved in the program's development, such as the Legislative Assembly of the State of Maranhão, the Civil House, and the State Secretariat of Finance of Maranhão. Structured in three sections, the research begins with the identification and evaluation of the political, social, economic, and cultural determinants or factors that influenced the shaping of the Maranhão Solidário Program. This study addressed neoliberalism, the reform of the Brazilian state, and the reforms that occurred in the state of Maranhão in the 1990s, as well as the context of Maranhão in 2017 and 2024, years of the program's establishment and restructuring. Subsequently, the Program’s ethical-political framework and principles of justice were evaluated, offering a value judgment on the reasons for its selection as a social intervention alternative, while highlighting the specific interpretations of solidarity and vulnerability adopted. Based on Rawls, Maranhão Solidário reflects the tendency towards targeting and subsidiarity in state action, albeit masked by the rhetoric of solidarity, thereby diverging from the guarantee of rights based on a citizenship-oriented perspective.