RUPTURAS E CONTINUIDADES DA ASSISTÊNCIA SOCIAL: da benemerência ao direito uma incursão no Brasil e no Maranhão

Abstract

The study addresses the process of construction of Social Assistance Policy in Brazil and Maranhão, trying to identify continuities and ruptures with conservatism under which it formed the basis of originating and developing policy in this country. The completion of the study was the theoretical framework of historical materialism and, in consequence, the dialectical method to the apprehension of reality by unveiling the historical determinants present in social processes, which enables one to grasp Social Assistance as a process built. The methodological procedures used were based on literature review that allowed the theoretical and historical about the issue, search and document analysis, field research by conducting semi-structured interviews with managers, coaches and counselors and the focus group technique with users of Social Assistance. The text has initially considered the social formation in Brazilian and Maranhão as a reference for understanding the historical marks of inequality arising from the development of capitalism in Brazil and Maranhão reflecting on how social rights were constructed, in particular the right to Social Assistance. It addresses the basics of Social Services as a public policy in Brazil and Maranhão considering the periods before and after the 1988 Federal Constitution, the political and economic, social demands for Social Assistance and the responses of society and state. In the analysis of ruptures and continuities of Social Assistance in Brazil and Maranhão are considered the difficulties identified in the process of institutionalization as a component of the Brazilian Social Security. It highlighted the process of building policy in the 1990s under the liberal influence, which led to the implementation of a process of decentralization and municipalization of Social Assistance Policy without the creation of cooperative basis between the federal entities responsible for funding and management policy. It s still considered the context of recovery of the Organic Law of Social Assistance OLSA in the 2000s, as a parameter for creating the legal framework that shaped the institutionalization of the Unified Social Services - ITS. In this context, is considered the current debate about the concept of social welfare, and the difficulties of consolidation of ITS in Maranhão and Brazil, with an indication of elements that form ruptures and continuities of Social Assistance Policy with conservatism.