Comparison between capability-oriented and human rights-based interventions against the human need-oriented social policies: theoretical aspects and case studies.

This thesis is about the comparison of the efficacy between the capability approach (CA), the human rights approach (HRA) and the human need approaches (HNA) and the related policy models in terms of the ability of reducing multidimensional poverty and inequalities. Specifically, in the first article this thesis inspects the rationale, the principles, the goals and the structure of the three approaches in order to indicate whether the CA and HRA are more equipped to tackle multidimensional poverty and inequalities. Also, in the second article this thesis analyses the most important features of the programs of the three approaches in order to define the social policy models based on the CA, HRA and HNA. Similarly, this article aims to suggest whether the first two categories of social policy are more powerful to tackle multidimensional poverty and inequalities. The third article analyses the main features of the Working Tax Credit policy (WTC) in the United Kingdom (UK) in order to suggest to which social policy model it belongs to, and in order to infer its theoretical ability to reduce multidimensional poverty and inequalities. Similarly, the fourth article inspects the most important characteristics of the Bolsa Familia Program (PBF) in Brazil with the goal of including it in one or more social policy model, and to indicate its capacity of diminishing multidimensional poverty and inequalities. Hence, these two articles can be considered a case study which applies the findings of the second article in order to shed some light on the theoretical capacity of CA-based social policy and HRA-based social policy to attack and reduce multidimensional poverty compared to the HNA-based social policy category. Finally, the fifth article is an empirical piece of research which shows the evolution of human development for a sample of Brazilian families during the initial implementation of the PBF; similarly, the sixth article analyses the dynamics of multidimensional poverty during the first period of the introduction of the PBF for a sample of Brazilian children. Both articles aim to indicate the possible role of the PBF in the reduction of multidimensional poverty and in the positive change of wellbeing in Brazil during the period 2005-2009.