Reciprocidad: Un Elemento de Innovación para la Formulación de Políticas Asistenciales y Construcción de Capital Social

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the reality of welfare policies have been gradually eroding the basic principles of material equality under the law to the point of compromising the spirit of equality that should be inspired in any public decision. Under this premise, the research aims to demonstrate within a specified welfare policy, the scope thereof, the cost of social investment through taxes, the actual impact on qualifying the beneficiaries life conditions, the projection of such impacts in terms of cost and collective effort for a full coverage, also from there, measure the compensation degree that such beneficiaries make to the society together with the performed effort, through overcoming their intrinsic poverty conditions and the contribution of common benefit improvements for the society. On this basis, the article hopes to trace the foundations for the future development of an index of reciprocity, being understood as an objective tool to measure how the collective tax effort is compensated through concrete actions of each beneficiary. Upon this calculation, it seeks to conclude whether these policies are a different way of breaching the material equality principle under the law. The main question during the research will be whether the welfare policy has a fair treatment and guarantees a minimum return on the social investment, or if it feeds the poverty cycle and dependence.