The distributive politics of social assistance targeting: Evidence from COVID‐19 relief in Colombia

Abstract

AbstractHow do governments target social assistance? This article proposes a new typology of targeting that goes beyond the dominant focus on top‐down technical solutions to highlight the important role of informal practices and non‐state actors. Using evidence about the ways local governments in Colombia delivered relief during COVID‐19, the typology identifies and illustrates four ideal types of targeting processes resulting from the intersection between programmatic (or not) eligibility criteria and the role of non‐state actors. The article thus expands the politics of social policy research agenda to the question of targeting, a crucial aspect of policy implementation, in dialogue with scholarship on distributive politics.