From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

1 INTRODUCTION THE UNEQUAL WORLDACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AND EFFECTIVE STATESAs Nelson Mandela says, poverty and extreme inequality rank alongsideslavery and apartheid as evils that can be vanquished. This bookargues for a radical redistribution of opportunities, but also of powerand assets, to break the cycle of poverty and inequality.People living in poverty certainly need opportunities, such asaccess to decent education, health care, water, and sanitation, andassistance to help them cope with the shocks of everyday life. Poorpeople need power over their own destinies and over the factors thatinfluence them, such as party politics, the justice system, and themarkets for land, labour, and goods and services.In recent memory, a combination of pressure from below andenlightened leadership from above has produced some remarkableexercises in redistribution. In several East Asian countries, for example,elites have embraced the long-term case for equality, to prevent socialdivision and to stoke a thriving economy. Taiwan and Viet Nam havecombined astonishing growth with high levels of equity. Indonesiaand Malaysia have managed to reduce inequality over an extendedperiod through government-led redistribution and generation ofemployment. 40In Brazil under the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardosoand Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popular movements have carriedbusiness elites along in redistributing wealth and opportunity in ahitherto appallingly unequal society. In the past decade Brazil hasmanaged to lower its world inequality ranking from second to tenthby a mixture of good economic management (for example, controllinginflation, which customarily hits poor people hardest) and redistributingincome to poor people through various government schemessuch as the Bolsa Familia (Family Stipend), which pays poor families amonthly stipend if they ensure that their children attend school andare vaccinated. 41 Lula’s first term saw the poorest 10 per cent of thepopulation increase their incomes by 7 per cent a year, while the incomesof the richest 10 per cent stagnated. As a result, some five millionBrazilians were lifted out of poverty, and inequality fell to its lowestlevel in 30 years. 42 A similar story of progress built on popular pressureand state action could be told of South Africa since the end of apartheid.11