Trajectory of social spending, poverty and inequality in Ceará from 2008 to 2021

Abstract

The State, through public policies, must ensure that the fundamental social rights of citizens are met, aiming at social well-being and the reduction of inequalities in all its forms. This investigation seeks to measure and analyze the trajectory of social spending in Ceará, as well as aspects of poverty and inequality, between 2008 and 2021. For this, an exploratory-descriptive methodology was used, using secondary data from the website Compara Brazil, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Institute for Research and Economic Strategy of Ceará (IPECE). In general, even as a result of state development policy, social spending in Ceará has a behavior linked to the national situation, even when looking at spending by function. Regarding inequality, Ceará adheres more to recovery or recession situations, compared to regional and national performance. Poverty reacts better in adverse conjunctures, from 2014 to 2019 and in the pandemic year of 2020. The current fiscal austerity scenario, since 2016, and the trend of lack of responsibility of the State, excluding the pandemic period, represents a limit to the return of downward trend in the poverty and inequality conditions, experienced until 2015, constituting, in addition, an obscure scenario for the exercise of social policy in the country.