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In a few years of implementation, the Bolsa Familia Program, which covers more than 12 million families, has become the largest program of income transfer in the world and confirmed the distribution of money as the predominant form of social policy in Brazil. Despite the evidence of the effectiveness of such intervention in the economic sphere, when we look at the relationship between the beneficiaries and the agents responsible for the policy, other research questions emerge. When analyzing the trajectory of this policy from the federal sphere to the beneficiary, one can recognize the diverse paths the implementation of this program takes. This paper inquires about the impacts of this program on citizenship, through the organization and participation (or absence) of the beneficiaries in politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable economic management of protected areas constitutes a new research agenda in Brazil. Gaps are related to lack of systematized and updated data on the budgetary situation of the National System of Conservation Units. More than identifying or quantifying alternatives to the reduced budgetary or financial resources, more visibility concerning its institutional components is in order. This issue involves the effectiveness of the national project of territorial enlargement of the Brazilian protected areas, in the sense that each new hectaire protected 'in paper', represents an increased demand for resources-financial, material, and human-required for efficient management. Our analysis emphazises emphazises the institutional and operational gaps occurring as a result of receiving and applying such resources. As well, we provide analytical elements to improve our understanding of frequent institutional impasses in this process. Given our institutional perspective, the expansion of protected areas is seen as facing weak techno-bureaucratic structures unable to operate and consolidate effective financial alternatives. We hope this article contributes to ongoing research on the institutional requirements of sustainability in the national context of Latin America and the Caribbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]