The symbiotic relationship between capitalist accumulation, work, poverty, and social policies

Abstract

This article discusses the symbiotic relationship between capitalist accumulation, work, poverty, and their connection with social policies. It deals with the dilemma between work and social protection, discusses the configuration of workfare in times of financialization of capital and reflects on social policy in the relationship between state and society. The argument developed here, based on bibliographical research, emphasizes the structuring aspects of social policy, understood as mediation in the relationship between state and society, and aspects that configure the change in trajectory of these policies, aligned with the corresponding state form. The contradictory nature of social policy constitutes an analytical aspect of the discussion and aims to highlight the dual functionality of these policies in maintaining the capitalist system, meeting both the needs of capital and social needs, through their processes of claims and struggles.