Neoliberal Welfare Policy Reforms and Trust: Connecting the Dots

Abstract

Using Argentina as an illustrative example, this article attempts to show how welfare policy framings, discourses and tools can negatively impact social trust. In an era where trust has become a politicized tool used to promote collective and coordinated action, we must pay close attention to the less obvious but critically important political factors affecting the formation of trust. This article proposes a tentative framework to analyze how trust is affected by welfare policies, particularly neoliberal policies. It puts a spotlight on the impact of neoliberal ideas and tools on social imaginaries, paying particular attention to pensions, health and education. The article concludes with a reminder of how Argentina’s neoliberal legacy has undermined trust and a word of warning against underestimating the dangers of an increasingly autonomous and self-reinforcing process which continues to pose serious challenges even in the current post-neoliberal period.