The actions to fight poverty and the origin and main characteristics of social policy in Western Europe and Brazil

Abstract

Based on bibliographical research, this article aims at approaching
the way poor people historically were assisted and the origins and main characteristics of social policies in Western Europe and in Brazil. Since poverty was understood as a problem by the ruling classes and the authorities, actions were implemented, but most of them were intended to repress and to punish. Social policy emerged in Western Europe as a modern State’s tool for mitigating the social conflicts begun in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. In Brazil, social policies first took place in the period between 1930 and 1964.