Developing capabilities? Poverty, “Oportunidades” and neoliberal citizenship

Abstract

This article examines critically the way in which the human capacities approach and its defence of values such as universality, distributive justice and equity permits the hegemonic national and international institutions to reinforce their legitimacy and power in the context of neo-liberal democratic processes. In considering the influence of the capacities approach as a normative framework for the definition of policies and planning for development we look at a concrete example of its implementation through a brief analysis of “Opportunities”, the most recent anti-poverty programme in Mexico. This provides an illustration of how the capacities discourse, in the context of the neo-liberal democratic transition in this country, contributes to shaping the neo-liberal citizenship through specific development strategies.