Trajectory of the unified registry during the worker’s party presidential terms : 2003 to 2016

Abstract

The Unified Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico) was created in 2001, under the federal administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, PSDB or the Brazilian Social Democracy Party), however it was consolidated during the PT, or the Workers’ Party, presidential terms of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and Dilma Vana Rousseff (2011-2016). The aim of the article is to describe the actors and institutional arrangements that consolidated and expanded the CadÚnico over the years 2003 to 2016 investigating the choices and relations incorporated in its operation, the creation of new legal frameworks and new institutional aspects for social policies. The trajectory reported in the article was collected from bibliographic review on social programs and on the CadÚnico, interviews and documentary analysis. The article concludes that the CadÚnico is a living and changing object, its ambitious goal of being the only tool for registering social programs beneficiaries has been gradually achieved and has had the participation of various actors and institutions through the construction of complex relationships.