Revista Completa

Abstract

The article aims to assess if and how, during Rafael Correa's mandate, the equatorial social protection system has been reconfigured and expanded regarding the Sumak Kawsay (SK) or Buen Vivir (BV) platform or ideal, as assigned by the county's new Constitution and exposed in all of the National Development Plans. The work's focus will reflect the social assistance and education policies. To do so, the article is organized as follows: In the first section, we try to define SK/BV, discussing the term's genealogy, its variants and controversies. In the second section, we approach the institutionalization of the SK/BV concept and the way it has been transformed into the fundamental guideline of state action in Ecuador, since PAIS Alliance's government plans into its incorporation in the 2008 Constitution and the National Development Plans. Lastly, in the third section, we question, based on an appraisal of ruptures and continuities in the social assistance and education provision, which way the new and widely propagated SK/BV concept has indicated the government's action of Citizen Revolution in the social politics field.