Poverty relief policies based on Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs are perhaps the most fundamental institutional social policy innovation at the turn of the twentieth century. It was in Latin America where they were initially created. This chapter explores the political economy of the adoption of CCT antipoverty interventions, why they have improved targeting in favor of the poor, how they have become increasingly popular among politicians and policy makers, and whether structuring these programs has shifted policy discretion away from political clientelism, in favor of becoming true entitlements. One major implication of the rise of CCTs is that citizens in Latin America can now judge the competence and performance of politicians in terms of their success or failure in reducing poverty.

This is a draft (longer version) of the forthcoming article prepared for the Oxford Handbook of Social Policies in the Global South (2025). Edited by: Armando Barrientos, Matthew Carnes, Huck-Ju Kwon, Herbert Obinger, Leila Patel and Carina Schmitt. Oxford University Press.