Abstract:The Bolsa Família Programme, the biggest cash transfer programme of its kind, is now 10 years old. It is only natural that we should start to think about its future. When speculating about the programme’s near future, two distinct visions come to mind. In the first, by transferring cash to eligible poor people and targeting social services at them, the programme will take over the core of the Brazilian welfare state. In the other, the programme will find a proper place within a universalistic, rights-based social welfare architecture. (…)