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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Political Economy
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1528337
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Policy and Development in the Global SouthView all 3 articles
Social programs and financial inclusion: instruments of biopolitics in Peru, 2000-2024
Provisionally accepted
Jose Luis Morales Rocha1*
Teófilo Lauracio Ticona2
Mario Aurelio Coyla Zela1
Jarol Teófilo Ramos Rojas1Genciana Serruto Medina1
Nakaday Irazema Vargas Torres1Claudia Jessica Lauracio Lope3- 1National University of Moquegua, Moquegua, Peru
- 2Jose Carlos Mariátegui University, Moquegua, Peru
- 3National University of the Altiplano, Puno, Peru
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Biopolitics refers to the set of public policies and state actions aimed at regulating the vital functions of individuals and societies, including areas such as public health, democracy, citizen security, and quality of life. This article analyzes the biopolitical instrumentalization of fiscal policies and financial governmentality in Peru between 2000 and 2024. The research is based on the hypothesis that Peruvian governments have used these tools to promote equitable human development. Using correlation and regression tests, we examined social programs, financial inclusion indicators, and variations in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in relation to the Human Development Index and other socioeconomic variables. The main conclusion indicates that the impact of social programs and financial inclusion is limited at the regional level. Only the percentage of financial debtors and the Juntos Program show a significant effect on human development indicators such as malnutrition, monetary poverty, and academic performance. Despite being considered essential for sustainable development, social programs and financial inclusion in Peru during this period were instrumentalized for biopolitical purposes, prioritizing capitalist reproduction and the exploitation of resources from less developed regions. Although economic growth was achieved, there was no corresponding promotion of equity, social inclusion, or comprehensive human development. Notably, the poverty rate in Peru increased to 29.0% in 2023, approaching the levels recorded during the 2020 pandemic (30.1%), according to the Peruvian Institute of Economics, and continued to rise in 2024, reflecting the inadequacy of the implemented policies.
Keywords: Social programs, Financial inclusion, biopolitics, Peru, Human Development
Received: 14 Nov 2024; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Morales Rocha, Lauracio Ticona, Coyla Zela, Ramos Rojas, Serruto Medina, Vargas Torres and Lauracio Lope. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jose Luis Morales Rocha, National University of Moquegua, Moquegua, Peru
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