Department of Sociology2024-11-0920222297-777510.3389/fsoc.2022.8912672-s2.0-85140230458https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/1310What are the contemporary determinates of social assistance provision? What is the role of contentious politics? Social assistance literature is dominated by economic and demographic accounts, which under-examine the possibility that governments extend social assistance to contain social unrest. We test factors associated with these “structuralist” and “political” theories on a new panel dataset which includes 54 OECD and emerging market countries between 2002 and 2015. The results indicate social assistance coverage has a significant positive relationship with riots. We explain this outcome as policymakers expanding social assistance as a means of containing violent civil unrest. This effect is more significant in emerging markets, suggesting that the domination of structural explanations is a result of sample bias toward the OECD. Finally, we find that governments consider World Bank social policy recommendations only insofar as there is violent unrest.pdfSociologyJournal Article1687-8442https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2022.891267874174700001N/ANOIR04057