The paper aims to explain the Bolsa Familia Plan and interpret its meaning in Brazilian capitalism. First, it maintains that its emergence was result of the pauperism associated with the increase of the overpopulation, the incremental adjustment with respect to the trajectory of the Brazilian assistance policy and of the internationalization of that policy. Second, it argues that its deployment was explained by the succession of its incremental adjustments from the trial-and-error process, and by its own internationalization. Third, it maintains that, as a result of his deployment, the program modified his initial management mode, which was expressed at a higher level of institutionality, massiveness and technification, which in turn resulted in his greater legitimacy and political gravitation. The PBF strengthened the capacity of the Brazilian state to articulate consensual domination and, with it, to mediate the subordination of labor to capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]