Article

Varieties of Neoliberalism in Brazil (2003–2019)

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

The main feature of capital accumulation in Brazil during the administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) was the continuity of neoliberalism of two varieties: inclusive (2003–2006) and developmental (2006–2013). The PT’s attachment to neoliberalism was mitigated by the party’s (shifting) commitment to (mild) developmental outcomes, redistribution of income (at the margin), social inclusion (within narrow limits), and democratization of the state (bounded by the 1988 Constitution). Achievements in these areas were further constrained by the inability or unwillingness of the PT to confront the institutionalization of neoliberalism in the fields of economics, politics, ideology, the media, and class relations. The political crisis unfolding in Brazil since 2013 and the imposition of authoritarian neoliberalism after Rousseff’s impeachment can be examined from the perspective of the contradictions in the dominant varieties of neoliberalism under the PT and the limitations of the party’s political ambitions.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... Dentro de ese espectro nacionalista, los liderazgos de Trump en los Estados Unidos (Hursh, 2018; Gonzales, 2017; Keck y Clua-Losada, 2021); de Al-Sisi en Egipto (Adly, 2021); Bolsonaro en Brasil (Søndergaard, 2021;Saad-Filho, 2019), Orban, en Hungría (Fabry, 2018); y, Duterte en Filipinas (Ramos, 2021), que, aunque llegaron al poder mediante elecciones democráticas, han socavado los valores democráticos a partir de discursos de odio donde prima el fortalecimiento del Estado como parte de la continuidad de neoliberalismo global (Arsel, Adaman y Saad-Filho, 2021). También está el caso de Estonia, donde se ha instaurado el populismo de derecha con un claro discurso antiinmigrante y referencias al poder blanco (Salyga, 2022). ...
... El concepto de neoliberalismo autoritario es de carácter estructural, sirviendo como categoría de análisis para estudiar diversos fenómenos asociados a este modelo económico. Este ha sido tratado por diversos especialistas para distintos casos y en una variedad de países, en Turquía (Tansel, 2018;Bozkurt, 2018;Tansel, 2019;Tutkal, 2022); en Inglaterra (Laub, 2021); en Hungría (Fabry, 2018;Fabry, 2019); en España (Clua-Lozada y Ribera-Almandoz, 2017); en México (Jess, 2019;Bojórquez, Ángeles y Gámez, 2020;Bojórquez y Ángeles, 2021); en Brasil (Søndergaard, 2021;Saad-Filho, 2019); en China (Zhang, 2018); en Malasia (Juego, 2018b); en Australia (Smith, 2019); en África (Harrison, 2019); en los Estados Unidos (Gonzales, 2017;Keck y Clau-Lozada, 2021), entre otros. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
El presente trabajo, tiene como propósito analizar las políticas laborales del gobierno de Felipe Calderón y concretamente de la extinción de Luz y Fuerza del Centro a partir de la categoría de análisis de neoliberalismo autoritario, que de acuerdo con Bruff (2014), a partir de 2008, tras la crisis inmobiliaria en los Estados Unidos, la cual tuvo alcances globales, significó una gran afectación a la economía mundial a partir de la recesión y la quiebra de empresas de carácter global, los gobiernos dieron un giro autoritario, reforzando los andamiajes legales constitucionales y fortaleciendo los aparatos represivos, buscando inmunizarse de la protesta ciudadana y renunciando a las tácticas de negociación y cooptación que imperaban en el pasado, al momento de aplicar las políticas de ajuste económicas. En ese sentido, los Estados buscan legitimar sus decisiones apoyándose del poder mediático el cual está en manos de las élites beneficiarias del modelo económico.
... As the tripé macroeconomic model was maintained for more than two decades, the changes in the political scenario were associated with transformation in the role of the State, which came to be known as "social developmentalism" or "developmental and inclusive neoliberalism" (Saad Filho, 2019). Then, the focus on social inclusion (and, in a way, the democratization of social life) was based on increasing social expenditure 12 and minimum wage, among other policies (Filgueiras et al., 2010;Singer, 2012). ...
Article
Full-text available
During the 21st Century, China has played a growing role in international trade and geopolitics, with important consequences for the Global South. In Argentina and Brazil, international insertion as a development model has been questioned. Although this situation has allowed for economic growth, it has also recreated old relationships of dependency. This study contributes to the discussion of the possibilities of implementing development policies in Argentina and Brazil in a scenario in which the international (re) emergence of China reinforces the structural power of the historical ruling classes. To do so, dependency categories, as well as notions of the accumulation regime and Poulantzas’ power bloc, are used in an international political economy framework, which empirically focuses on elaborate data on trade and investment.
... Hay ejemplos de "populismo tecnocrático" en América Latina y de combinaciones "tecno-pop" en Europa (en los gobiernos italianos de Berlusconi y en el gabinete de la Liga Cinco Estrellas en 2018-2019). El "experto" puede ayudar al "pueblo" a encontrar la dirección, en un compromiso que hasta ahora nunca se ha desviado de una dirección (Gallo, 2022, p. 559) Dentro de ese espectro nacionalista, los liderazgos de Trump, en Estados Unidos (Clewer, 2019;Gonzales, 2017; Keck y Clua-Losada 2021; Pintor y Bojórquez, 2023); de Al-Sisi, en Egipto (Adly, 2021; Clewer, 2019;); Bolsonaro, en Brasil (Clewer, 2019;Saad-Filho, 2019; Orban, en Hungría (Clewer, 2019;Fabry, 2019); Duterte, en Filipinas (Clewer, 2019;Ramos 2021), que, aunque llegaron al poder mediante elecciones democráticas, han socavado los valores democráticos a partir de discursos de odio donde prima el fortalecimiento del Estado como parte de la continuidad de neoliberalismo global. 9/28 Secuencia (120), septiembre-diciembre, 2024: e2333 doi: https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i120.2333 ...
Article
Full-text available
Utilizando la teoría crítica y metodología cualitativa documental, a través de los conceptos de neoliberalismo autoritario y acumulación por legitimación, en el presente ensayo se analiza la reforma energética materializada en el gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto en México a partir del Pacto por México, signado entre los principales partidos políticos y el gobierno federal. Las evidencias reflejan una imposición de dicha reforma sin consultar a la población con el fin de privatizar los recursos energéticos del país, la cual fue allanada por una legitimación mediática donde el gobierno canalizó grandes recursos económicos a los principales medios de comunicación del país. Se concluye que la reforma energética se da en un contexto neoliberal autoritario, de imposición para el reforzamiento del modelo económico imperante, donde el Estado renuncia a la posibilidad de negociar con los diversos sectores de la población y buscando la legitimación a través de moldear la opinión pública.
... El concepto de neoliberalismo autoritario es de carácter estructural, sirviendo como categoría de análisis para estudiar diversos fenómenos asociados a él. Este ha sido tratado por diversos especialistas para diversos casos: en Turquía (Tansel, 2018;Bozkurt, 2018;Tansel, 2019;Tutkal, 2021), Inglaterra (Laub, 2021), Hungría (Fabry, 2018;Fabry, 2019), Estonia (Salyga, 2022), Rusia (Minacov, 2021), México (Jess, 2019;Bojórquez et al., 2020;Bojórquez y Ángeles, 2021), Brasil (Søndergaard, 2021;Saad-Filho, 2019), Colombia (Bojórquez et al., 2022), China (Zhang, 2018), Australia (Smith, 2019), Malasia (Juego, 2018), Filipinas (Ramos, 2021), África (Harrison, 2019;Adly, 2021), Estados Unidos (Gonzales, 2017;Keck y Clau-Lozada, 2021), entre otros. Gallo (2021) sostiene que el neoliberalismo y el autoritarismo estatal están fuertemente ligados y este fenómeno se presenta bajo tres modalidades: la primera, llevada a cabo por gobiernos de corte tecnocrático; el segundo, por gobiernos que incentivan un nacionalismo populista; y, por último, por regímenes autoritarios tradicionales. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
El presente trabajo analiza, desde la teoría crítica y en específico desde el concepto de neoliberalismo autoritario, las políticas que en materia económica se implementaron en Ecuador de 2017 hasta la actualidad, las cuales detonaron una serie de movilizaciones sociales y la consecuente respuesta del Estado con la utilización de las fuerzas policiales a través de una profunda represión estatal que ha tenido mayor intensidad durante los gobiernos de Lenin Moreno y Guillermo Lasso. Como se verá a continuación, el neoliberalismo autoritario es un concepto innovador que permite encontrar las caras ortodoxas de la praxis neoliberal como generadora de represión estatal ante el riesgo de que la presión de la movilización y protesta social conlleve una reducción de las políticas de ajuste económico.
... These changes, later called Lulism, sought a transition in fiscal and social policies to 'achieve positive outcomes in terms of GDP growth, the expansion of state and private enterprises, redistribution, and poverty reduction' (Saad Filho, 2020, p. 18). Particularly revising the social security system and tax code, reducing poverty and income inequality through redistributive social assistance programs such as Bolsa Familia, and expanding access to public services such as health and education became the central strategies during this transition period (Mendes, 2017;Roett, 2010;Saad Filho, 2020). These strategies were also followed by the gradual expansion of private investment and promotion of large Brazilian corporations at both national and transnational levels, especially after the reelection of Lula in 2006 (Saad Filho, 2020). ...
Article
This study addresses the question of why and how a protest can inspire individuals in distant countries. Taking the June 2013 protests in Turkey and Brazil as cases, it investigates the reasons why the Turkish protests were framed as one of the inspirational benchmarks by some Brazilian protesters. Drawing on grounded theory applied to the interviews with Brazilian protesters and qualitative secondary data, this study introduces the concept of ‘cathartic resonance’ as a mechanism of cross-national diffusion of protests and social movements. According to this mechanism, the moral shocks triggered by a foreign but relatable struggle may have an accelerating influence on sympathizers’ motivation for engaging in a similar struggle in their own context even in the absence of geographical, cultural, historical or organizational ties between the countries. Exploring the experiences, perceptions and emotions of protesters, this study proposes a more refined and extended understanding of diffusion by integrating the emotional and cognitive responses of individuals from an agentic and cultural approach.
... Mainstream journalism in Brazil has historically endorsed liberal economic agendas (Albuquerque, 2021;Saad-Filho, 2020). The argument that neoliberalism would be a desirable-and inevitable-trend compelled much of the media to support Collor in the 1989 elections (Lattman-Weltman, Carneiro, & Ramos, 1994). ...
Article
Full-text available
Over the last decade, political communication research has scrutinized the characteristics of media systems beyond the developed world. To understand new façades in media/political connections, this article examines how the notion of parallelism unfolds in the O Estado de S. Paulo (OESP) editorials-one of the most influential Brazilian newspapers. We investigate (a) the arguments raised, (b) the policies suggested, and (c) the news companies' evaluation of the political performance of the Lula, Temer, and Bolsonaro administrations regarding pension reform approval. A content analysis of 341 editorials revealed that the OESP adopts a parallelism that strays from the literature's traditional definition. For the newspaper at stake, the contrasting ideologies underpinning the three governments matter less than their willingness-and political strength-to approve liberal economic reforms. The article reinforces its claim for de-Westernizing media research by empirically demonstrating singular dimensions of media parallelism that have not been fully explored to date.
... 3. The characterization of this influence led to the creation of a myriad of derived terms such as "neo-developmentalism," "social developmentalism," and even "developmental neoliberalism" (Bastos, 2012;Bresser-Pereira, 2011;Saad-Filho, 2020). ...
Article
Comparison of the paths of two countries with developmental regimes led by left-of-center parties, Chile and Mexico, shows that the democratic regime, Chile’s, had better social indicators than its authoritarian counterpart at the price of slower industrialization. Comparação das trajetórias de dois países com regimes desenvolvimentistas dirigidos por partidos do centro-esquerda no Chile e México demostra que o regime democrâtico chileno teve maiores indicadores sociais que sua contraparte autoritária às custas de uma industrialização mais lenta.
... Lula's election raised concerns on Wall Street about whether he could commit to carry out the reforms initiated by Cardoso's government (Kingstone and Ponce, 2010). However, some predictions were proved wrong, as Lula's government promoted a macroeconomic policy, oriented towards the global capitalist market (Kingstone and Ponce, 2010), and which, therefore, promoted an inclusive paradigm of Brazilian neoliberalism (Saad-Filho, 2020). Under Lula's ...
Article
Full-text available
Since 2013, Brazil has been suffering from a political crisis characterized by intolerance between people with different ideological positions. In this paper, drawing on a collaborative auto-ethnography, we propose (1) a discussion about the effects of political rivalry and the severe government attacks on the education system, and the consequences for the classrooms in business schools, and (2) sharing our experience as scholars and professors who support critical positioning as a basis for teaching in a top-tier university in Brazil. We describe how polarization, and a politically sensitive scenario influenced the routine of classes and interactions with undergraduate students. We argue that empathy is fundamental for circumventing possible incidences of intolerance or political divergence in the classroom. At the same time, it is required that professors maintain their authenticity and not give up their political and ethical values, which are fundamental to how critical thinking is promoted in business management classes.
... Para destacar apenas quatro obras com títulos alarmantes, mencionamos as seguintes: Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (Streeck, 2017); Rupture: the crisis of liberal democracy (Castells, 2018); The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It (Mounk, 2018); Como a democracia chega ao fim (Runciman, 2018). Mas também, nesse período, surgiram vários trabalhos sobre a crise do capitalismo, vários deles abordando sua interrelação com a questão democrática, por exemplo: Streeck (2016), Fraser (2017a;2017b) e Saad-Filho (2020). ...
Article
Full-text available
En las democracias, la acumulación capitalista financiarizada ha implicado un bajo crecimiento económico y mayores desigualdades políticas, de ingresos y de riqueza. A nivel estatal, ha implicado la reducción de las políticas de bienestar social. Estos procesos alimentan la crisis de la legitimidad democrática. Considerando el capitalismo neoliberal, sus actores e intereses, el artículo pretende describir e interpretar las tensiones entre tres variables: la democracia, la desigualdad y el patrón del capitalismo. La hipótesis es que la democracia depende de una cierta igualdad política y socioeconómica. Se argumenta que el aumento significativo de la desigualdad, en el capitalismo neoliberal, debilita la legitimidad democrática y, en algunos países, ha estimulado el surgimiento de liderazgos autoritarios. La principal base empírica es Estados Unidos y Brasil. La metodología es cualitativa, de seguimiento de procesos: describimos el comportamiento temporal de variables cualitativas para explorar inferencias causales. Los datos cuantitativos están subordinados al análisis cualitativo.
... El debate incluye simpatizantes y opositores de la estrategia que siguieron los sucesivos gobiernos brasileños dirigidos por el Partido de los Trabajadores (Partido dos Trabalhadores [pt]) durante más de una década, al que muchos han denominado, incluso con diferentes prefijos, "desarrollista" (Ban, 2012;Bielschowsky, 2015) o "variedad del neoliberalismo" (Saad Filho, 2017), en analogía con el concepto de "variedades del capitalismo". 1 Como dice Fonseca (2014), el desarrollismo es un término bastante ambiguo que se alimenta tanto de conceptos teóricos como de experiencias de política económica. ...
... Since March 2015, popular protests of rightist citizens started; they accused both leftist presidents of corruption, and processes started in December 2015. Rousseff was impeached in August 2016 (Arestis & Saad-Filho, 2007;Hagopian, 2016;Melo, 2016;Pickup, 2019;Boschi & Santos Pinho, 2019, Braga & Dos Santos, 2020Saad-Filho, 2020) and was substituted by Temer, from the 1980s center-left party of Sarney. In 2014, Brazilian economic performance worsened and recession started, but it was not a deep economic crisis. ...
Article
Full-text available
In this article, political economies have been linked to the decision-making processes of Latin American countries, before and after 1989. Conservative and liberal reforms have usually been applied through neo-oligarchic decision-making processes. Social-democrat economic policies have often been implemented with neo-corporatism. When “soft” populism prevailed, partitocrazia was the typical political instrument of lef tist governments, either if they governed or if they were at the opposition. Thus, they usual ly vetoed rightist presidents’ market reforms. The political consequence of “hard” populism has been authoritarianism, like in Venezuela with Chavez and Maduro. In “hybrid” economic policies, combining different models of political economies, there is not a stable decision-making process, and political conflict is usually strong.
... We analyse the main features of Turkish presidentialism following Göbel's (2011) three-dimensional framework of authoritarian consolidation, including infrastructural, despotic, and discursive power analyses. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to analyse Turkey's recent transformation from a critical political economy (CPE) perspective (Bieler & Morton, 2018;Brenner & Theodore, 2002;Bruff, 2011Bruff, , 2014Bruff & Tansel, 2019;Crouch, 2011;Jessop, 2014;Peck & Theodore, 2007;Saad-Filho, 2020) and examine the main determinants of, what we call, the 'authoritarian consolidation attempt' of the Erdoğan government. This research also aims to engage in the study of regime change by bringing the CPE approach in. ...
Article
The aim of this article is to analyze Turkey's recent authoritarian transformation from a critical political economy perspective and to examine the main determinants of, what we call, the ‘authoritarian consolidation attempt' of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). For that purpose, first, we sought answers to the following question: why did the AKP engage in a more authoritarian political agenda in the 2010s? We critically review the literature on the contemporary dynamics of authoritarianism, particularly focusing on two explanatory frameworks, competitive authoritarianism, and authoritarian neoliberalism. We argue that the crisis of authoritarian neoliberalism did not end up with democratization in Turkey in the 2010s, rather the power bloc initiated a strategy of the authoritarian fix as a reaction to the multiple crises that were a combination of the state crisis and the crisis of capital accumulation regime. Second, we analyzed how authoritarianism in Turkey is en route to consolidation in the aftermath of the transition to the Turkish presidential system in 2018, and what the fundamental factors of this consolidation are. We investigated the main features of Turkish presidentialism following the three-dimensional framework of authoritarian consolidation, including infrastructural, despotic, and discursive power analyses. As a result, we suggest a critical political economy account to unfold contemporary dynamics of authoritarianism based on the Turkish case.
... So wurde dieG ewerkschaftssteuer bereits unter dem 2017 ins Amt gekommenen Präsidenten Temer abgeschafft, was viele Gewerkschaften vor existenziellefinanzielle Probleme stellt. Der seit 2019 regierende Präsident Bolsonaro treibt im Rahmen seines autoritären Neoliberalismusd ie Deregulierungd es Arbeitsrechts, Rentenkürzungen und eine Schwächung der Gewerkschaften weiter voran (Saad-Filho, 2019). ...
Article
Full-text available
Anhand vergleichender Fallstudien in vier Branchen (Automobil, Bekleidung, Elektronikgüter, IT-Dienstleistungen) und sechs Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern (Indien, Bangladesch, China, Vietnam, Brasilien, Südafrika) zeigen wir den Einfluss industriespezifischer Governance-Formen sowie nationaler Systeme industrieller Beziehungen auf soziales Upgrading auf. Erfolgreiches soziales Upgrading hängt demzufolge entscheidend davon ab, ob nationale Gewerkschaften über ausreichende assoziative und institutionelle Macht verfügen, um sich in Transformationsauseinandersetzungen gegenüber dominanten nationalen Koalitionen behaupten zu können.
... Furthermore, financialisation has led to domestic and international short-term capital playing a stronger role in monitoring, supervising and punishing developing countries' fiscal situation while placing a more significant burden on public capital to make productive investments (Agénor and Pereira da Silva 2019; Bonizzi 2013; Storm 2018). These factors explain why 'new developmentalism' has been characterised by simultaneous attention to state activism and macroeconomic stability, often being labelled 'neo-developmental liberalism' or 'liberal neo-developmentalism' (Ban 2013;Saad-Filho 2020;Sato 2019). ...
Article
Full-text available
Many developing countries have, in recent years, adopted structural transformation strategies and strengthened state economic activism. While prima facie reminiscent of the post-war era’s developmentalist strategies, contemporary industrial policies have resurfaced in a different environment: they are often designed and implemented in (newly) democratic, rather than authoritarian, political regimes. This paper argues that when democratic developing countries seek to (re)deploy industrial policies, governments must navigate the specific demands arising in an institutional setting in which political power is constrained and contestable. Therefore, the focus of the classical industrial policy literature on instrumental-rational, top-down, technocratic ­policy-making, with centralised state–business relations, needs to adapt to this environment. This paper discusses how challenges to secure fiscal space, reach parliamentary consensus, and address diverse societal demands in a formal democratic institutional setting influence industrial policies in developing countries. We exemplify this using Indonesia as a case study.
... El debate incluye simpatizantes y opositores de la estrategia que siguieron los sucesivos gobiernos brasileños dirigidos por el Partido de los Trabajadores (Partido dos Trabalhadores [pt]) durante más de una década, al que muchos han denominado, incluso con diferentes prefijos, "desarrollista" (Ban, 2012;Bielschowsky, 2015) o "variedad del neoliberalismo" (Saad Filho, 2017), en analogía con el concepto de "variedades del capitalismo". 1 Como dice Fonseca (2014), el desarrollismo es un término bastante ambiguo que se alimenta tanto de conceptos teóricos como de experiencias de política económica. ...
Book
Full-text available
Varios países de América Latina pasaron de crecer aceleradamente, reducir la desigualdad y la pobreza durante la primera década del siglo XXI, a una crisis económica y, en el caso de Brasil y algunos otros, a una política. Además, en el momento en el que escribimos, todo el continente está siendo fuertemente golpeado por la complejidades económicas derivadas de la pandemia. A pesar de que todos los países comparten varios de los mismos problemas y circunstancias, no hay que dejar de ver las diferencias derivadas de sus trayectorias históricas. En este libro, analizamos cómo algunos países de AL han enfrentado la crisis que inicia con la baja del precio de las commodities desde mediados de la década. Nos preguntamos si la situación por la que han pasado estos países es el reflejo de la ausencia de una variedad de capitalismos en América Latina y de la existencia de uno solo; si los choques externos tienen como consecuencia la desaparición de los contrastes entre países que se evidenciaban cuando estaban creciendo o si, por el contrario, es posible seguir pensando que perviven. Los distintos capítulos de este libro postulan esta última idea, que no han desaparecido las variedades de los distintos capitalismos latinoamericanos y que estos acarrean distintos tipos de crisis en función de sus conformaciones económicas, sociales y políticas. Nos hemos centrado en los dos casos más contrastantes : Brasil y México, aunque se hacen numerosas referencias a otros países para ejemplificar la idea de que las diversidades, lejos de desaparecer, se acentúan en tiempos como los actuales.
... A primeira é aquela que, enfatizando as mudanças abruptas nos regimes políticos decorrentes da chegada ao -e também da retirada do -poder do PT, acentua a passagem de um modelo neoliberal de Estado para outro de cunho social-desenvolvimentista (Bresser-Pereira, 2010;Diniz & Boschi, 2007). A segunda é aquela que, concentrando sua atenção menos no Estado e mais nas racionalidades da acumulação capitalista, destaca processos mais graduais de transição, caracterizados pela continuidade do neoliberalismo -apesar das variações que este demonstrou em diferentes momentos(Ban, 2013;Saad-Filho, 2020). Ambas as interpretações apresentam problemas, evidentes ao contrastar os setores da agricultura, mineração e aviação. ...
Article
Full-text available
The article discusses how institutionalist approaches have contributed to the production of new understandings about the reconfigurations of capitalism. The focus is on the political production of institutional changes that have given rise to new dynamics of accumulation in three key sectors of the Brazilian economy: agriculture, mining and air transport. Based on the example of these sectors, it demonstrates not only the coexistence of the neoliberal rationality with neo-developmental policies, suggesting institutional pluralism, but also the institutional reinforcement that has been given to predatory logics of accumulation. Finally, it suggests that institutionalist approaches should pay more attention to how corporations have become disruptive elements not only of State regulation and social control, but also of the alleged market equilibrium.
... They also reveal the crisis of the Brazilian state founded upon the positivist principles of 'order and progress' symbolising, at least rhetorically, the belief that modernity would promote the rational development of a nation that attempted to distance itself from its colonial past. Associated with industrialisation, urban modernism, and the emergence of a technocracy, successive governments promoted state-led modernisation, later abandoned in favour of a neoliberal pro-market agenda (Caldeira and Holston 2016;Saad-Filho 2020). In the 2000s, an economic boom enabled a process of redistribution that turned around decades of slow growth and rising inequalities. ...
Article
Full-text available
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, masks and the act of masking have become emotive subjects for social and political debate. In Brazil, one of the countries most severely affected by the pandemic, the seemingly mundane act of mask-wearing has become part of a deep social, political and economic crisis at the centre of which is the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. In this paper we explore the politics of (un)masking in Brazil from three vantage points in which the mask serves to dramatise the country’s current moment. Firstly, we trace the connections and disjunctions between the politics of mask-wearing and the genealogies of hygienist policies associated with the modern aspirations of the Brazilian republic. Secondly, we consider how masks are incorporated into the everyday life of the city through popular economies, which reveal the potentialities and limitations of work beyond the modern ideals of waged labour. Finally, we explore the incorporation of masks in urban street-art. We approach graffiti and murals as situated performances of symbolic resistance that contest and reveal the incoherences of Bolsonaro’s anti-science discourse. In tandem, these three perspectives foreground practices of (un)masking that expose long-standing tensions and new contemporary challenges that characterise the politics of a ‘crisis society’.
Article
Full-text available
Posterior a la última crisis del capitalismo, la de 2008, originada por la crisis inmobiliaria en los Estados Unidos, cuyos efectos fueron globales, de acuerdo con la teoría crítica, surgió un neoliberalismo autoritario, con Estados que imponen una serie de políticas de ajuste económicas, con el fin de fortalecer los mecanismos de acumulación de capital. Dichas políticas son implementadas previa construcción de estrategias de acumulación por legitimación, a través de propaganda articulada por las élites económicas y políticas. El presente ensayo analiza y devela como se dio el proceso de legitimación en la implementación de la Reforma Educativa en México en 2013, bajo un contexto de neoliberalismo autoritario, con el fin de controlar al magisterio, consolidar la precarización laboral propia del modelo neoliberal. Se utilizó una metodología cualitativa basada en investigación documental centrada textos académicos como artículos científicos, tesis, libros y reportes de prensa.
Article
Full-text available
La desertificación neoliberal en Brasil En las últimas décadas, la consolidación del neoliberalismo ha sido impulsada de manera significativa en diversos países, desempeñando un papel estructural en las políticas estatales y en las relaciones eco-nómicas y sociales, produciendo efectos que buscan, por todos los caminos, imponer los preceptos del capitalismo de libre mercado. En la historia reciente de Brasil, el auge del neoliberalismo se con-solidó a principios de la década de 1990, cuando un conjunto de ajustes relacionados con las restricciones en la transferencia de fondos públicos, especialmente en los sectores de la educación pública, salud, seguridad social, vivienda y otros derechos sociales, comenzó a implementarse a través de una agresiva política de privatización de empresas estatales y servicios públicos. Estos ajustes se basaban en gran medida en la visión idílica de la libertad individual 1 , y tenían como objetivo de preservar y fortalecer el derecho de propiedad, la concentración de capital y el poder del gran capital 2. En Brasil, la implantación del neoliberalismo generó lo que de-nominamos la era de la desertificación neoliberal, cuyo proceso ha tenido lugar durante tres décadas consecutivas.
Article
Full-text available
Locating the analysis in the context of the various shifts in Brazil’s development trajectory since 2003, this article problematises the dynamics underpinning processes of environmental governance. Adopting a critical institutionalist approach, the article analyses how evolving claims of sovereignty over natural resources are used to legitimise contested policy agendas for environmental governance of the Amazon region within Brazil’s coalition politics, and how bricolage processes (innovation, adaptation, and legitimisation) shape these agendas and their outcomes. In a context of territorial fragmentation and ideological differences between an expanding network of actors (federal, state, municipal and non-state) involved in the institutional bricolage of environmental policy-making, the analysis demonstrates that the coalition dynamics of each administration determines the extent to which environmental policies are implemented within Brazil as well as the social-environmental outcomes.
Article
This article categorizes the resistance strategies used by traditional fishers on the coast of Paraná, Brazil, against local authorities that seek to deterritorialize their territories. Documentary sources and interviews with informants were used as part of this research. The local traditional fishing sector is not immune to external pressure. The resistance strategies of this group can be classified into eight categories. We find that the local traditional fishers already lost much of their territory during the last few decades, and the pressures they face continue to increase. However, the rise in resistance actions throughout the twenty-first century allowed this group to engage with new perspectives concerning their struggle for territory. This is a fight that is active in its effort to guarantee the rights of traditional fishing communities in Paraná.
Research Proposal
Full-text available
Ementa: HZ156 B - Neoliberalismo: fundamentos, conceitos e implicações Apresentar os fundamentos e conceitos do neoliberalismo nas teorias defensivas e críticas à implementação de seus preceitos, e determinadas implicações decorrentes de suas sistematizações, observando como elas se desdobraram sobre a realidade brasileira, em especial. O curso será dividido em três unidades: 1ª) Debater elementos conceituais que fundamentaram a emergência do neoliberalismo no contexto da primeira metade do século XX, explorando, em particular, aqueles determinados preceitos formulados por três reconhecidos ideólogos formuladores: o austríaco Friederich Hayek, o estadunidense Milton Friedman e o brasileiro Roberto Campos. 2ª) Centrar a discussão nas acepções que fundamentaram as teorias críticas aos preceitos e às sistematizações do neoliberalismo na segunda metade do século XX, destacando, principalmente, as formulações dos campos de interpretação nas teorias foucaultiana, cuja leitura o concebe enquanto uma nova governamentabilidade, marxista, para qual o neoliberalismo se manifesta como um projeto de restauração do poder das classes, e a teoria institucionalista que o observa como uma nova forma de regulação econômico-institucional do capitalismo contemporâneo. 3ª) Focar nos aspectos relacionados aos ajustes neoliberais que foram sistematizados desde o último quadrante do século XX na realidade brasileira, em especial, situando também determinadas implicações decorrentes. Ao final do curso, pretende-se que o conjunto de discentes desenvolva consciência crítica acerca dos fundamentos e conceitos que delineiam o neoliberalismo no curso da história, bem como possa desenvolver, pautado nos elementos empíricos relacionados às suas sistematizações concretas, uma interpretação acerca das implicações que se desdobraram e continuam a se desdobrar no Brasil em particular, mediante a produção de um pequeno relatório final, uma das atividades avaliativas que comporão o conceito final da disciplina.
Preprint
Full-text available
Article written for the 2021/22 edition of the course 'Contemporary Capitalism: Neoliberalism and Beyond' at the International Institute of Social Studies.
Article
Full-text available
As neoliberalizações avançam de modo significativo em muitos territórios do ocidente global nos quais desempenham papéis estruturantes nas políticas estatais e nas relações sociais, produzindo efeitos diversos. Tais efeitos têm despertado atenção de inúmeros intelectuais, que, desde diversos campos teóricos e políticos, lançam luz sobre questões relacionadas a tais papéis, atribuindo significados ambíguos ao conceito de neoliberalismo, defendendo-o tanto em termos favoráveis quanto em termos contrários e mobilizando-o para explicar e ou analisar fatos concretos bastante heterogêneos entre si, argumentando que sua sistematização se desdobra em seus aspectos positivos, por um lado, e negativos, por outro. Em função das ambiguidades e da abrangência de seu escopo, o conceito carece de ser interrogado, para que se compreenda o que esses intelectuais explicitam e o que deixam de explicitar em suas análises. Meu objetivo neste artigo é colocar o neoliberalismo em debate, oferecendo pistas teóricas que permitam analisar seus fundamentos a partir dos significados e das intencionalidades que existem por trás de suas mobilizações teóricas. Para tanto, realizo um balanço teórico das principais interpretações que permitem delinear os campos teóricos dos intelectuais que formularam os preceitos do neoliberalismo e dos que teceram críticas a eles, a partir da seguinte estrutura: (i) quais acepções delinearam os fundamentos do neoliberalismo; (ii) que interpretações buscaram examinar tais preceitos, tecendo críticas sobre eles, e a quais aspectos se atêm. Nesse caminho, proponho uma interpretação que se oriente a compreender os elementos constitutivos das neoliberalizações em curso, atentando-se para seus aspectos empíricos concretos-portanto, uma intepretação dotada de espaço-temporalidade. Pretendo elaborar uma discussão que, além de apontar quem ou qual campo está errado e quem está certo, explicite como o avanço dos preceitos está potencializando as mazelas que são próprias do capitalismo a que ele confere sustentação.
Article
Full-text available
El presente artículo, de carácter teórico e interpretativo, analiza los intereses de las burguesías brasileña y argentina en relación con el Mercosur, buscando identificar los contornos del regionalismo y el papel del imperialismo. A través de análisis bibliográfico y documental se señala la existencia de tres grandes periodos y sus correspondientes modelos: la década de 1990, el neoliberalismo y el regionalismo abierto; los años 2000, el "relanzamiento del bloque" y el regionalismo multidimensional; de 2011 a 2022, en especial, después del golpe de Estado de 2016 en Brasil, que trajo de vuelta el proyecto de regionalismo abierto y la subordinación pasiva ante el imperialismo.
Article
Full-text available
Introducción: la compleja evolución histórica del Departamento, las transiciones de poder, las disparidades geográficas y sociales, así como el estado actual del territorio, confluyen y configuran un complejo escenario para la comprensión de su futuro. En un contexto severamente afectado los conflictos sociales, económicos, étnicos y de tenencia de tierra, mismos que presentan una intensidad mayor que en la mayoría de los espacios territoriales que conforman el país, es preciso examinar los indicadores con los cuales el gobierno define los niveles de desarrollo regional. Objetivo: el estudio estuvo encaminado a efectuar una mirada a las realidades que configuran los espacios materiales, basados en la espacialización, la teoría del desarrollo geográfico desigual y análisis de las principales categorías históricas. Reflexión: el texto reflexiona sobre los procesos de resistencia al modelamiento económico tradicional bajo el soporte de organizaciones sociales de carácter étnico-territorial, plantea y explora nuevos marcos de análisis que permitan un acercamiento comprensivo a lo que el Cauca es y convoca, así como señala puntos críticos a transformar. Conclusiones: la pesquisa conducida patenta la necesidad de una convocatoria a nuevos estudios interdisciplinares, que den voz a actores sociales, económicos y regionales que han sido invisibilizados por los centros de poder y una toma de decisiones que les es ajena.
Article
Full-text available
A atual Reforma do Ensino Médio, aprovada pela Lei 13.415/2017, representa uma mudança estrutural da educação pública brasileira e se insere em um horizonte mais amplo de reformas adaptadas ao “novo espírito do neoliberalismo”, entendido como racionalidade preponderante da fase atual do capitalismo. Buscamos investigar as afinidades entre o discurso da reforma de 2017, em especial na Base Nacional Comum Curricular para o Ensino Médio, e a construção de uma subjetividade neoliberal na formação escolar. Apoiadas no método da Análise de Discurso, ancoramo-nos nas noções de “projeto de vida” e de “empreendedorismo” para analisar três recortes da Base, nos quais destacamos os pilares para uma pedagogia da adaptação do sujeito à máxima do “empreendedor de si”.
Article
What are the social dynamics behind the rise and resilience of today’s authoritarian regimes? This paper seeks to answer this question by focusing on the longest lasting elected autocracy of our era, the AKP (Justice and Development Party) regime in Turkey. Building on the authoritarian neoliberalism literature’s criticism of the scholarship on competitive authoritarianism, I point out the seeds of authoritarianism in the pro-market reforms of the 1980s–2000s. However, both literatures fail to address the popular embrace of authoritarianism. In critical engagement with analyses of fascism, I develop the concept ‘democratic autocracy’: a parliamentarised, individualised, personalistic, and relatively more market-oriented, twenty-first century version of fascism. The democratic autocracy in Turkey organises and mobilises the people through parties, youth and aid associations, paramilitary organisations, and unions. However, both unresolved economic crises and democratic autocracy’s sociopolitical dynamics set limits to its resilience, as well as to the sustainability of its parliamentarism.
Article
Brazil is often cited for its high levels of inequality. Despite some success in reducing this inequality during the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) period, the rise of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s president threatens to reverse this trend as he actively seeks to promote policies that will lead to greater financialization of the Brazilian economy. In recent years, several studies have shown that the financialization of the economy as a whole can lead to a rise in inequality, but the financialization of the health and education sectors has not been of particular interest to researchers and government officials. An empirical analysis of the pattern of income inequality in twenty-first-century Brazil paying particular attention to the potential impact of the financialization of health and education sectors on this process shows a correlation between greater financialization (especially in the health sector) and an increase in income inequality. O Brasil é frequentemente destacado pelos seus níveis elevados de desigualdade. Apesar de algum progresso na redução da desigualdade durante o período de governação do PT, a tomada de posse como presidente de Jair Bolsonaro ameaça reverter esta trajetória, nomeadamente via o apoio a uma maior financeirização da economia. Nos últimos anos, vários estudos mostraram que a financeirização da economia como um todo pode conduzir ao aumento da desigualdade. Porém, a financeirização dos setores da saúde e da educação não tem sido alvo de interesse particular. Uma análise empírica do comportamento da desigualdade no Brasil no séc. XXI salientando o potencial impacto da financeirização da saúde e da educação, sugere que uma maior financeirização, em particular do setor da saúde, está associada a um aumento da desigualdade na repartição do rendimento no Brasil.
Chapter
Full-text available
Neste capítulo, procuro contribuir com o debate sobre a centralidade da propriedade imobiliária no capitalismo contemporâneo e seu contraditório impulso no contexto das crises. Para o desenvolvimento destas ideias, em uma primeira parte buscou-se discutir o “lugar” da propriedade imobiliária no capitalismo dominado pelas finanças. Na segunda, são analisadas as profundas transformações na propriedade imobiliária e as implicações desse movimento na produção da moradia e da metrópole. Na última parte, discute-se a presente crise e as articulações com a crise financeira de 2008, desenvolvendo ainda uma breve análise do contraditório impulso à produção imobiliária evidenciada no presente momento.
Article
Public food procurement (PFP) programs have been increasingly implemented worldwide as an instrument for helping countries meet their commitments to the SDGs. Conversely, governments committed to a neoliberal agenda can hinder the development of PFP-based programs due to their advocacy for fiscal austerity and the efficiency of the free market. The Brazilian experience in implementing and dismantling PFP programs can provide important lessons for researchers and policy-makers interested in the issue. Based on secondary data analysis, we investigate the dismantling of the Food Acquisition Program (PAA-Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos), a PFP-based program, to understand the strategies used by neoliberal governments to dismantle PFPs programs. Our results unveil the different ways governments with a neoliberal agenda can use to dismantle a PFP program and point to the risks that policies based on public procurement face under neoliberal governments.
Article
In recent years, a series of right-wing populists has ascended to power in both the Global North and the Global South. While these leaders frequently have provided challenges to liberal democracy, neoliberal modes of economic governance have often been part of their agendas. Analysis of the economic policy narrative of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral campaign in 2018 through the theoretical lens of authoritarian neoliberalism reveals that it has worked by the relegation of economic matters to technocratic management outside the sphere of democratic debate and the instrumentalized estrangement of groups and institutions opposed to his political views. Recentemente, uma série de populistas direitistas têm chegado ao poder tanto nos países do norte como naqueles do sul. Enquanto estes lideres frequentemente apresentam desafios às democrâcias liberais, modos neoliberais de governança econômica muitas vezes desempenham um papel nas suas agendas. Uma análise da narrativa da política econômica na campanha presidencial do Presidente Jair Bolsonaro no Brasil em 2018 mediante uma visão teorética de neoliberalismo autoritário indica que ela funcionou pela relegação de assuntos econômicos a gestores tecnocrâticos que ficam fora da esféra de debate democrâtico e pelo afastamento instrumentalizado de grupos e instituições que se opõem às idéias políticas de Bolsonaro.
Article
Full-text available
El presente estudio tiene como objetivo examinar el impacto de las relaciones comerciales de China con Argentina y Brasil, tomando en consideración el saldo y composición de la balanza comercial de estos dos países sudamericanos, así como las inversiones chinas en la región, discriminando sus características (sectores, montos, impacto en empleo). Para desarrollar este análisis, el trabajo se compone de la introducción, cuatro secciones y las conclusiones. En primer lugar, se presentan las características que permiten comprender las dinámicas de China y los países sudamericanos en la actualidad. Luego se traza un repaso histórico de las reformas económicas estructurales de China con Argentina y Brasil en las últimas décadas del siglo XX y se muestra cómo dichas trayectorias se relacionan a inicios del siglo XXI a nivel comercial y de inversiones. Por último, se presentan breves consideraciones finales.
Article
Full-text available
The reconstruction of the economic history of Brazil since independence from Portugal (1822) may lead to a new understanding of its economic growth. The deep-rooted idea that Brazil could have done better means there is a need to delve into each phase of its development. In this paper, we provide a very long-run perspective (1822-2019) of Brazil’s economic growth and process of real convergence. On the one hand, this review indicates that structural changes observed in the middle of the 20th century were crucial in promoting the country’s growth and real convergence with technologically advanced countries. On the other hand, poor institutional conditions and deficient human capital formation have emerged since colonial times as critical factors underlying Brazil’s inability to establish robust and sustainable economic growth. KEYWORDS: Economic growth; real convergence; Brazil; very long run.
Article
Full-text available
O artigo aborda a financeirização da pobreza durante o governo Michel Temer. O objetivo principal é identificar o modo como o Estado contribuiu para o processo de enquadramento da pobreza como um problema exclusivamente financeiro que requer soluções prioritariamente financeiras. Foram analisados dados econômicos e sociais, assim como iniciativas de “inclusão financeira” promovidas pelo Estado. O argumento tem um caráter descritivo e estabelece algumas comparações com os governos anteriores que revelam dois movimentos complementares de continuidades e rupturas: (1) uma promoção indireta da financeirização articulada com as políticas de austeridade e (2) uma promoção ativa por meio da bancarização dos beneficiários dos programas sociais e dos programas de microfinanças voltados aos pobres.
Article
Full-text available
This article discusses why Latin American post-neoliberal parties have varied in their strategies of capital flow management. In brief, I propose that two complementary channels favor the pursuit of heterodox strategies: high degree of pressure from popular sectors that push for an immediate macroeconomic reorientation, and strategic allies among economic elites that mitigate the credibility losses associated with this decision. The comparative case-study on Argentina under Kirchnerism (2003-2015) and Brazil under the Workers’ Party (2003-2016) provides support for this argument. In the former case, the ruling party had to address the demands from strong and autonomous unions and social movements, while counting on a strategic alliance with domestic manufacturing producers. In the latter, conversely, the governing party lacked strategic allies among economic elites and could overlook the agenda of weak and subordinate popular organisations. In other words, both popular and elite channels favored the adoption of a heterodox strategy of capital flow management by Kirchnerism, while neither of them did in the case of the Workers’ Party. In Argentina, the option for heterodoxy also contributed to the repoliticisation of capital flow management by returning the visibility of this policy issue and impelling policymakers to go beyond technocratic discourses.
Article
Since 2013, the cultural‐historical project Rolé Carioca has encouraged residents of Rio de Janeiro to reconnect with their city. Focusing on the project’s walking tours, this article examines how Rolé Carioca navigates a neo-liberal context to encourage residents of Rio to return to the street from the fortified enclaves to which they have retreated for business, leisure and housing and to visit long-denigrated areas of the city, such as its suburbs. This article elucidates the infrastructures Rolé Carioca uses to transform areas of Rio into sites of leisure for its walking tour participants. It argues that the project pursues its aims by encouraging participants to engage with their city in ways akin to, but subtly different from the flâneurs of the nineteenth century. It also probes the history and paradoxes of the means by which Rolé Carioca seeks to reconnect those who attend its events with Rio.
Chapter
Full-text available
SANTOS, Bruna; ROCHA, Bruna; FREITAS, Felipe et all. Reflexões sobre a tradição autoritária brasileira e a desdemocratização no Governo Bolsonaro. In: Frederico A. Barbosa da Silva;Monique Florencio de Aguiar;Tatiana Lemos Sandim. ASSÉDIO INSTITUCIONAL NO BRASIL: AVANÇO DO AUTORITARISMO E DESCONSTRUÇÃO DO ESTADO. João Pessoa: EUEPB, 2022.
Article
Full-text available
Brazil is one of the few countries that has implemented policies aimed at supporting agroecological transition processes on a national scale. While its experience has caught the attention of the international community interested in building sustainable and healthy food systems, recent literature points to the dismantling of these policies. This article identifies the variety of dismantling strategies to analyze how they are linked to the modification of the policy paradigm. Results suggest that the formation of a ‘clientelist–corporocratic’ paradigm legitimized active and visible dismantling strategies, such as the extinction of policy instruments and the delegitimization of agroecology through discursive mechanisms.
Article
‘Neoliberal populism’, as both concept and mode of government, has peculiar capacities and strengths. But the concept should not be overstretched, and the strength of pure neoliberal populism should not be overestimated. The most resilient of the regimes that have been labelled ‘neoliberal populist’ (Erdoğan’s Turkey and Orbán’s Hungary) could not go beyond ten years without mobilising statist tools much more heavily than others. In comparison to them, earlier Latin American, Eastern European, and Southeast Asian neoliberal populist governments have had relatively short tenures. Moreover, our theoretical approach to populism needs to be thoroughly revised to make analytical sense of the mass organisational bases of some rightwing regimes. The strongest of today’s rightwing populist regimes are differentiated from earlier and contemporary neoliberal populist cases by their statist policy tools and mass organisational underpinnings.
Article
A central issue in the scholarly literature on the Latin American Pink Tide is the renewal of state-led development, or neo-developmentalism, and dependence on primary resources or the so-called resource curse. In this article, we consider the question of neo-developmentalism during the Pink Tide and state capacity, analyzing whether the three ‘radical’ Pink Tide governments in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia were able to achieve their respective neo-developmental political objectives. We employ a comparative approach building on the theory of ‘broadened embedded autonomy’ as conceptualized by Peter Evans. We argue that while reliance on resource extraction posed a challenge for the construction of state capacity for Pink Tide governments, national-level differences help explain why some governments were relatively more successful than others at inducing neo-developmentalism. A comparative approach focused on the politics of state-society thus provides a promising analytical framework for interpreting variations across cases.
Chapter
This chapter serves to develop a classification of economic and social upgrading trajectories according to the theoretical approach introduced in the first chapter of this book, and to present empirical results according to this framework. Based on this classification and theoretical debate tentative policy recommendations for economic and social upgrading in global value chains (GVCs) are provided. In order to analyse the possibilities and challenges for economic and social upgrading in different industries and countries, a correspondingly open and complex theoretical research strategy is needed. We firstly suggest supplementing the analysis of value chain governance modes with economic approaches on power relations and rent-seeking possibilities in different market forms. Secondly—since the expectations of mainstream economists regarding economic and social upgrading opportunities for countries in the Global South through involvement in GVCs have not materialized—we take the concerns of institutionalists seriously, who underline that upgrading also depends on a country’s capacity to shape the national competitive and labour market situation through a series of political measures such as labour regulation and industrial policy. Therefore, in our interdisciplinary view, GVC approaches should be further integrated into debates on labour power, industrial relations and industrial policy.
Book
Full-text available
“Finally, a set of analyses that explicitly brings power relations into the study of Global Value Chains. This excellent book highlights various dimensions of a critical but understudied feature: power asymmetries of both demand and supply at each stage, which give rise to rent seeking in the upper levels and reduce capacities for upgrading at the lower levels of the chain. Public policies are crucial in determining the outcomes, which makes this book essential reading for anyone interested in economic development.” — Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA. “This book is an important contribution to the debate on global value chains. It is particularly important because it takes the perspective of the Global South and shows the risks for developing countries integrating through global value chains in a global economy with massive power imbalances. It also gives some hope that risks can be turned into success with strategic industrial and trade policies, social upgrading, strong international human rights due diligence regulations and a strong voice for workers.” — Atle Høie, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union This book investigates how global value chain governance, public institutions and strategies in the area of industrial policy and industrial relations by stakeholders such as national or global trade unions, governments, companies or international NGOs shape upgrading in the Global South. A special feature is its interdisciplinarity, combining sociological, economic, legal and political dimensions. Case studies systematically compare different industry trajectories. Furthermore, it encompasses far-reaching insights into the role of global value chains for development, economic catching-up of countries and socio-political aspects such as working conditions and interest representation. Christina Teipen is Professor for social sciences with a focus on economic sociology at HWR Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law). Petra Dünhaupt is a research associate and lecturer at HWR Berlin. Hansjörg Herr is Professor (retired) for supranational integration at HWR Berlin. Fabian Mehl is a research associate and lecturer at HWR Berlin.
Chapter
For over 20 years, the Brazilian economy has faced enormous challenges as a result of neoliberal structural reforms, economic stagnation and external crises, particularly after the Latin American crisis of the late 1990s to early 2000s and after 2014. Deep economic structural changes and fluctuations in the pace of growth profoundly affected Brazilian production and consumption, various sectors of activity, and the social and working conditions of the population. One of the largest and most historically significant industrial sectors in Brazil is the automotive industry. While working conditions in the industry have greatly improved since the beginning of the 2000s, with worsening macroeconomic conditions since 2014 the Brazilian labour movement’s ability to continue achieving an upwards trajectory for workers seems to be under threat. This analysis focuses on the automotive industry as a point of reference to better understand Brazil’s economic development since the late 1990s, the challenges inherent to integration in global value chains (GVCs) and how all of these factors influence working conditions and the ability of organised labour to achieve improvements.
Article
With the Brazilian military governments of the 1960s, systematic economic development of the Amazon began. Social and environmental concerns have entered Amazonian discourses and policies only since the 1990s. Since then, reports of threats to forests and indigenous people have alternated with reports of socioeconomic progress and environmental achievements. These contradictions often arise from limited thematic, sectoral, temporal, or spatial perspectives, and lead to misinterpretation. Our paper offers a comprehensive picture of discourses, policies, and socio-environmental dynamics for the entire region over the last five decades. We distinguish eight historical policy phases, each of which had little effect on near-linear dynamics of demographic growth and land-use expansion, although some policies showed the potential to change the course of development. To prevent local, national, and international actors from continuing to assert harmful interests in the region, a coherent long-term commitment and change in the collective mindset are needed.
Article
Full-text available
RESUMO Diferentes razões apontam para a dissolução da coalizão produtivista e a formação de uma frente única burguesa antidesenvolvimentista. Com a intenção de acelerar o passo do lulismo, Dilma cutucou muitas onças com varas curtas. O ativismo estatal teria alienado camadas de empresários, resultando na unidade abrangente antidesenvolvimentista. Sustentar a ofensiva demandaria sólida aliança interclassista e/ou intensa mobilização dos trabalhadores, o que não foi feito.
Article
Full-text available
Under favorable external circumstances, the pragmatic political and economic strategy of Brazil’s Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) helped to secure short-term political stability, boosted growth, and supported an unprecedented distribution of income. However, it also meant that the PT had to accommodate to rather than transform the constraints on growth in Brazil and that stability would involve unwieldy political alliances preventing deeper reforms. When it was confronted with deteriorating global economic conditions and increasingly ineffectual economic policies, the PT’s strategy immobilized the party, facilitated the dissolution of its base of support, and expedited its ouster from power. The Brazilian experience suggests that political pragmatism can, within limits, support progressive economic change but that the outcomes depend heavily on external circumstances and the stability of the political coalitions supporting the administration. Em circunstâncias externas favoráveis, a pragmática estratégia política e econômica do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) ajudou a assegurar a estabilidade política no curto prazo, impulsionou o crescimento e apoiou uma distribuição de renda sem precedentes. No entanto, isso também significou que o PT teve que se acomodar a, em vez de transformar, as restrições ao crescimento no Brasil, e que a estabilidade envolveria alianças políticas comprometedoras, impedindo reformas mais profundas. Quando foi confrontada com a deterioração das condições econômicas globais e apresentando políticas econômicas cada vez mais ineficazes, a estratégia do PT imobilizou o partido, facilitou a dissolução de sua base de apoio e acelerou sua saída do poder. A experiência brasileira sugere que o pragmatismo político pode, dentro de certos limites, apoiar a mudança econômica progressista, mas que os resultados dependem muito das circunstâncias externas e da estabilidade das coalizões políticas que apóiam a administração.
Article
Full-text available
Neste artigo, apresentaremos uma análise sobre as greves que aconteceram no Brasil no período dos governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores: de 2003, primeiro ano do primeiro mandato de Lula da Silva, até 2013, penúltimo ano do primeiro mandato de Dilma Rousseff na presidência da República. Ainda que tendo como foco esses dez anos, buscaremos, ao final, refletir sobre os dados posteriores para procurar identificar quais movimentos estão se desenhando para o sindicalismo brasileiro no período subsequente. As greves serão analisadas tendo em consideração os seguintes aspectos: frequência e duração das paralisações, as motivações, os encaminhamentos e os resultados desses conflitos. Ao longo do texto trataremos de explicar por que entendemos que essas greves reforçam a tese da existência de um período neodesenvolvimentista no Brasil e refletem as características da configuração específica da luta de classes do período. Os principais dados que utilizaremos foram coletados e sistematizados pelo Departamento Intersindical deEstatísticas e Estudos Socioeconômicos (Dieese)
Article
Full-text available
The 2000s have brought a renewed debate on strategies of 'developmentalism' in emerging market economies, especially in Latin America. We consider new concepts of developmentalism to be strategies in which the state deliberately pushes the process of development, in terms of structural change, and aims at income redistribution. In our paper, we seek to systematize this debate, comparing the concepts of new developmentalism and social developmentalism. We argue that of particular relevance for this discussion are the policy space constraints for emerging market economies imposed by international monetary and financial asymmetries. We conclude that the latter of the two approaches does not consider appropriately the policy constraints related to these asymmetries, which reduce the space for the implementation of developmentalist policies, while the former sees redistribution as a mere result of export-led industrialization.
Article
Full-text available
This article examines the theories and practices of neoliberalism across 13 aspects of (‘things you need to know about’) neoliberalism. They include the argument that neoliberalism is not reducible to a cogent ideology or a change in economic or social policies, nor is it primarily about a shift in the relationship between the state and the market or between workers and capital in general, or finance in particular. Instead, neoliberalism is a stage in the development of capitalism underpinned by financialization. Neoliberalism by its nature is highly diversified in its features, impact and outcomes, reflecting specific combinations of scholarship, ideology, policy and practice. In turn, these are attached to distinctive material cultures giving rise to the (variegated) neoliberalization of everyday life and, at a further remove, to specific modalities of economic growth, volatility and crisis. Finally, this paper argues that there are alternatives, both within and beyond neoliberalism itself.
Article
Full-text available
RESUMO: O Brasil aderiu ao regime de metas de inflação no ano de 1999, na sequência do fim da âncora cambial do Plano Real. Contudo, a gestão deste regime pelo Banco Central – em parte em função de um passado de alta inflação – ainda se inspira na visão do " novo consenso macroeconômico " que antecede a crise recente, o que tem frequentemente levado a uma política de juros bastante elevados, com impactos negativos sobre o crescimento econômico. Nesta perspectiva, o artigo analisa o que se entende por Novo Consenso Macroeconômico, bem como as implicações em termos de governança da política macroeconômica, em particular no que se refere ao regime de metas de inflação. Palavras-chave: Novo Consenso Macroeconômico. Regime de metas de inflação. ABSTRACT: Brazil implemented the inflation targeting regime (ITR) in 1999, following the end of the exchange rate anchor of the Real Plan. On the other hand, the management of the ITR by the Central Bank of Brazil – in part to be due to a long history of high inflation – remains inspired by the vision of the " new consensus on macroeconomics " prior to the recent crisis, which has often led to a very high interest rate policy, with negative impacts on economic growth. This essay focuses on analyzing the meaning of New Macroeconomic Consensus and its implications in terms of governance of macroeconomic policy, particularly with regard to the inflation targeting regime.
Book
Full-text available
The merit of the present book is that it surveys the theoretical arguments for opening of both capital markets and foreign financial institutions and assesses the empirical evidence. In addition it provides an extensive analysis of one of the Latin American countries, Brazil, that has been an assiduous follower of the Washington Consensus in this regard. It opens a debate that should have taken place before these policies were recommended across the board to developing countries. (Excerpt from the Preface of the book) Jan Kregel - Senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA In this book Luiz Fernando de Paula makes a deep, as well as broad, analysis of the experience with the process of financial liberalization in Brazil. This is a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the fundamentals of financial liberalisation as it has been applied in Brazil. Not only does the book analyse the theoretical and practical issues of financial liberalisation, but also it is highly critical of it. The book shows that capital account liberalization has not contributed to a more stable macroeconomic environment in the Brazilian economy, as this might have been expected on purely financial liberalisation theoretical grounds. It is also argued in the book that the expected benefits of foreign banks entering the domestic banking sector, such as new initiatives in the credit supply and lower net interest margins, never materialised in the case of Brazil. The message of the book is extremely timely. Anybody who wishes to acquire full understanding of the Brazilian contemporary experience with financial liberalisation should read this book. Philip Arestis - Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, United Kindgom
Article
Full-text available
The political conflicts during the Workers’ Party administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff have been driven by disputes between two fractions of the country’s bourgeoisie: the internal and the internationalized bourgeoisie. Their ideologies, policies, institutions, and forms of political representation have determined government policies and outcomes. These processes have unfolded within an authoritarian democracy whose structures have not been challenged by the party. The party’s limited power and continuing timidity have produced an aggressive reaction by the internationalized bourgeoisie and the upper middle class, leading to a severe crisis in the administration of President Dilma Rousseff. Durante os dois governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), chefiados por Luís Inácio Lula da Silva e por Dilma Rousseff, os conflitos políticos têm sido conflagrados por disputas entre duas facções burguesas do país: a burguesia interna e a burguesia internacionalizada. Suas respectivas formas de representações políticas, ideologias, programas, bem como instituições têm determinado políticas governamentais e seus resultados. Esses processos evoluíram em uma democracia autoritária, cujas estruturas não foram contestadas pelo PT. A timidez contínua e o poder limitado do partido têm produzido uma reação agressiva por parte da burguesia internacionalizada e da classe média alta, levando a uma crise severa na administração da Presidente Dilma Rousseff.
Book
Full-text available
Introduction 1. Materialist Dialects 1.1 Real Abstractions and Mental Generalisations 1.2 Marx, Hegal and 'New Dialects' 1.3 Conclusion 2. Interpretations of Marx's Value Theory 2.1 Embodied Labour Approaches 2.1.1 Traditional Marxism 2.1.2 Sraffian Analyses 2.2 Values from Theories 2.2.1 The Rubin Tradition 2.2.2 The 'New Interpretation' 2.3 Conclusion 3. Value and Capital 3.1 Division of Labour, Exploitation and Value 3.2 Capital 3.3 Conclusion 4. Wages and Exploitation 4.1 Wage Labour and Exploitation 4.2 Value of Labour Power 4.3 Conclusion 5. Values, Prices and Exploitation 5.1 Normalisation of Labour 5.1.1 Labour Intensity and Complexity, Education and Training 5.1.2 Mechanisation, Deskilling and Capitalist Control 5.2 Synchronisation of Labour 5.2.1 Value Transfers 5.2.2 Technical Change, Value and Crisis 5.3 Homogenisation of Labour 5.4 Conclusion 6. Composition of Capital 6.1 Understanding the Composition of Capital 6.2 Production and the Composition of Capital 6.3 Capital Accumulation 6.4 Conclusion 7. Transformation of Values into Prices of Production 7.1 Surplus Value, Profit, and the Composition of Capital 7.2 From Values to Prices of Production 7.3 The Transformation of Input Values 7.4 Conclusion 8. Money, Credit and Inflation 8.1 Labour and Money 8.2 Money and Prices of Production 8.3 Credit, Money and Inflation 8.4 Conclusion Conclusion References
Article
Full-text available
This article analyses different approaches to ‘developmentalism,’ emphasizing their theoretical origins and identifying their different economic policy implications. Based on the theoretical and empirical characteristics of different growth regimes in Brazil (that is, export-led, demand-led, debt-led, profit-led, and wage-led), the paper recommends that Brazil adopt a ‘social developmentalist’ growth strategy.
Article
Full-text available
Procedural (formal, liberal, capitalist or bourgeois) democracy is the political form of neoliberalism, and it dominates political thought and state practice today. This modality of management of class relations is currently in crisis, expressed through the evacuation of politics, the erosion of civil liberties and the emergence of authoritarian governance. This article offers a Marxist critique of neoliberal democracy, concluding that neoliberalism is incompatible with the expansion of democracy into key areas of social life. This is expressed by six paradoxes of democracy. Conversely, the expansion of democracy can provide an effective lever for the abolition of neoliberalism. This approach is promising for three reasons: first, the expansion of democracy is valuable in itself. Second, the contradictions between economic and political democracy illuminate the limitations of contemporary capitalism. Third, struggles about the nature and content of democracy can throw into question the limitations of capitalism as a mode of production.
Article
Full-text available
This article suggests a few hypotheses to understand the new electoral configuration that was formed in 2006. The subproletariat, that has always kept itself away from Lula, accepted in large scale his candidature after the first term of his presidency, at the same time that the middle-class moved away from it. The explanation would be on a new ideological configuration, that mixes leftwing and rightwing elements. The rhetoric and the praxis, that are able to unite the maintenance of stability and the distributive action of the state, are in the origins of the formation of lulism.
Article
Full-text available
This paper focuses on Foucault's analysis of two forms of neo-liberalism in his lecture of 1979 at the Collège de France: German post-War liberalism and the liberalism of the Chicago School. Since the course is available only on audio-tapes at the Foucault archive in Paris, the larger part of the text presents a comprehensive reconstruction of the main line of argumentation, citing previously unpublished source material. The nal section offers a short discussion of the methodological and theoretical principles underlying the concept of governmentality and the critical political angle it provides for an analysis of contemporary neo-liberalism.
Article
Full-text available
Across the broad field of heterodox political economy, ‘neoliberalism’ appears to have become a rascal concept – promiscuously pervasive, yet inconsistently defined, empirically imprecise and frequently contested. Controversies regarding its precise meaning are more than merely semantic. They generally flow from underlying disagreements regarding the sources, expressions and implications of contemporary regulatory transformations. In this article, we consider the handling of ‘neoliberalism’ within three influential strands of heterodox political economy – the varieties of capitalism approach; historical materialist international political economy; and governmentality approaches. While each of these research traditions sheds light on contemporary processes of market-oriented regulatory restructuring, we argue that each also underplays and/or misreads the systemically uneven, or ‘variegated’, character of these processes. Enabled by a critical interrogation of how each approach interprets the geographies, modalities and pathways of neoliberalization processes, we argue that the problematic of variegation must be central to any adequate account of marketized forms of regulatory restructuring and their alternatives under post-1970s capitalism. Our approach emphasizes the cumulative impacts of successive ‘waves’ of neoliberalization upon uneven institutional landscapes, in particular: (a) their establishment of interconnected, mutually recursive policy relays within an increasingly transnational field of market-oriented regulatory transfer; and (b) their infiltration and reworking of the geoinstitutional frameworks, or ‘rule regimes’, within which regulatory experimentation unfolds. This mode of analysis has significant implications for interpreting the current global economic crisis.
Article
Full-text available
Assessing the inflation targeting regime in Brazil- This paper is concerned with ?new? monetary policy, essentially what has come to be known as inflation targeting (IT). While the paper aims to examine this policy in the case of emerging countries, the focus is on Brazil and the application of this monetary policy framework in the case of this country since 1999. The paper begins by discussing the theoretical foundations and operational aspects of IT, before it turns to an examination of the experience of IT in Brazil. The Brazilian experience is compared and contrasted with that of other similar countries. The paper concludes by suggesting that although IT have had the intended impact, non-IT countries have also had a similar experience. Furthermore, the Brazilian experience with IT has been one of low growth and relatively high inflation.
Article
Full-text available
O Modelo Macroecon�mico Brasileiro tem como Caracter�sticas: Abertura Financeira, uma Estrat�gia de Crescimento Baseada em Poupan�a Externa, um C�mbio Sobrevalorizado, D�ficit em Conta Corrente, um Alto N�vel de Endividamento Externo, uma Taxa B�sica (Selic) de Juros Elevada, uma Infla��o Baixa, Por�m, Inercial, uma Pol�tica Fiscal Frouxa, Poupan�a P�blica Negativa, Alto N�vel de Endividamento do Estado, Baixas Expectativas de Lucros, Sal�rios Estagnados, uma Taxa de Poupan�a Dom�stica Deprimida, Baixo N�vel de Investimento, Alta Taxa de Desemprego e uma Renda Per Capita Pr�xima da Estagna��o. a Economia Brasileira Atingiu uma Estabiliza��o de Pre�os em 1994 Mas, N�o, uma Estabiliza��o Macroecon�mica, na Medida em que n�o se Conseguiu um Equil�brio Intertemporal e Termos Fiscais e nas Contas Externas. o Crescimento S� Voltar� se as Autoridades Reconhecerem que a Economia do Pa�s Est� Presa Numa Armadilha Dupla que Envolve a Taxa de Juros e o C�mbio e Decidirem Inverter o Processo Perverso da Equa��o Macroecon�mica Escorada em Altas Taxas de Juros e Num C�mbio Sobrevalorizado. Entretanto, as Ortodoxias Internacional e Dom�stica que Determinam a Pol�tica Macroecon�mica no Pa�s, Continuam a se Valer da Macroeconomia Convencional para Tentar Compreender Problemas n�o Convencionais E, Assim, s�o Incapazes de Atingir a T�o Desejada Estabilidade Macroecon�mica.
Book
This book critically addresses the model of social inclusion that prevailed in Brazil under the rule of the Workers Party from the early 2000s until 2015. It examines how the emergence of a mass consumer society proved insufficient, not only to overcome underdevelopment, but also to consolidate the comprehensive social protection system inherited from Brazil’s 1988 Constitution. By juxtaposing different theoretical frameworks, this book scrutinizes how the current finance-dominated capitalism has reshaped the role of social policy, away from rights-based decommodified benefits and towards further commodification. This constitutes the Brazilian paradox: how a center-left government has promoted and boosted financialization through a market incorporation strategy using credit as a lever for expanding financial inclusion. In so doing, it has pushed the subjection of social policy further into the logic of financial markets.
Article
The Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) is one of the largest conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in the world. CCTs have been described as a ‘magic bullet’ for development, and PBF is widely regarded as an exemplary programme. Examination of its conceptual underpinnings, features, impact and limitations shows that PBF provides substantial income support to the poorest. However, PBF is also self-limiting and it can offer only limited long-term gains to the poor. More significant outcomes require the expansion of the scope of PBF and other social programmes towards the universalization and decommodification of social provision in Brazil.
Article
In the 1990s Brazil launched a comprehensive economic liberalization program. It lifted its trade barriers, adopted new market-oriented regulations, opened up its capital market and abandoned earlier efforts to internalize production and to build vertically integrated systems across several sectors of the economy. In spite of the visible gap that separated the top global giants from the large local enterprises, Brazilian companies seemed to be willing to join in an economic liberalization process that was bound to expose them to unprecedented levels of competition, bring about a high degree of uncertainty and, in many cases, ultimately put their own businesses at risk. Big Business and Brazils Economic Reforms examines the most emblematic aspect of the Brazilian economic reforms, the support from parts of the local entrepreneurial class for the opening up of the economy. It investigates the reasons why Brazil carried out these economic reforms in the 1990s, the transition process and the impact of the opening up of the economy on some of its most important sectors, such as the aerospace, auto and auto parts, food processing, oil and petrochemicals, ethanol, steel, telecoms and telecom equipment industries. This book offers an in-depth analysis of Brazils distinctive development paths, from the Latin American economic thinking of the early stages of its industrialization to the neo-liberal stance of the present day. It sheds new light on one of the main challenges facing all the large developing economies in their move to become more integrated into the world economy, the fostering of large enterprises, and is a great resource for students and researchers interested in global business, development economics, and Latin American economic history.
Article
Em sua reflexão sobre o "campo político", Pierre Bourdieu chama a atenção para duas posturas insatisfatórias na análise da representação política de interesses coletivos: a rigidez de esquemas classificatórios e o descritivismo conjuntural (Bourdieu, 1981). No conjunto de ensaios em A República do capital: capitalismo e processo político no Brasil, Décio Saes encaminha uma estratégia de resposta ao desafio posto pela crítica à análise das relações de classe no campo político. 1 Em linhas gerais, o autor procura articular as determinações estruturais da história com os elementos de uma conjuntura através do conceito de processo político. Saes distingue três dimensões no processo político: uma comportamental, outra institucional e uma outra ideológica. A primeira dimensão diz respeito à orientação das políticas governamentais frente aos interesses coletivos. As medidas econômicas e sociais do Estado suscitam a emergência de grupos opostos na cena política, que lutam em defesa de seus interesses. Numa conjuntura de estabilidade da ordem social, tais interesses de grupos são constituídos essencialmente por frações de classe. Quanto a esse aspecto, a análise enfrenta algumas questões-chave, a saber: qual (quais) desses interesses de frações vem (vêem) a ser hegemônico(s) no conjunto das políticas estatais, e como se forma e se sustenta tal hegemonia? A segunda dimensão do processo político se refere à configuração das instituições políticas: o tipo histórico de Estado, a forma de Estado, o regime político. Sobre esse aspecto, a análise orienta-se por questões tais como: dado o tipo histórico de Estado, quais classes ou frações do bloco no poder estão excluídas de aspirar a hegemonia política? Qual a relação entre a hegemonia política e a forma do Estado/regime político? A terceira dimensão se relaciona às ideologias políticas, na sua relação com a orientação das políticas governamentais (e, assim, também com os interesses coletivos). Encontra-se * Doutorando em Ciências Sociais na Unicamp. 1 O livro compõe-se de um texto introdutório e de sete ensaios. Redigidos em momentos diferentes, os ensaios são os seguintes: "Florestan Fernandes e a revolução burguesa no Brasil"; "A questão da 'transição' do regime militar à democracia no Brasil"; "Estado e classes sociais no capitalismo brasileiro dos anos 70/80"; "Populismo e neoliberalismo"; "A política neoliberal e o campo político conservador no Brasil atual"; "Democracia e capitalismo no Brasil: balanço e perspectivas"; "A evolução do Estado no Brasil (uma interpretação marxista)".
Article
These economists say the Korean financial crisis was a watershed in the nation's history. It marked a decline in power of the industrialists in favor of financiers. The authors believe this may ultimately retard economic growth in Korea. T HE causes of the 1997 Korean crisis, together with those of the crises in other Asian countries, have been hotly debated. Especially in the early days of the crisis, many commentators argued that it was caused by some fundamental institutional deficiencies of the Korean economy that encour-aged inefficiencies and excesses by protecting the investors from the adverse consequences of their decisions.^ How^ever, others, including surprisingly many mainstream economists, have ar-gued that the crisis was largely the result of a mixture of the premature and ill-managed financial liberalization (and the dis-mantling of other interventionist policies) and the instability in the intemational financial market.^ This article sheds some new light on this debate from a historical perspective by analyzing HA-JOON CHANG teaches at the Faculty of Economics and Politics at the University of Cam-bridge. CHUL-GYUE YOO is a member cfthe Korea Social and Economic Studies Association in Seoul, Korea. This is a shortened and restructured version of a paper presented at the workshop on the World Financial Authority, organized by the Center for Economic Policy, New School for Social Re-search, New York, July 6-7, 1998. We thank the Center, which also financed our research, for its permission to use the material from the original paper. We also thank the participants at the workshop, especially Jeff Madrick, for their helpful comments.
Article
Is Brazil's economic policy regime a mere tinkering of the Washington Consensus? The evidence suggests that Brazilian governments institutionalized a hybrid policy regime that layers economically liberal priorities originating in the Washington Consensus and more interventionist ones associated with neo-developmentalist thinking. To capture this hybridity, the study calls this regime ‘liberal neo-developmentalism’. While defending the goal of macroeconomic stability and sidelining full employment, Brazilian governments also reduced reliance on foreign savings and employed a largely off-the-books stimulus package during the crisis. Brazil experienced important privatization, liberalization and deregulation reforms, but at the same time the state consolidated its role as owner and investor in industry and banking while using an open economy industrial policy and a cautious approach to the free movement of capital. Finally, while conditional cash transfers fit the Washington Consensus, Brazil's steady increases in the minimum wage, industrial policies targeted at high employment sectors and the use of state-owned firms to expand welfare and employment programs better fit a neo-developmentalist policy regime. In sum, while the main goals of the Washington Consensus were not replaced with neo-developmentalist ones, Brazil's policy regime saw an extensive transformation of policy orthodoxy that reflects Brazil's status as an emerging power.
Article
Fernando Collor de Mello was the first Brazilian president to be freely elected in 29 years. He earned twice as many votes as the total number of voters in the previous presidential election, in 1960. His term was expected to become a landmark in Brazilian history, and it did, although not in the way desired. This paper discusses the politics of Collor's election, his administration, and the movement that resulted in his demise. The core argument is that Collor's modernity, contrary to its meaning at the rhetorical level, involved a great deal of political expediency in the form of clientelistic maneuverings perhaps never before seen in Brazilian history. In addition to the more traditional sources of information (e.g., government documentation, journalistic material, specialized reports, etc.), I use interviews I conducted with members of Congress and the administration in March-April 1992 and the first half of 1995. Some of the more descriptive passages serve to build a supporting framework for the analysis, presenting in a systematic way the events and players that gave the period its shape. I begin with a discussion of the 1989 presidential election and go on to describe how, once empowered, the Collor administration found it difficult to deal with a rather conservative Congress and with the democratic procedures established in the 1988 Constitution. After an analysis of its strategies against the background of its lack of legislative support, I examine the movement resulting in Collor's fall from power. Finally, recalling Marx's view of individuals as "bearers of particular class-relations and interests" ([1867] 1990: 92), I suggest where the analysis of Collor's rise and demise should find its theoretical milieu.
Neoliberal reforms, crisis, and recovery in Argentina
  • Felder Ruth
The Dialectics of the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx’s “Capital
  • Ilyenkov Evgeny
O Ministério dos Industriais: A Federação das Indústrias do Estado de São Paulo na crise das décadas de 1980 e 1990
  • Bianchi Álvaro
Bianchi, Álvaro 2004 "O Ministério dos Industriais: A Federação das Indústrias do Estado de São Paulo na crise das décadas de 1980 e 1990." Ph.D. diss., IFCH-UNICAMP.
Governos Lula: a nova burguesia nacional no poder
  • Armando Boito
Boito, Armando 2012 "Governos Lula: a nova burguesia nacional no poder," in A. Boito and A. Galvão (eds.), Política e classes sociais no Brasil dos anos 2000. São Paulo: Alameda.
Austeridade para quem? Balanço e perspectivas do governo Dilma Rousseff
  • Luiz G Belluzzo
  • Pedro P Bastos
Plano Real e outros ensaios
  • Gustavo H B Franco
Franco, Gustavo H. B. 1995 O Plano Real e outros ensaios. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves.
Golpe en Brasil: Genealogía de una farsa
  • Pablo Gentili
Dez anos de política econômica
  • Nelson Barbosa
Barbosa, Nelson 2013 "Dez anos de política econômica," in E. Sader (ed.), 10 anos de governos pós-neoliberais no Brasil: Lula e Dilma. Kindle edition. São Paulo: Boitempo.
Macroeconomia pós-Plano Real: as relações básicas
Economic Crisis and State Reform in Brazil. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. 2003 "Macroeconomia do Brasil pós-1994." Análise Econômica 21 (40): 7-38. 2005 "Macroeconomia pós-Plano Real: as relações básicas," in J. Sicsú, L. F. Paula, and R.
Neoliberal reforms, crisis, and recovery in Argentina (1990s-2000s)
  • Ruth S Felder
Felder, Ruth S. 2013 "Neoliberal reforms, crisis, and recovery in Argentina (1990s-2000s)." Ph.D. diss., York University.
Choque recessivo e a maior crise da história: a economia brasileira em marcha à ré
  • Rossi Pedro
  • Mello Guilherme
Rossi, Pedro and Guilherme Mello 2017 "Choque recessivo e a maior crise da história: a economia brasileira em marcha à ré." Nota do Cecon, I.E.-UNICAMP, 1. http://brasildebate.com.br/wp-content/uploads/NotaCecon1_ Choque-recessivo-2.pdf (accessed July 8, 2017).
Brazil’s crisis of hegemony
  • Alfredo Saad-Filho
  • Boito
Por que a indústria parou?
  • Fernando E P Souza
Crises políticas e capitalismo neoliberal no Brasil
  • Danilo E Martuscelli
Debatendo classes e luta de classes no Brasil
  • Pomar Valter
Pomar, Valter 2013 "Debatendo classes e luta de classes no Brasil." https://www.scribd.com/document/116459858/Caderno-SRI-Debatendo-Classes-e-Luta-de-Classes-No-Brasil (accessed March 9, 2018).
Jantar com empresários: campos percebeu que o ponto fraco do governo Dilma é a boca
  • Rovai Renato
Rovai, Renato 2013 "Jantar com empresários: campos percebeu que o ponto fraco do governo Dilma é a boca." http://www.revistaforum.com.br/blogdorovai/2013/03/16/jantar-com-empresarioscampos-percebeu-que-o-ponto-fraco-do-governo-dilma-e-a-boca/ (accessed March 9, 2018).
Brazil: Neoliberalism versus Democracy
  • Alfredo Saad-Filho
  • Morais
What's happening in Brazil? Exactly what the coup leaders said would happen
  • Snider
Snider, Ted 2017 "What's happening in Brazil? Exactly what the coup leaders said would happen." http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39711-what-s-happening-in-brazil-exactly-what-thecoup-leaders-said-would-happen (accessed August 7, 2019).
Rigidez produtiva e importações no Brasil: 1995–2009
  • Gabriel C Squeff
Desenvolvimentismo e novo-desenvolvimentismo: raízes teóricas e precisões conceituais
  • Maria Mollo
  • R De Lourdes
  • C D Pedro
  • Fonseca
Mollo, Maria de Lourdes R. and Pedro C. D. Fonseca 2013 "Desenvolvimentismo e novo-desenvolvimentismo: raízes teóricas e precisões conceituais." Revista de Economia Política 33 (2): 131, 222-239.
Entrevista exclusiva: Dilma Rousseff sem censura, ou quase
  • Dilma Rousseff
Rousseff, Dilma 2017 "Entrevista exclusiva: Dilma Rousseff sem censura, ou quase." https://jornalggn.com.br/ blog/jose-carlos-lima/entrevista-exclusiva-dilma-rousseff-sem-censura-ou-quase (accessed March 8, 2018).