The Failures of Neoliberalism in Brazil

The Brazilian economy struggled throughout the 1980s with a severe balance of payments crisis and high inflation, interrupting thirty years of rapid growth and structural change. Simultaneously, Brazil underwent a democratic political transition culminating in the end of a twenty-year military dictatorship and the approval of a new social democratic constitution. In the 1990s, the alignment of the country’s economic policy with Washington Consensus reforms resulted in low growth and another major crisis at the end of this decade. In the 2000s, after a period of greater dynamism induced by exports, domestic consumption, and public investment, a new round of neoliberal reforms was introduced in 2015. This relaunching of Washington Consensus reforms led to economic collapse. Neoliberalism was radicalized in 2018 after the election of a right-wing government, and the economy has entered into a period of recession and low growth.We discuss the social basis of neoliberalism in Brazil, arguing that its main policies and ideologies form a very unstable social structure of accumulation. Neoliberalism in a society as unequal as Brazil’s enters into conflict with the democratic vote, generating persistent political instability and a pendulum-shaped political evolution.