Citizenship as consumption: new cleavages of stratified citizenship in Brazil (original) (raw)

Brazil’s ‘New Middle Class’ and the Effectiveness of Social Rights through Consumption: A Dialectic of Inclusion and Exclusion

Birkbeck Law Review, 2014

In a social panorama where consumption becomes a source of personal fulfilment, its practice does not seem to support an alternative path to that of bourgeois rationality. Recent government policies in Brazil encourage consumption as a way to offer greater autonomy to citizens, reflecting the emergence of the so-called ‘new middle class’. This paper intends to gather evidence which answers the following questions: (i) May the extent of consumption contribute to the fortification of citizenship and social inclusion? (ii) Can the phenomenon of consumption be understood within the perspective of implementation of social rights? From the materialist dialectical method, this research examines, in the light of the Brazilian reality, points of conflict and convergence between the social facade (consumer) and the political facade (citizenship) of the person, in particular referring to the members of the ‘new middle class.’

Citizenship and the social in contemporary Brazil

2005

Along the three last decades, the notion of citizenship has become increasingly recurrent in the political vocabulary in Brazil as well as in other parts of Latin America and the world. In Latin America, its emergence has been linked to the experiences of social movements during the late 70's and 80's, reinforced by the efforts toward democratization, especially in those countries with authoritarian regimes.

Dimensions of citizenship in contemporary Brazil

2006

Over the last three decades, the notion of citizenship has become increasingly recurrent in the political vocabulary in Brazil as well as in other parts of Latin America and the world. In Latin America, its emergence has been linked to the experiences of social movements during the late 1970s and 1980s, reinforced by efforts toward democratization, especially in those countries with authoritarian regimes.

The Brazilian Citizenship Movement

The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review, 2010

Abstract: This research is a particular result of a survey on the historical rights in Brazil, which aims to identify the ideological and structural issues in the constitution of the country legal. The main goal is to present some conclusive about the historical movement of construction of citizenship in Brazil and, particularly, point your new way of understanding by society and issues linked to economics values. The discussion on citizenship reveals an important discussion about the role and values that each member takes on the economical and social structure in the world. Keywords: Citizenship Movement, Political Citizenship, Economics Citizenship, Brazil “

Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Development Policy in Brazil

This paper offers a political economy analysis of the two systems of accumulation in the postwar Brazilian economy: import-substituting industrialisation (ISI) and new liberalism, and the industrial policies associated with them. The transition between these two systems of accumulation from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s is reviewed in the light of the country’s key macroeconomic indicators and the political developments which have determined the choice and implementation of economic policy in each period. It is argued that, despite their significant achievements, both ISI and new liberalism were implemented unevenly and inconsistently, and that their shortcomings can be analysed at two levels: internal micro- and macro-economic limitations preventing these development strategies from achieving their stated aims, and external limitations imposed by social conflicts during each period of time. The paper concludes, first, that industrial policies are closely associated with specific state structures, economic constraints, and political configurations which can be analysed only concretely (there can be no general theory of industrial policy, and there is no ‘optimum path’ of accumulation under late development). Second, each system of accumulation is limited by a distinctive set of historically specific economic and political constraints, which set limits to its potential development. Third, and precisely for these reasons, industrial policy is irreducibly political and context-specific.

New configuration of the Brazilian state: liberty and development in the evolution of government in Brazil

Bar Brazilian Administration Review, 2010

The recent events in the global economy have revitalized the debate about the size and functions of the State. The neoliberal discourse was put in check, reopening the discussions concerning Market Liberty and the importance of the State. Since the proclamation of the Republic, the Brazilian government has undergone numerous reforms, sometimes assuming a liberal, external market dependent orientation, while at other times assuming an authoritarian, developmental state-driven orientation. The aim of this article is to develop insights into the evolution of the governmental organization and reflect on the assumptions that lie behind the various reforms that have taken place since the beginning of the Republic. The theoretical framework is divided into three parts: Development and Liberty based on the perspectives of Friedrich Hayek and Amartya Sen; the role of the State and its impact on the economy and; the formats assumed by the Brazilian State throughout the history of the Republic. The latter part of the work returns to the theoretical framework, summarizing all that has been discussed in order to fulfil the aims of the study.

Designing Brazil's New Middle Class: Economic science and welfare policies in the making of a social category 1

2015

Brazil holds an increasingly strategic position in the geopolitical landscape of the globalized world, from its leading role amongst Latin-American politics to its efforts to become the sixth largest world economy by nominal GDP. Yet, the 2008 crisis consolidated an inward-oriented approach towards consumption that yielded effects in the political arena, redesigning citizenship. An emerging new middle class is now heralded as the outcome of several social and welfare programmes; of economic stability (through controlling inflation, expanding the formal labour market and increasing minimal wage); and of sprawling consumption-oriented policies. In this paper, I am interested in how intellectual economies — produced and deployed to make sense of local processes — are rooted into larger, global instances of legitimation. I examine the multiple experiments of trial and error that economists, sociologists, journalists, public policy makers and urban planners deploy to recast Brazil’s rece...

Constitutionalism and Citizenship: The Trajectory of Redemocratization of Brazilian Society

Constitucionalismo e Cidadania: a Trajetória de Redemocratização da Sociedade Brasileira, 2023

This article analyzes the trajectory of Brazilian society in search of democracy, without the intention of an in-depth chronological cut. Only referenced in the time period beginning with the Proclamation of the Republic, going through two dictatorial periods until the emergence of the "New Republic" and the convening of the National Constituent Assembly, with the promulgation of the Brazilian Constitution, constituting an arduous trajectory of redemocratization until the arrival of the "Very New Republic". The end of the first republican period that came to power through the political-military movement of 1930, caused a political upheaval and the protagonists of that period had difficulty in maintaining the cohesion of the movement, in view of the oligarchic dissidences. After, came the "Second Republic", characterizing the "Vargas Age", with the triumph of the revolution, then, the turbulent period of the military coup of 1964, until the political opening conciliatory of Tancredo Neves.

The Brazilian new middle class stratagem: dialectics of consumption and overexploitation of labour renewal

O&S, 2019

The argument of this essay is that the ideia of emergence of a new Brazilian middle class was a stratagem adopted to create a positive agenda with transitory social consensus. In order to develop it, we return to the social class theory to discuss the stratification theory, which is the methodological and theoretical support of the so called new middle class. In addition to that, another possibility of analysis is presented, based on the theoretical propositions by Alvaro Vieira Pinto and Ruy Mauro Marini, two authors from the Brazilian social thought, articulating consumption, social classes, work and production as inseparable relationships, part of dependent capitalism contradictions. From these authors´perspectiveauthors´perspective, it was possible to understand that the expansion of consumption, basis for the new middle class stratagem, temporarily improved the living conditions of people at the expense of deepening the overexploitation of labor, reproducing the development of dependency.