The Republican Experiment by Dilma Rousseff and the National Entrepreneurship (original) (raw)

Brazil: The Failure of the PT and the Rise of the ‘New Right’

The 2015 protests were very different from the previous wave of demonstrations in mid-2013. The latter were ignited by radical left workers and students contesting a public transport fare increase, although the movement was soon captured by an odd amalgam of the middle class, anarchist ‘black blocks’ and the far right. The 2015 protests were far more cohesive and better organized. Their demands, moreover, unambiguously aligned with the political right, and primarily included the country’s upper middle class and the bourgeoisie. The 2015 demonstrations erupted in the political vacuum created by the paralysis of Dilma’s administration because of its own failings and Brazil’s worsening economy. Those difficulties were compounded by aggressive media reporting of the Lava Jato corruption scandal. That scandal focused on a network of firms channelling vast sums to assorted individuals and political parties through the state-owned oil company Petrobras. Yet, at a deeper level, the economic and political crises in Brazil are due to the achievements and limitations of the administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2006 and 2007-2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2014 and 2015-present). They led a partial economic and social break with neoliberalism that delivered significant gains in employment and distribution, but also entrenched poor economic performance and left Brazil vulnerable to the continuing global downturn. In the political domain, the PT transformed the social policies of the Brazilian state, while simultaneously accepting a fragile hold on power as a condition of power itself.

THE END OF ERA PT (WORKERS PARTY) IN BRAZIL

It can be stated that all the events that occurred recently put into question the survival of Dilma Rousseff government whose impeachment threat is enhanced with the delation of Delcídio do Amaral and former President Lula that can be taken to prison for leading the existing systemic corruption of PT (Workers Party) governments. These recent events demonstrate the great farce that is Lula in Brazilian politics that in its statement yesterday, threatened to burn down the country. It is time for the Brazilian people to stand in the struggle to build a new political and institutional order that take at the end era PT and corruption in Brazilian politics and contribute to economic and social progress in Brazil.

THE BRAZILIAN ECONOMY ASPHYXIATED BY DILMA ROUSSEFF GOVERNMENT

Brazil faces at the present time with the bankruptcy of the neoliberal economic and anti-national model implemented since 1990 by the Fernando Collor, Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso governments and maintained by Lula and Dilma Rousseff governments. The neoliberal economic model failed in Brazil because after to cause real havoc in the Brazilian economy from 1990 to 2014 configured in meager economic growth, uncontrolled inflation in the last four years, the existing bottlenecks in economic and social infrastructure, the de-industrialization of the Brazilian economy, the explosion of public debt and external and denationalization of the Brazilian economy, has no prospects of overcoming these problems considering that the Dilma Rousseff government decided to adopt a recessive policy with the fiscal adjustment that will result in economic stagnation, increasing of public debt, external imbalance and also in the resumption of unemployment.

Notes for a historical interpretation of the trajectory of the Brasilian Workers Party

There was something splendid and touching, but also terrible in PT’s history. In order to refer to the vocabulary coined by the classical Greek, there was the moment of epopee, the tragic one, and even some of a comedy in the trajectory in which petism was transformed into lulism. The PT was the biggest party of the Brazilian working class in the 20th century. In the 1980s, Lula and the leadership of the PT (that has organized the internal tendency Articulação) were capable of enrapturing a party, which, in ten years, evolved from an organization of a few thousands to one with hundreds of thousands of activists. And that moved from 10% of the votes for governor in the State of São Paulo in 1982 (and less than 3% in average in the other States), to a very tight race in the ballotage for the presidential elections of 1989, counting only on voluntary contributions. The PT of 2011 is, evidently, another party, although the leading fraction being, essentially, the same. In three decades, the PT has elected many thousands of city councilors, and several hundreds of state and federal deputies, having arrived to the government of more than a thousand of city-halls, many State governors, and is the head of the presidency for the third time. The PT of 2011 is Brazil’s most professional electoral machine, being, therefore, integrated into to the regime’s institutions and closely associated to some of the most powerful entrepreneurial groups. Paradoxically, Lula’s authority has not diminished.

The Roots of the Brazilian Economic and Political Crisis of 2015/16

If a social democratic party achieves electoral success through the mechanisms of representative democracy in a capitalist society with the intention of favouring labour over capital and of reducing social and economic inequalities, it faces the problem that the economic system it seeks to manage is based on the logic of capital. Healthy economic growth, arguably a pre-condition for being able redistribute resources towards labour and the less well-off without having to confront the interests of capital, is primarily based on productivity increases. These, in turn, require capital investment. Private capital only invests if it can expect a reasonable rate of return on its investments. The reformist government therefore always faces the dilemma that its policies, whilst aiming to benefit labour, cannot create an economic situation which will lead capital to refuse to invest. A prime indicator of capital’s willingness to invest is the rate of profit. It is therefore incumbent on the government to ensure that the rate of profit doesn’t fall to a level which discourages private investment. The deep economic and political crisis which Brazil went through in 2014/6 following more than a decade of government by the reformist Workers’ Party brought an abrupt end to a period in which a significant relative redistribution of income had taken place. This article is the result of an attempt to understand to what extent the above dilemma played a role in the demise of the Workers Party government.

THE MELANCHOLIC END OF DISASTROUS WORKERS PARTY ERA

The future trajectory of Brazil is of growing political instability because the Brazilian economic crisis has structural roots, it is systemic and the Dilma Rousseff government does not meet policy and managerial competence to overcome it. The Brazilian government's inability manifests itself not only in solving today's problems, but above all for jeopardizing the future of the nation. Time conspires against the Dilma Rousseff government whose tendency is to worsen the current situation and drop in acceptance of his government by the Brazilian population as has been found in recent surveys where only 7% of the population approves of his government. The Brazilian population is against the Dilma Rousseff government what is seen as responsible for corruption at Petrobras and also for their economic decisions in the post-election period contrary to the interests of the people (increase in taxes, temporary blocking spending, more expensive energy with cutting subsidies for the electricity sector and changes in the rules of social benefits).