Lula’s Government in Brazil: A New Left or the Old Populism?

Abstract

The election of Brazilian President Luiz Inâcio Lula da Silva in 2002 was surrounded by a diffuse but very strong expectation of change. In fact, the new president himself, in his inaugural address, opened his speech stressing the word change. Lula’s voters expected him to take the necessary steps to resume economic growth, after almost 25 years of semi-stagnation, and to achieve some measure of income and wealth redistribution. A few segments of his electorate seemed to expect him to move even beyond these goals, to promote some form of radical structural change in the Brazilian society, although different groups could entertain different ideas as to which structural reforms should be given priority. At a minimum, both Lula’s voters and opponents seemed to expect (or to fear) a change in the macroeconomic policy mix implemented by President Cardoso in his second term, particularly in relation to the maintenance of high interest rates and of a fiscal policy that privileged financial transfers over public investment.

The author thanks his colleague Fernando Ferrari Filho, with whom the questions raised in this chapter were discussed many times, and Fernanda Lopes Carvalho for the comments and suggestions made to a previous version of the paper. The author also thanks financial support by the National Research Council of Brazil (CNPq) and from Faperj in the context of a Pronex Project.