Sailing against the Wind: The Rise and Crisis of a Low-Conflict Progressivism

Abstract

The governments of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) in Brazil (2003– 2016) were part of a cycle of progressive governments in Latin America whose differences are more specific to the conditions of political struggle in each country—the conditions of arrival in government, the structure of the political system—than fundamentally programmatic. They can be characterized as a low-conflict progressivism in that, although there was no promotion of a neoliberal agenda on the model of European social liberalism, there was accommodation within the framework of the established order that was ultimately fundamental to the success of the 2016 parliamentary-judicial coup. Os governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) no Brasil (2003 a 2016) fizeram parte de um ciclo de governos progressistas na América Latina cujas diferenças dizem mais respeito às condições específicas de luta política em cada país—nas condições de chegada ao governo, na estrutura do sistema político—do que uma diferença programática fundamental. Podem-se caracterizar os governos do PT de um progressismo de baixo conflito à medida em que, não obstante não ter havido a promoção de uma agenda neoliberal nos padrões do social-liberalismo europeu, houve uma acomodação aos marcos da ordem estabelecida que, em última medida, foram fundamentais para o sucesso do golpe judiciário-parlamentar de 2016.

The reregulation of capital flows in Latin America: assessing the impact of post-neoliberal governments

“…At the level of public policies, these governments substantially varied due to the economic and political specificities of each country (Beasley-Murray et al, 2009;Weyland, 2010;Levitsky & Roberts, 2011;Flores-Macias, 2012;Friedmann & Puty, 2020). Nevertheless, a list of recurrent post-neoliberal measures includes the expansion of social protection and redistributive policies, the return of industrial policies, the strengthening of participatory democracy, and the emphasis on recognition and identity politics (Grugel & Riggirozzi, 2012Wylde, 2018;Macdonald & Ruckert, 2009).…”