Dilma Rousseff Research Articles

Back to basics: assessing military involvement in politics in contemporary Brazil

As Brazil showed signs of progress in civil-military relations in the late nineties and early 2000s, research moved from civilian control to defense policy topics, resulting in neglect of less obvious forms of military involvement in politics, which pre-date Bolsonaro. To support our claim, we begin by critically reviewing existing frameworks for assessing progress in civilian control and propose returning to the field’s primary concern with military intervention in politics by using three indicators - military presence in government; public commentary by military officers; and episodes of military contestation – and their implications regarding the armed forces, politicians, and society. Then, we make an account of instances of the three indicators during Dilma Rousseff’s and Michel Temer’s presidencies. We conclude that military involvement in politics in Brazil is a pervasive social phenomenon posing serious risks for democracy.

Housing Movements and Participation in Institutional Spaces

This article sets out to examine the inclusion of social movements in the designing of public policy in Brazil. I situate the Brazilian political and social context in terms of its persistent social inequalities and the inclusion of social movements in policy-making during the course of 2003–2010 (Lula da Silva’s first and second terms as president) and 2011–2014 (Dilma Rousseff’s first term as president). I discuss and explore mechanisms of participatory democracy, and more specifically, I look at the process of integration of civil society in spaces of decision-making related to housing issues. This paper found that, despite some concrete results of implementing greater popular participation, the inclusion of social movements still faces challenges to be effectively included in spaces of decision-making, especially under the current conservative administration.

Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai, Women's Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2021), pp. 212, $29.95 pb

Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai, Women's Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2021), pp. 212, $29.95 pb - Volume 54 Issue 1

O impeachment no Estado democrático de direito brasileiro

Diante do processo que levou ao impeachment da Presidente Dilma Rousseff em 2016, foram suscitados debates acerca da natureza do juízo realizado pelo Senado Federal brasileiro nos crimes de responsabilidade, ficando nítida a necessidade de uma delimitação teórica acerca da espécie de julgamento levado a cabo, seja ele político, jurídico ou misto. Neste trabalho, pretende-se realizar, por meio da fenomenologia hermenêutica, uma análise crítica do processo histórico pelo qual o impeachment foi incorporado no país, bem como explorar as correntes que apontam a natureza do instituto no Brasil. Finalmente, tendo em vista o contexto político-institucional específico do Brasil, o presente artigo realiza um debate teórico a respeito do impeachment para que se encontre uma solução satisfatória aos parâmetros do Estado Democrático de Direito instituído pela Constituição Federal de 1988.

Agenda governamental brasileira

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar uma análise da agenda governamental brasileira pela perspectiva das Mensagens ao Congresso e dos discursos presidenciais entre os anos 1995 e 2014. Cinco momentos diferentes do governo brasileiro são analisados: os dois mandatos do presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso, os dois do presidente Lula e o primeiro mandato da presidenta Dilma Rousseff. A análise permite observar continuidades (momentos de incrementalismo) e descontinuidades (momentos de ruptura) sobre algumas questões, corroborando com os princípios teóricos da dinâmica das políticas públicas (policy dynamics), segundo os quais as prioridades governamentais podem sofrer pequenas mudanças ao longo do tempo, ou uma grande mudança repentina, em momentos específicos. Além disso, o estudo também analisa as capacidades e diversidades da agenda, de modo a identificar e descrever as características de cada período. Para isso, foi feito o levantamento do corpus documental, seguido da sua fragmentação e classificação baseada em políticas setoriais e, por fim, sua análise detalhada.

Book Review: Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff by Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai

Book Review: <i>Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff</i> by Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai

The Dilma Rousseff presidency: from motherly discourses to queer impeachment

ABSTRACT Dilma Rousseff was President of Brazil from 2011 to 2016, when she was removed from office following a controversial impeachment process. This article moves beyond macroeconomic rationales and allegations of corruption to elaborate a gendered and queer reading of the impeachment, primarily of how gender was instrumentalized to influence popular perceptions of Rousseff. Dialoguing with queer/feminist theories, it outlines how women’s political participation within Brazilian society can be curtailed or impeded, by examining the structuring of public and private spheres and the use of gendered language against Rousseff. The article argues that despite the efforts of the president and her supporters to present an image of motherliness, the prevailing social narrative became one of incompetence, lack of feminine desirability, and dubious sexuality. The methodology includes personal experiences and a discourse analysis of how a deleterious narrative of Rousseff was constituted, by examining political speeches and media accounts, as well as comparing her impeachment to that of Fernando Collor in 1992.

Back to basics: assessing military involvement in politics in contemporary Brazil

As Brazil showed signs of progress in civil-military relations in the late nineties and early 2000s, research moved from civilian control to defense policy topics, resulting in the neglect of less obvious forms of military involvement in politics, many of which pre-date the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. After critically reviewing existing frameworks for assessing progress in civilian control we propose returning to the field’s primary concern with military intervention in politics by using three indicators -military presence in government; public commentary by military officers; and episodes of military contestation –and their implications regarding the armed forces, politicians, and society. Next, we examine these three indicators in the context of the presidencies of Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer. We conclude that interactions between “soldiers, politicians, and civilians” in recent episodes of military involvement in politics revealthe full extent of the frailty of civil-military relations in Brazil.

Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff. By Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021. 214p. $104.50 cloth, $29.95 paper.

Women’s Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff. By Pedro A. G. dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021. 214p. 29.95 paper. - Volume 19 Issue 4

Cultura e Política no Brasil: balanço de uma década (2011-2020)

The period between 2011 and 2020 was marked by a number of milestone political events, such as Dilma Rousseff’s two-term administration – including the June 2013 protests and the 2016 presidential impeachment –, Michel Temer’s transitional administration, and the election of Jair Bolsonaro. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this special issue critically examines the way that relationships between culture and politics have been articulated in Brazil in connection with major national and/or global events over the past decade.

Rise and Fall of the Anti-Racism Agenda in Brazil from Lula to Bolsonaro

Over the past two decades, the Brazilian state addressed the racial issue by developing a number of anti-racist laws, policies, and institutions. The rise of the anti-racism agenda began with Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government, growing even greater under Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Nonetheless, further developments on this agenda have been halted since Michel Temer came to power in 2016, and the agenda as a whole is now undergoing a dismantling mode. This essay discusses how the dismantling of the anti-racism agenda has reverberated into the current institutional, political, and social crisis in Brazil. In consideration of this problem, I map out color-related characteristics of the Brazilian crisis through qualitative and quantitative data ranging from Lula to Bolsonaro years. I use past and present data to compare two processes: the previous shaping and the current dismantling of anti-racist public policies.

Agronegocios y agricultura familiar en la planificación sectorial en los gobiernos de FHC, Lula y Dilma: continuidades y discontinuidades

Planning consists of moments when governments and societies think about their contexts, conduct analyses, design actions and act based on representations and expectations. In particular, the Agriculture and Livestock Plans (PAP) and the Family Farming Crop Year Plans (PSAF) express interpretations of rural development and major issues in the policy agenda, indicate to farmers and markets expectations about agricultural and livestock production, and define the legal and financial provisions of agricultural policies. Analyzed from a long-term perspective, these documents are important for understanding the way in which agriculture, rural areas, and actors have been interpreted by governments. This article analyzes these documents over three specific periods - Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s terms (1995-1998/1999-2002), Lula da Silva’s terms (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff’s first term (2011-2014) – seeking understand how the agribusiness sector and family farming were understood, which instruments and actions were aimed at these groups, and what were the continuities and changes between different governments. The results emphasize important continuities in terms of policies for agribusiness among governments, with the most significant discontinuities in the treatment of family farming, which gained in prominence after the first Lula government. The final considerations highlight the inequality in the State's treatment of agribusiness and family farming and the lack of coherence between sector planning instruments.

El Sistema Nacional de Crédito Rural en Brasil: principales continuidades y discontinuidades en el período 2003-2014

This article analyzes the main continuities and discontinuities of Brazil’s National Rural Credit System, with an emphasis on the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming, between 2003 and 2014. To this end, between 2014 and 2017 a series of interviews was carried out with managers and former federal public managers who played a strategic role in the area of agricultural financing, before and during the time period studied, in addition to a literature review and data consultation of the Central Bank of Brazil and of ministries whose performance is linked to the theme. The main results indicate continuities in rural credit policies and procedures in the governments of Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Some changes observed, which cannot be considered as ruptures from earlier periods, involved mainly the expansion in the volume of resources applied, reduced bureaucracy for accessing financing, expansion of the target public, new lines of credit, a greater discussion with civil society and the construction of new complementary instruments for rural credit aimed at family farming, such as farm insurance.

O estado de exceção, antagonismo político e “combates” à corrupção

The following work analyzes the problem of the state of exception with a focus on Brazil’s recent political situation. First, we highlight the citing of the theory of exception by conservative legal expert Carl Schmitt in the TRF-4 court, allowing the then-Judge Moro to escape punishment for having leaked the contents of a telephone call between President Dilma Rousseff and former President Lula. Second, we then use this as a basis to outline the relationship between recent legal activism, present in the so-called “war on corruption”, with a longer-term tension in law in liberal societies, that is the hiatus between legality and legitimacy. Third, and finally, we seek to reveal that the anti-corruption agenda acquired impetus by means of the politicization and polarization of the country as of 2013, particularly with the emergence in 2014 of the Operação Lava Jato [Operation Car Wash] and the prominence of Judge Sérgio Moro. Our hypothesis is that a political antagonism was configured as a political strategy, framing all social demands to have emerged in 2013 as an opposition to “corruption” and the “state”. As a theoretical-conceptual framework for the conceptualizing of political antagonism, we highlight the theoretical contribution of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffee and works pointing to the hypertrophy of Criminal Justice, with the central focus on of the figure of the enemy. Our method was bibliographical analysis and a qualitative selection of sources.

Clash of powers: Did Operation Car Wash trigger a constitutional crisis in Brazil?

Brazil descended into a major political crisis after the 2013 mass demonstrations against electoral corruption and failure to fulfil constitutional obligations related to social and economic rights. This turmoil destabilized the political establishment and severely impacted the behaviour of legal institutions. The use of political mandates and institutional prerogatives, contrary to established social norms and traditional interpretations of the law, became unexceptional. In this article, Operation Car Wash, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, and the process to save the mandate of her successor, President Michel Temer, are analysed as successive examples of ‘constitutional hardball’ that dominated Brazilian political and institutional life, leading the country to a period of ‘constitutional malaise’ or ‘constitutional regression.’ The main objective of the article is to understand the impact of this cycle of institutional retaliations, rooted in the clash between the political and legal establishments (represented by Operation Car Wash), on the stability of Brazilian constitutional democracy.

Brazilian Educational System under Attack: The Reforms Proposed After the 2016 Coup and Their Sociological Contexts

Abstract In mid-2016, in Brazil, many political changes are made after the deposition of President Dilma Rousseff from the presidency of the federal republic. Among these changes, initiated by the President of the Republic Michel Temer and sustained by his successor, Jair Bolsonaro, are the changes in the area of Education, placing it more and more on the path of the established neoliberal agenda. Many of the proposed changes, as well as the way they are carried out, had already been addressed by several authors in the field of Education and Sociology. Thus, this article proposed to explain the non-explicit political interests with these reforms based on a specific literature. In the end, the model of making the educational system for maintaining the neoliberal agenda is described, as well as possible means of weakening this system.

Entre o neodesenvolvimentismo e a ortodoxia: contradições da política econômica no governo Dilma Rousseff

The following article aims to expose the reasons behind the failure of Dilma Rousseff’s government’s economic policy, seeking as it did to implement developmental strategies such as the Plano Brasil Maior [Greater Brazil Plan], which aimed to keep GDP growth high while maintaining the policy to reduce social inequality. Our hypothesis is that although national and international economic factors determined the strategy’s failure, the lack of consistency in the economic policy adopted was also a factor, which sought to use developmental tools in a highly conservative manner and abandoned them in the face of emerging fiscal and inflationary pressures, which were highly overvalued by the representatives of financial capital. Although Rousseff’s government attempted to challenge the interests of financial capital, it swiftly backed down and abandoned policies based on the growth of public investment and increased consumption. It therefore failed to achieve the benefits of accelerated development and the monetary stability so lauded by the financial sectors and their associates within the business sector.

Lula and the Future of the Past

Lula and the Future of the Past

Gender tensions: The humorous character of Dilma Bolada

This article investigates tensions related to stereotypes of women in politics expressed in the fictional and humorous character Dilma Bolada on Facebook. We observe the personal traits associated with gender stereotypes related to this character that is inspired by the first female president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. We analyse posts during the period leading up her impeachment (2015–16), which would result in her eventual removal from office. By assuming behaviours culturally recognized as masculine, Dilma Bolada contradicts socially established stereotypes for women. Yet, she also displays traits that reinforce feminine stereotypes. This combination of masculine and feminine representations, permeated by humorous language, allowed Dilma Bolada to subvert traditional gender roles and become popular. We believe that the relaxation triggered by humour transformed Rousseff’s hard temper into a positive image.

Women's Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff. By Pedro dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021. 214 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Women's Empowerment and Disempowerment in Brazil: The Rise and Fall of President Dilma Rousseff. By Pedro dos Santos and Farida Jalalzai. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021. 214 pp. $29.95 (paper). - Volume 17 Issue 3