Lula Government Research Articles

O Estado e a produção de convenções sociais acerca do mercado de armas de fogo no Brasil

The article analyzes the role of the state in formulating social conventions about firearms in Brazil. We selected Law 10.826/2003, passed during the first Lula Government (2003-2006),as the empirical dispute, and also we analyzed eight presidential decrees from the first year ofthe Bolsonaro Government (2019). In the methodology, we analyzed the legal framework based on the studies of Steiner and Trespeuch, about contested markets; Bourdieu, about the state and the concept of social convention, by Mary Douglas. The results indicate that the state has influenced the production of predispositions and that the disarmamentist social convention, produced during the Lula Government, has been challenged, generating disputes that go beyond the normative perspective.

Evolution of welfare state in Brazil: welfare policies (2003-2010)

This research analyzes the configuration of the Welfare State in Brazil (WSB) during the period from 2003 to 2010, during the Lula government. The objective was to investigate the structuring and implementation of the WSB under the PT administration (2003-2010), focusing especially on the effects of these policies on reducing social inequalities and the challenges related to the governance, effectiveness, and fiscal sustainability of social policies. Bibliographical research and documentary analysis were carried out adopting a qualitative and quantitative approach. The results indicate that the WSB in this period had limited redistribution capacity, maintaining social and economic inequalities. Despite the reforms and the increase in the budget for income transfer programs, such as Bolsa Família and the Unified Social Assistance System, social policies reflected tensions between economic growth and social justice. Despite significant advances in social protection and inclusion, challenges remain related to the governance, effectiveness, and integration of social policies.

The Brazilian Military Dictatorship: a Present Past

The 1964 coup in Brazil launched a military dictatorship that for two decades subjected diverse social groups to authoritarianism and repressive violence. In 1985, the last military president was replaced by a civilian government following an agreement between dissident factions of the dictatorship and a section of the democratic opposition. This agreed transition allowed the military institutions to remain untouched and united, preserved from punishment or any need to express regret, while the Constitution approved in 1988 tried to set the grounds for a lasting democracy. These events from the 1980s have continued to shape politics in Brazil, including the more recent political scenario, which from 2014 experienced a radical shift rightwards that strengthened those discourses nostalgic for the dictatorship and gave rise to the Bolsonarist phenomenon.
 The purpose of my presentation is to synthesize this process as a means to understand the present political situation. In the conclusion, I comment on the role of the military corporation in the current Lula government and develop some hypotheses concerning the political future of the armed forces in Brazil.

Entrevista a Frei Betto

Frei Betto (Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo) was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1944. He is a Dominican friar and theologian, being among the most relevant and internationally recognised exponents of «liberation theology». This militant in pastoral and social movements resisted the Brazilian military dictatorship, under which he was imprisoned and endured torture: he related this experience in Baptism of Blood (Jabuti Prize, 1982) and in Letters from prison (1977). He was active in the construction of Base Ecclesial Communities and, during the first Lula Government, was adviser to the Presidency of Brazil for the Zero Hunger programme. He politically sympathized the socialist experiences in South America, and he has advised various governments, especially the Cuban government, on relations between the Catholic Church and the State. Among the dozens of works he has written, the following are worth mention (our translation): Fidel and Religion (1985), The Work of the Artist (1995), Hotel Brasil (1999), The Art of Sowing Stars (2007), A Man Called Jesus (2009), Mysticism and Spirituality (with L. Boff, 2010), Hunger for God (2014), Reinventing Life (2014), Paradise Lost (2015), A Very Human God (2015), Faith and Affection (2019), and Militant Jesus (2022).

'Scorched Earth: The portrait of health in Brazil after the Bolsonaro's administration and the first 100days of the Lula Government in health'.

This article is a rejoinder to the rebuttal letter authored by Jair Bolsonaro's former Minister of Health and Secretary of Primary Care to our initial article, 'From Bolsonaro to Lula: The opportunity to rebuild universal healthcare in Brazil during the government transition,' published in the International Journal of Health Planning and Management. We aim to refute the claims that we consider unsubstantiated and disconnected from reality, while reiterating the risks posed by authoritarian and antidemocratic far-right governments, such as Bolsonarism in Brazil, to the sustainability and resilience of universal health systems. This political threat is gaining momentum across several countries worldwide, thereby endangering the Democratic Rule of Law, institutions, and social policies. Furthermore, we emphasise the significant actions implemented during the first 100days of President Lula's government, which align with the priorities established during the governmental transition process and strengthen the prospects of reconstructing and fortifying the Brazilian universal health system.

The “endless” first days of the third Lula government

The “endless” first days of the third Lula government

Lula Government starts repairs to Brazil's child health services

Lula Government starts repairs to Brazil's child health services

Política externa e saúde no Brasil (1995-2010): uma análise da diplomacia de saúde brasileira – da Aids ao ‘Fome Zero’

ABSTRACT This article analyses, from a policy analysis approach, how health entered Brazilian foreign policy between 1995 and 2010 and supported the country’s international position, which is rarely explored in the literature on Brazilian health diplomacy. By drawing on literature review, document analysis and key-actor interviews, we examined policies triggered by far-reaching and complex historical change processes in Brazil. We find significant interrelationships between foreign policy and social policy, including health. The internationalization of Brazilian domestic policies, and South-South cooperation, played a central role during Lula governments (2003-2010). Health found its way into the foreign policy agenda to support Brazil’s growing international presence. These developments were made possible by the activism and engagement of several of State and non-State actors working on two levels: national and transnational advocacy, and coordinated activities of government representatives, including Brazilian diplomats, and civil society activists. The main argument of this study is that national and international policies are intertwined in this process and that domestic dynamics and societal engagement are essential but more is needed: governmental choices are also determinant. Institutional arrangements and policies shift in different conjunctures and are constantly prone to conflicts and change.

Toxic turn in Brazilian agriculture? The political economy of pesticide legalisation in post-2016 Brazil

Pesticides are becoming a key topic in critical academic research; they entail substantial negative global impacts on human health and other-than-humans’ existences. Even though decades of agroecological research and practice have demonstrated that no pesticides are needed to produce enough food, pesticides are still most typically taken for granted as an indispensable part of food production. In this article, we analyse events and policies through which Brazilian agriculture has become a global hotspot for pesticide consumption in the global agrarian capitalism. We provide an overview of the pesticide legalisation in Brazilian agriculture and discuss the ramifications of recent changes for pesticide-free agriculture. The post-2016 legalisation of pesticides has taken place concomitantly with a quick dismantling of the structures supporting agroecology and protecting the environment. The toxic turn of the Brazilian agriculture is seen in part as a reactionary response to the momentum of agroecology, which removes pesticides from agriculture, that had gained strength under the first Workers’ Party regime between 2003 and 2016. A pivotal policy goal for the new Lula government should be an agroecological transformation, which can be justified by politicising pesticide use as a major, multidimensional problem of the ‘agribusiness economy’.

The first year of the Lula government's foreign policy: renewal or continuity?

This article seeks to carry out a brief assessment of the first year of the Lula government's foreign policy and outline some of its specificities.

Desenvolvimento e Democracia: uma análise comparada do modelo Gerencial e modelo Societal

The central focus of this article is to analyze the relationship between development policies and democracy in Brazil, taking the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio da Silva as a historical basis in the period running from 1995 to 2010, which underwent both the implementation of the managerial public policy model during the first government term and the societal model, during the second. The article seeks to respond to the following research problem: did the different development policies experienced by Brazil under the FHC and Lula governments bear any relation to Brazilians’ support for democracy? The methodology applied is quantitative, in the form of a survey, based on an analysis of research results from the Latinobarómetro database, as well as the indicators of GDP, Gini, and HDI. The results obtained reveal that development and democracy policies bear a certain connection as the GDP and HDI increase while the Gini declines, with a rise in support and satisfaction with democracy in the country.

The financialisation of housing by numbers: Brazilian real estate developers since the Lulist era

This article examines the emergence of large-scale real estate developers in the Minha Casa, Minha Vida [My House, My Life] housing programme launched in 2009 by the Lula government and their repositioning caused by the economic crisis that hit the country five years later. Their development, based on a systematic use of financial valuations in their governance, strongly connected with international investor requirements, enables us to defend an extended notion of financialisation of housing policies, characterised by the colonisation of managers’ activities by financial metrics. The question of trust in financial numbers is essential when splitting the sector into two groups that occurred with the crisis: some developers worked even closer to investors, while others substantiated public economic power, balancing investors’ demands. The argument is that the entanglements between the circulation of financialised valuations in professional activities of private agents gradually transformed the structure of housing provision itself.

Tendência à estabilidade institucional: regulação, formação e provimento de médicos no Brasil durante o governo Lula

Abstract This article aims to analyse the characteristics of the regulation, training and supply policies of medical doctors in Brazil, during Lula government (2003-2010), as well as the process of dispute about a policy change proposed by senior officers of the Ministry of Health, who were members of the Health Reform movement. This is a case study that used process tracing as a methodological strategy and, as sources, documents and interviews. We used the theoretical resources offered by studies on political process and the theory of gradual institutional change. The main findings are the understanding of institutional arrangements in this policy, and the identification of individual and collective actors who acted to change the policy. Three political-institutional restrictions to change were found: the opposition of the Liberal Medicine advocates Community, which exerted a political influence on the area, the lack of support or resistance to change from the Ministry of Education and the government nucleus decision not to carry out proposals that, at the same time, had to be approved by the Legislative and had the opposition of the Liberal Medicine advocates Community. A balance tending to reproduce the status quo and the current institutional arrangement prevailed, despite the implementation of incremental policy changes.

Trend towards institutional stability: regulation, training, and provision of doctors in Brazil during the Lula government

Resumo O objetivo do artigo é analisar as características da política de regulação, formação e provimento de médicos no Brasil durante os governos Lula (2003-2010) e o processo de disputa em torno de sua mudança defendida pelos dirigentes do Ministério da Saúde, integrantes do movimento sanitário. Trata-se de um estudo de caso que utilizou o process tracing como estratégia metodológica e, como fontes, documentos e entrevistas. Utilizaram-se os recursos teóricos dos estudos sobre processo político e a teoria da mudança institucional gradual. Os principais resultados são a compreensão do arranjo institucional relacionado à política e a identificação de atores individuais e coletivos que atuaram para sua conservação ou mudança. Constataram-se três restrições político-institucionais à mudança: a oposição da comunidade de política “medicina-liberal”, que exercia influência sobre a política, a falta de apoio ou resistência do Ministério da Educação às mudanças propostas e a decisão do núcleo do governo de não levar adiante propostas que, ao mesmo tempo, tivessem que ser aprovadas no Legislativo e contassem com a oposição da “comunidade” da medicina-liberal. Predominou um equilíbrio que tendeu à reprodução do status quo e do arranjo institucional vigente, apesar de ter havido alterações incrementais na política.

BNDES and the internationalization of Brazilian companies on Lula governments

This paper aims to analyze the dynamics of the internationalization of nationally-based companies in Lula governments. We argue that the main tool in this process was the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), with emphasis on companies capable of competing internationally. The new foreign policy is also emphasized as the political-ideological basis that made such procedures possible. We explore Embraer's case for it illustrates the synthesis of political and economic interests of the period and how those interests were pursued by the governments. The analysis was based on BNDES' official documents and on specialized literature. We made an effort to incorporate different perspectives to create a more complete analytical framework. The BNDES-Embraer relationship was positive not only for the company but as a strategic part in achieving the new foreign policy guidelines. BNDES's support to Embraer was instrumental, particularly in times of crisis, and helped to maintain its competitiveness at the international level with positive effects on the economy.

Relações Internacionais globalização e Desenvolvimento

Aurora Journal publishes its seventh edition presenting readers with the Dossier on International Relations and Development. Opening this section we have the article by Ana Cristina Barreto dealing with the topic of pharmaceutical patents and their role in development; Next we bring the work of Francisco Corsi, who analyzes the recent structural crisis of capitalism and the possible transformations of the current accumulation pattern. Authors Frederico de Sá Costa and Rodrigo Wunder contribute, in this edition, with an analysis of the concepts of "terrorism" and "counterterrorism" applied to the ideological rhetoric that supports the fight against the "War on Terror" undertaken by the United States. Saulo de Castro Lima presents us with a study on Brazilian development in the 1960s and 1970s, where he considers the constant inflections and corrections of the economic policies adopted in the period. Below we have the article authored by Edson Neves Júnior, where he discusses the changes seen in the foreign policy of the government of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva on the topic of climate change. André Luís Scantimburgo addresses the concept and implications of sustainable development that is propagated by multilateral agencies, and in particular by the World Bank, as a solution to the most recent environmental problems, associating it with a front of capital accumulation linked to the commodification of resources natural. To this end, it uses an analysis of policies aimed at Brazilian water resources in the 1990s. João Paulo Schittini reflects on the foreign policy of the Lula government to promote human rights, as an instrument for promoting development and questioning the current international order . Felipe Calabrez da Silva makes a critical analysis of the proposed reform of the Brazilian State apparatus that emerged at the end of the 1980s, and its relationship with the liberal macroeconomic policy that was subsequently adopted. Closing this section, Sandra Siqueira da Silva makes a bibliographical survey on the topic "development" with the aim of considering the patrimonialization of culture as a contribution to development. We also have the Miscellaneous Section, where we had contributions from: Maria Aparecida Couto, with the articleMasculinities and Femininities: the construction of oneself in the school context; by Marcos Tarcísio Florindo with the work DEOPS/SP in the Vargas Era: Institutional growth, bureaucratic administration and traditional practices of police action; by Normando de Albuquerque Melo and his article Josué de Castro before the famine; by authors Abraão Pustrelo Damião and Sueli Andruccioli Félix, with the article Thinking the City: its contradictions and the construction of sociability under the dilemma of insecurity; and, ending this section, Gabriel Salum and José Geraldo Poker bring us the articleThe Extension of Economic-Privatistic Rationality to Knowledge Produced by Emancipated Subjectivity: paradox of modernity. Finally, in the Special Section, we have two texts by Osvaldo Coggiola on the recent political and social demonstrations taking place in the Arab region, the first text being on popular demonstrations in Egypt and the second text on Tunisia.

Actors, Ideas, and Changes in Policy Subsystems: An Analysis of the National Youth Policy in Brazil

This article aims to discuss the role of policy subsystems in the public policy process, highlighting maintenance and change in their implementation. In particular, it analyzes the process of agenda-setting and policy formulation of the Política Nacional de Juventude [National Youth Policy] in Brazil during the Lula government, emphasizing the symbolic and political disputes around ideas and values conducted by the different actors that permeated the subsystems of this sectoral policy.

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.

When the Big House Freaked Out: The Rise and Fall of Industrial Brazil in a Single Lifetime

When the Big House Freaked Out: The Rise and Fall of Industrial Brazil in a Single Lifetime

Entre o campo e a cidade: as lutas pelo direito a uma educação eminentemente camponesa

From a theoretical and interpretive perspective, the present article aims to discuss the socio-political context of the proposal for training teachers for Rural Education from the pressures of rural movements and the involvement of institutional partnerships. So, how did the socio-political process for the involvement of the state and institutions to promote the training of rural teachers? For this, we seek to present the differences between the educational realities offered in the rural areas and in the city in Brazil; to discuss the emergence of the demand for a specific peasant education as a process of resistance to agribusiness interests in the 20th century; and to present the insertion of the social demands of the rural areas in the guidelines of the state through Pronera and adhesion of the public Universities in the formation of rural teachers. The study is qualitative, explanatory and bibliographic having as the theoretical basis the Rural Education as a space for social struggle. As a result, it became evident that the political and institutional actions aimed at training teachers in the field took place as a product of the pressures of social movements, with due emphasis on the MST, along with the state and public institutions, which met the demands through articulation between Pronera and public universities. From this scenario, from the decade of the 1990s, Licenciatura do Campo courses emerged in response to the demands for teachers of specific training in rural schools, representing the increase in the representativeness of peasant wishes in the midst of debates on educational policies in Brazil. Advances that, due to the actions created during the first term of the Lula government, were established, giving continuity to new offers of vacancies in LeDocs courses in Brazil in the last decade.