Starting Over: Brazil Since 1985

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on past governance “The New Republic was sorely tested by a presidential death at its very beginning and a presidential impeachment only a few years later. . . . But political divergence has narrowed as institutions continually adapt. Compatible solutions are now easier to attain and sustain.”—from chapter 2, “Political Change” on the economy “Over the last twenty-five years, the Brazilian economy has successfully modernized. . . . The ideological divide of the past has become narrower, and policies are more stable. . . . Positive development does not automatically repeat. Continuity is not ensured. . . . Good economic policy makes a big difference.”—from chapter 3, “Economic Growth Is the Priority” on social policy “When public outlays and private expenditures in the social area are added together, the current sum comes to almost 30 percent of total national product. That is larger than in many wealthy OECD countries. This is a substantial commitment, requiring increases in efficiency and not merely expansion. . . . Future sustainability is a principal question. . . . Economic growth is necessary but not sufficient to ensure the desired outcome. . . . Intelligent social policy at all governmental levels is required to respond. . . . At stake is a more equitable Brazil over the next decades of the twenty-first century.”—from chapter 4, “Sustaining Social Advance” on environmental issues “Brazil has come far from its early position on the environment and global warming. These issues will only grow, and the Amazon rainforest will be fundamental to any solution. That ensures in the future both Brazil’s larger international presence and wider internal participation. Managing that combination will be a central task of foreign policy.”—from chapter 5, “Foreign Policy in a Changing World” on future governance “Government in Brazil will not, and should not, vanish. Dilma will have to assure its efficiency. Simple recipes, for all their appeal, are inadequate. Dramatic and bold changes are no longer the answer; deepening the institutions that have been emerging over the last years is. Enduring, evolutionary reform in the twenty-first century under a democratic New Republic is a result that everyone wants.”—from chapter 6, “Evaluating the Past and Looking to the Future” has undergone transformative change since the 1980s, from an authoritarian regime to a democratic society advancing on all fronts—political, social, economic, and diplomatic. In Starting Over, Albert Fishlow traces the evolution of this member of the BRICS group over the last twenty-five years and looks toward the future as the newly elected president, Dilma Rousseff, follows her very popular predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or “Lula.” The transformation of the country began with the founding of the Nova República and the Constitution of 1988, which established a strong executive and encased key social principles such as a citizen’s right to education and health care. Then the Real Plan of 1994— initiated under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso—set the stage for economic growth and a stable economy. There were setbacks, especially in the mid-1990s with the Mexican devaluation, Asian financial crisis, Russian default, and Argentine collapse, and, later, the U.S. recession. But changed economic policies in the late 1990s put Brazil on the right path to future economic growth, which resumed during the Lula years. With popular participation in the electoral process at an all-time high, politics has been profoundly altered in Brazil. Economic rules are now more permanent, and economic advance more regular. A healthier and longer life is now available to a broader swath of the population, and there is opportunity for social advancement. In addition, its foreign policy has greater consequence internally as well as externally. Dilma’s two immediate predecessors— Cardoso and Lula—are tough acts to follow. albert fishlow is professor emeritus at both the University of California–Berkeley and Columbia University. He also served as Paul Volcker Chair in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was deputy assistant secretary of state for InterAmerican affairs (1975–76), and he received the National Order of the Southern Cross from the government of Brazil in 1999. He has written extensively since the 1960s on the nation’s continuing evolution. Cover image: Courtesy of Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania Cover design by Beth Schlenoff highlights from Their influence has been profound, and Brazil is now a very different nation than it was in the 1980s. But she is working from their template to move the country forward. This insightful book clearly explains how and why the country has progressed to its current standing and what...