Overview

Brazil is the world's sixth largest economy, has played a key role as one of the 'pink wave' administrations in Latin America, and was also responsible for wrecking the US-sponsored proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas. It is also one of the few large countries where social spending has risen and the distribution of income has improved in the last thirty years. However, as protests during the World Cup in 2014 have shown, the country remains highly unequal, unmet social needs are vast and its infrastructure is precarious. Alfredo Saad-Filho and Lecio Morais review the paradox that is modern-day Brazil. Focusing on the period from 1980 onwards, they analyse the tensions between the two systemic transitions to have dominated the country: the political transition from military rule to democracy, and to neoliberalism. The authors show how these transitions had contradictory logics and dynamics, yet ultimately became mutually supportive as they unfolded and intertwined.

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9780745336701

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Reviews

'Saad-Filho and Morais excel at providing a critical, powerful and persuasive analysis for Brazil's economic, social, and political development since the 1930s, emphasizing distinct transition paths from dictatorship to democracy and from state-led industrialization to neoliberalism. Grounded on a solid marxist political economy framework, this book is a must-read to understand Brazil's current predicament and defying challenges ahead' -- Lena Lavinas, Professor of Welfare Economics at the Institute of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Author Information

Alfredo Saad-Filho is Professor of Political Economy and International Development in the Department of International Development. Previously, he was Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London and Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2011-12). Alfredo was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Medal from the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil in 2014 and the SOAS Director’s Teaching Prize in 2016. His academic publications include Marx's Capital, Neoliberalism: A Reader, Anti-Capitalism: A Marxist Introduction and Brazil: Neoliberalism versus Democracy, and has produced numerous reports as well and other contributions for the United Nations and other international agencies. Lecio Morais is economics adviser at the Lower House of the Brazilian Parliament. He has published widely on political economy, with a focus on Brazilian financial institutions. He is the author of Brazil (Pluto, 2017) and Anti-Capitalism (Pluto, 2002).

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