Brazil: Extractive Capitalism and the Great Leap Backward

Abstract

This article examines Brazil's economic, social and environmental policy under neoliberal and center-left regimes, and finds substantial continuities in promoting an extractive economic development strategy. The devastating impacts on the Amazon, and the continuation in class inequalities counter the reformist imagery of the Workers' Party regime. The study emphasizes the utility of class analysis in deconstructing ideological identities.