The Politics of Financialization in Brazil

Abstract

Beginning with an analysis of the global context of substitution of neoliberal for developmentalist ideology, this article examines the financial expansion of the Brazilian economy that has taken place in the last two decennia. This process occurred in a context of a reorganization of economic relations, in which the state's role was fundamental despite the neoliberal discourse. Efforts to restore the profits of classes whose incomes were reduced by welfare policies were subjacent to this discourse. In Brazil, the neoliberal ideology began to be consolidated in the mid-1990s, with the Real Plan as its landmark. In addition to inflation control, the plan sought to attract over-accumulated capital that was circulating globally in search of profitable outlets. Reproducing the historical connection between capitalism and the state, a financial expansion of the Brazilian economy also occurred under this association, in which public debt was the great engine.