Back to an Island of Tranquility in a Sea of Revolt? Limits of Brazilian Liberal Democracy

Abstract

Brazil is experiencing its greatest movement of mass liberal democracy. Unlike other South American countries, in Brazil Lula’s electoral victory, in a moment of declining mass mobilization, has made possible until now the creative recycling of neoliberalism, supported from the beginning by broad contingents of the popular classes and, in addition, by big domestic and foreign capital. We evaluate the possible scenarios in this context of apparent calm in the midst of a capitalist crisis whose evolution on both a global level and in Brazil is unpredictable.