Abstract
With the defeat of the Bolsonaro government in the 2022 elections and President Lula’s return to power supported by a broad coalition in defense of democracy, the country entered a new phase with the challenge of rebuilding democratic institutions, citizenship rights, and a sustainable economic model.
We offer valuable lessons on the need for reconstruction to go beyond mere restoration and move toward a new, democratic, and inclusive model of development, overcoming the dichotomy between the economic model and social policies. Austerity policies shaped by liberal canons have strangled the capacity of public investment. At the same time, policies aimed at protecting economic and social rights should be articulated to an inclusive economic development model, overcoming accumulated institutional weaknesses that facilitated their subsequent dismantling.
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Fleury, S. et al. (2023). Authoritarian Populism, De-democratization, and Social Policy Dismantling: Lessons from Brazil. In: Fleury, S. (eds) Social Policy Dismantling and De-democratization in Brazil. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35110-5_9
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