Dimensões da crise e ultraliberalismo no Brasil (2014-2022)

Abstract

This study analyzes the global and national economic crisis, as well as the conflicts among political and cultural forces that resulted in the rise of the far-right and the adoption of a regressive ultraliberal agenda in Brazil, with an emphasis on permanent fiscal austerity, counter-reforms, and contractionism in relation to social spending. To this end, the phenomenon of the economic crisis was evaluated through Karl Marx's theory and its manifestations in contemporary capitalism, particularly within the context of ultraliberalism. Moreover, the study problematizes the dimensions of the Brazilian crisis from economic, political, and cultural perspectives, highlighting the circumstances in which the recent project of deepening the neoliberal strategy emerged. This study, quantitative-qualitative in nature regarding its approach, and exploratory in its objective, combined a literature review with the collection of empirical data from primary and secondary sources. The analysis revealed that the ultraliberal agenda became hegemonic in Brazil under the long-term effects of the global economic crisis, which intensified in the country at the end of President Dilma Rousseff's first term in 2014. In other words, although the structural crisis of contemporary capitalism manifested in 2007/2008, its worsening occurred in most peripheral countries in the following decade, following the end of the commodities supercycle and, in Brazil's case, especially since the economic slowdown in China, the primary destination of the country‟s exports of raw materials. In this trajectory, it became evident that ultraliberalism ascended, supported by three dimensions of the Brazilian crisis: 1) the outbreak of recession in the capitalist accumulation system; 2) political conflicts, which resulted in anti-Workers' Party sentiment, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the imprisonment of former President Lula da Silva at the time, and the rise of the reactionary far-right, illustrated by bolsonarism; and 3) due to the autocratic culture of the Brazilian bourgeoisie, which Florestan Fernandes defined as a bourgeoisie in a state of permanent political counter-revolution. A class that resorts to all 11 means, including violence, to ensure its self-defense and privilege, being averse to democratization and any division that threatens its particular interests. Based on the theoretical findings and critical reflections deepened by the empirical data collection, it was possible to identify three phases of ultraliberalism in Brazil: at the end of Dilma Rousseff's first term (left), during Michel Temer's administration (right), and under Jair Bolsonaro's government (reactionary far-right). Despite all their particularities (analyzed in this thesis), the destructive ultraliberal project implemented (with long-term effects) a draconian agenda of labor exploitation and the lowering of workers' living conditions. Although the goal was to restore capital growth rates, none of these cycles presented, as we will demonstrate, sustainable economic results, although they were generally efficient in deepening the gap in existing social inequalities in the country.