Jaccoud, Luciana

Democracy, redistributive conflicts, and social protection reform in Brazil - 2019.


5

This article analyzes the trajectory of social protection policies in Brazil over the last three decades. The adoption, in the constitutional text of 1988, of a model committed to the principle of universalism and redistribution reinforced social security, driven by demands for equality that found an institutional response in the context of democratic transition and, as a result, increased voter turnout. The article presents the main characteristics of the new social protection measures, arguing that their implementation changed and amplified the distributive conflict in Brazilian society. In the context of the democratic rupture that began in 2016, the liberal agenda of deconstructing the social state gained ground. Fiscal, labor, and social security reforms introduced setbacks in the policies that had supported redistributive advances in the social protection system since 1988. The consolidation of this agenda will have negative impacts on inequality, the quality of citizenship, and on the state of rights in Brazil.