The contradictions of neo-extractivism and social policy: the role of raw material exports in the Brazilian political crisis

The corruption of democracy: Corruption scandals, class alliances, and political authoritarianism in Brazil

“…The extractivist growth model promoted by the PT rested largely on the capture of natural resource rents and their use to finance public policy. This model paved the way for the concentration of income, political corruption, and economic volatility (Pahnke, 2018). At a further remove, it fed destructive outcomes at four levels.…”

“…However, credibility is not a material attribute that can be hoarded and deployed in measurable quantities at the desired moment; it is, rather, the unstable outcome of the operation of the institutions of the state within the bounds of neoliberalism, and their attachment to financialisation and extractivist development in particular. These policy choices were favoured by powerful social groups and the mainstream media, but they had disabling implications for growth, distribution and social inclusion, and they contributed to the PT's alienation from many of its traditional supporters on the left (Baletti, 2014;Pahnke, 2018). These constraints became evident when Rousseff attempted to relax the fiscal and monetary policy stance, in 2011: that shift rapidly ruined the government's credibility with finance, the media and domestic and foreign capital, with severely adverse implications for policymaking capacity (Saad-Filho and Morais, 2018, chs.8-9).…”

Environmental governance under Bolsonaro: dismantling institutions, curtailing participation, delegitimising opposition

“…While progressive governments in Latin America have represented an alternative to exclusively market-oriented reforms, post-neoliberal contradictions have not been sustained in the long run (Vergara-Camus and Kay 2017 ; Coca 2021 ). The so-called ‘new’ far-right has been successful in exploiting discontent with (post-)neoliberal social policies (Fischer 2020 ), which led scholars to argue that these contradictions set the stage for the right’s rise to power in Brazil (Pahnke 2018 ; Braga and Purdy 2019 ; de Souza 2020 ). In such a way, Andrade ( 2019 ) claims that the rise of the far-right in Brazil is directly linked to PT’s choice to position themselves as a representative of interests ‘from below’ while advancing a political project that promoted interests ‘from above.’…”

Food Procurement in Post-neoliberal Countries: Examples from South America

“…Regarding their agrarian policies, at the same time as new market opportunities were created for family farmers/peasants, namely, through these institutional procurement policies, a broad partnership with agribusiness was likewise established. During the PT governments, there was no rupture with Brazil's monoculture-export model; on the contrary, this was reinforced through massive public investments (e.g., infrastructure creation, productive financing, and others) (Pahnke, 2018). It is no wonder that Lerrer and Carter (2017) insist that the contradictory agrarian policies of PT was one of the factors that contributed to the end of post-neoliberalism in Brazil.…”