PT in the Brazilian government: balance of change in the country development opportunities

Abstract

The starting point of this paper is that the reproduction of Brazil's underdevelopment can be explained by the persistence of some elements that have become structural obstacles thereto. We will label those obstacles as structural limits on economic development. These elements involve areas like productive weaknesses, aggregate demand and income distribution, and have been mutually reinforcing challenging the accumulation process and the structural transformations required to deploy a development process in Brazil. With this in mind and considering the favourable expectations created by the PT's government, this paper aims to assess to what extent has such a government succeeded in the overcoming of those structural obstacles. To sum up, we will analyse the economic achievements of this progressive government from a structural standpoint.