Roundtable: The rise of the new right and challenges to progressive politics in Brazil

Abstract: For years it was taken for granted that the right in Brazil was not ideological. The years of stability during the presidencies of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002) and Lula (2003-2010) created the impression that a progressive consensus in favour of social inclusion with fiscal responsibility was likely to endure for a long time.

That impression began to wane in the tumultuous years that followed the June-July protests of 2013 and was buried by the election of 2018. How and why did the new right emerge in 2018? How and why did the failures of centre-left governments contribute to the rise of this new right?  

This roundtable features presentations by two distinguished protagonists in the politics of the period:

• Cristovam Buarque (Governor, Senator, and presidential candidate)
  Presentation: How the left elected the right in Brazil
• Mauricio Rands (Congressman and presidential campaign manager)
  Presentation: The ascent of the right in Brazil and the failure of progressivism

Ursula Dias Peres (University of São Paulo) will moderate the roundtable and comment on the presentations.

Cristovam Buarque has a PhD in Development Economics. He has been a professor, university Vice-Chancellor, Governor, Senator, Minister, presidential candidate, employee of international organisations and an non-governmental organisation leader.

Amongst his many publications are 'Mediterrâneos Invisíveis – Os muros que excluem pobres e aprisionam ricos' (2016) [Invisible Mediterraneans – The walls that exclude the poor and imprison the rich]; 'O Erro do Sucesso – A civilização desorientada e a busca de um novo humanismo' (2014) [The Error of Success – A disoriented civilization and the search for a new humanism]; and 'Da Ética à Ética – Minhas Dúvidas sobre a Ciência Econômica' (2010) [From ethics to ethics – my doubts about economics].

Cristovam is a member of UNESCO’s Commission on the Future of Education and is engaged in a study with the French political scientist Michel Brunet on humanity’s challenges in the coming years.

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Maurício Rands is a lawyer and holds a PhD from the University of Oxford (1996). He served three terms as a congressman in Brazil’s lower house of Congress (2003-2012), having acted as the leader (whip) of the Workers’ Party (PT) in the house.

In 2014, he acted as the General Coordinator of the Platform Committee of the presidential candidacies of Eduardo Campos and Marina Silva. From 1997 to 2007, he held a post as Professor of Law at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, to which he eventually resigned to take up the position of Secretary for Access to Rights and Equity at the Organization of American States in Washington, DC, in September 2017.

His publications include 'Labour Relations and the New Unionism in Contemporary Brazil (Macmillan) and 'A Era Lula (the Lula Era)' (Bagaço). His last book, 'Para reinventar o progressismo – Populismo e crise no Brasil atual' (CEPE) [To reinvent progressivism – populism and crisis in contemporary Brazil] will officially launch in March.

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Ursula Dias Peres is a specialist in public budgeting and social participation and a Professor at the University of São Paulo. She has a PhD in Economics from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. 

Ursula is currently a visiting fellow in the King’s Brazil Institute and is conducting a research project comparing the budgets of São Paulo and London. She has published numerous academic journal articles and chapters in edited volumes, including 'Social Participation And Distributive Conflict in Public Planning And Budgeting: The Case of the City of São Paulo' in Cadernos De Gestão Pública (Annals of Public Management), Volume 22, 2017.