The rise and fall of Dilma Rousseff government and the 2016 coup: Structural power, contradiction and ideology

Abstract

The article seeks to understand the Dilma Rousseff government and the 2016 coup, considering the structural power of the financial capital and the contradictions inherent to the models of economic growth and political coalition observed since the Lula administration. It is argued that the Rousseff government’s economic project sought to overcome some of these contradictions. The government, however, was unable to carry out either the institutional reforms or the political changes necessary for the success of its project, in the context of an economic slowdown and the sharpening of international competition and social conflicts in Brazil. The economic policy is evaluated from the austerity of 2011 to that of 2015, passing through the so-called New Economic Matrix and its gradual dismantling in 2013. The origins of the bourgeoisie’s unification around a neoliberal program in 2016 are analyzed, as well as the relationship between the middle-class revolt and the political-judicial attack resulting on the 2016 coup.