Whither Lula's Brazil? Neoliberalism and ‘Third Way’ Ideology

This article critically examines the strategy and policies of President Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva's regime in Brazil. A combination of economic liberalization, political ‘redemocratization’, and ‘Third Way’ ideology, his theoretical framework serves to justify a market-led and imperial-centred model of capital accumulation. Lula's embrace of the free market-IMF structural adjustment policies has led to the evisceration of agrarian reform policies, a decline in employment and real wages, the slashing of pension benefits and negative per capita economic growth - the worst socio-economic performance of any civilian regime since the military dictatorship. Agrarian policy at the centre of this model consists for the most part of the jailing (or worse) of rural activists, and the promotion of the agribusiness sector as part of the export strategy.