An Evolving Society

In recent posts, I have painted a fairly pessimistic picture of Brazil’s future, pointing out the government’s failure to implement the major reforms and investments needed to bring about sustainable economic development. But this does not tell the full story of the changes that have been happening in Brazil over the last decade, particularly under the stewardship of the ruling Workers’ Party (PT). Since I arrived here in February 2011, I have seen the government take several major steps to move Brazil forward and create a more inclusive, progressive society. While the PT has been fairly complacent in its economic management of the country, it has been quite bold with these social initiatives and deserves credit for its success. In this post, I will describe some of these policies in order to provide a glimpse of the positive changes that seem to occur here on an almost daily basis.

Fighting Extreme Poverty and Inequality

Brazil has long been known as one of the most unequal societies in the world, as measured through the Gini Coefficient. Like much of Latin America, the country has a tremendous gap between the haves and have-nots, and city landscapes are often marked by the stark contrast between the luxury high-rise apartments of the rich and the sprawling favelas of the poor. This, of course, has led to other problems, as inequality in Brazil has long been associated with extremely high crime rates and low levels of interpersonal trust.

Since coming to power in 2002, the PT has focused intensely on a pro-poor development strategy. President Lula spearheaded several major initiatives to expand the social safety net, most notably the Fome Zero campaign to fight hunger and the Bolsa Família, the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world. In addition, the government ramped up spending and investment in the poorer Northeast region of the country to promote convergence with the more prosperous South.

The results have been very impressive. Fome Zero was such a success in Brazil that many now believe it can serve as a model for hunger programs across the world. José Graziano da Silva, the program’s coordinator, now serves as head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Bolsa Família has proved similarly popular, and countries across the world have rushed to set up their own schemes. The macroeconomic results have been clear. The Northeast region outgrew the rest of the country over the last decade, and Brazil’s Gini Coefficient has fallen from an average of roughly 0.60 in the 1990s to 0.53 in 2011. Inequality in Brazil remains uncomfortably high, but the fact that the country was able to grow rapidly over the last decade while simultaneously becoming more equal is an impressive feat, and stands in sharp contrast to the United States, China, and Chile, all of whom have seen significant rises in inequality over the last decade. Brazil has become a poster child for pro-poor economic growth.

President Rousseff has continued to expand the country’s social safety net, creating a national “Brazil Without Poverty” plan shortly after her inauguration and recently unveiling a new expansion of the Bolsa Família program.

Expanding the social safety net has been the single greatest contribution of the PT to Brazil’s development. In addition to improving living conditions for millions of people across the country, these programs are having an even more profound impact on Brazilian society. The growing middle class has finally surpassed the rich elite in terms of its aggregate purchasing power, which has led companies to increasingly focus on this key demographic rather than the wealthy “A-class”. In addition, the middle class has become a more influential and informed voting bloc, and politicians increasingly focus their efforts on appealing to this key constituency. As the middle class grows in economic and political stature, Brazil continues to become a more inclusive society.  

Women’s Reproductive Rights

As the largest Catholic country in the world, Brazil has long adhered to church doctrine on many matters of social policy. This has certainly been the case regarding abortion, traditionally a taboo topic, only permissible in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s health. However, the concept of women’s reproductive rights has gained sway in recent years, led by a rising group of feminists within the PT.

Ms. Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, gained heat during her 2010 campaign for previous remarks she had made in favor of abortion rights, arguing that it was a public health issue of special concern to low-income women. The ensuing outrage forced her to walk back from this position before the election, but it marked the first time that an open discussion of the issue became permissible on the national stage. Ms. Rousseff later nominated Eleanora Menicucci, an outspoken supporter of abortion rights, as her Minister for Women’s Affairs, despite the backlash from social conservatives. This month, the government began a study about possible policies to reduce the risks arising from illegal abortion, particularly for poorer women.

The Supreme Court recently waded into the discussion with a ruling last month to legalize abortion in the case of brain-dead fetuses. The 8-2 ruling in favor, including affirmative votes by the court’s two female ministers, represented a significant victory for national women’s rights advocates. Abortion is a very difficult ethical question for any society to deal with, and I do not come down strongly on either side of the issue. But I do believe in the virtue of open, robust debate that respects all sides, especially keeping in mind the specific salience of the issue for many feminists. But the fact that Brazil is moving toward such national discussions is something to be celebrated, as it is a clear sign of the growing clout of progressive, feminist thought in a traditionally male-dominated, conservative society.

Affirmative Action

Like the U.S., Brazil is a country significantly burdened by its historical legacy of slavery and racial inequality. Many intellectuals here have long argued that “poverty has a color”, as the overwhelming majority of poor Brazilians tend to be darker-skinned while the wealthiest Brazilians tend to be much whiter. Confronting this legacy is immensely challenging, but there can be no doubt that Brazil under the PT has put an increased emphasis on combating racial disparities, primarily through affirmative action programs.

Under a new series of quota systems and scholarships for black students, Brazil has made impressive progress in increasing university enrollment for black students. Several studies have shown that these students have performed as well as, and at times better than, their whiter counterparts. The DEM, a conservative party, mounted a legal challenge to these programs, arguing that they constituted reverse racism. However, the Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously that such measures were legitimate forms of overcoming longstanding racial inequality. The ruling was a huge victory for Afro-Brazilian groups, and although the country surely has a long way to go on this front (as does the U.S.), there has clearly been progress over the last several years.

LGBT Rights

In addition to promoting women’s rights and Afro-Brazilian rights, Brazil has recently made significant strides in recognizing LGBT rights. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that same-sex couples are entitled to civil unions under the Brazilian constitution. Due to a constitutional provision allowing for conversion of civil unions into marriages, this has opened up a process for gay marriage to become legal in Brazil. Brazil has thus leapfrogged the U.S. on this key indicator of LGBT equality, offering all federal benefits to same-sex couples on a national level. The Senate voted last week to affirm civil unions for same-sex couples, meaning that the Supreme Court decision should soon be codified into law (following civil law custom).

The PT-led Senate is also on the verge of passing a measure to criminalize LGBT discrimination, a major policy focus of local gay rights groups. Last year, Ms. Rousseff pushed for an anti-homophobia education initiative in public schools, but the initiative was blocked by evangelical and Catholic groups. Despite this failure, it is clear that Brazil is making rapid progress on this front, joining Argentina as one of the most socially progressive countries in Latin America.

Truth and Reconciliation

Since its return to democracy, Brazil has struggled to confront the legacy of the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. Unlike neighboring Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, Brazil has made little effort to revisit this dark period in its history, partially due to a 1979 amnesty law passed by the regime to protect itself from any future prosecution. Ms. Rousseff, a former member of an underground resistance movement, has moved quickly to change this. Last month, standing next to the four living ex-presidents of Brazil, she inaugurated the members of a new Truth Commission which will spend two years investigating human rights abuses in the country between the period of 1946 and 1988. In a highly significant symbolic gesture, the state of Rio de Janeiro issued formal apologies and reparations payments to 120 former political prisoners, including Ms. Rousseff herself.

This move has been widely celebrated across Brazilian society as a long-delayed but necessary step for the country to come to terms with its troubled past. The only serious criticism so far has come, unsurprisingly, from within the military establishment. Brazil has come a long way in its 25 short years as a democracy, and the Truth Commission should be another step forward in fortifying the country’s political institutions and preventing future abuses of power. Ms. Rousseff deserves enormous credit for tackling such a major issue left unaddressed by her predecessors.