Participatory Citizenship and Crisis in Contemporary Brazil

Valesca Lima

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030191191
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030191207
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

?This book discusses the issues of citizen rights, governance and political crisis in Brazil. The project has a focus on "citizenship in times of crisis," i.e., seeking to understand how citizenship rights have changed since the Brazilian political and economic crisis that started in 2014. Building on theories of citizenship and governance, the author examines policy-based evidence on the retractions of participatory rights, which are consequence of a stagnant economic scenario and the re-organization of conservative sectors. This work will appeal to scholarly audiences interested in citizenship, Brazilian politics, and Latin American policy and governance.

© The Author(s) 2020

Valesca LimaParticipatory Citizenship and Crisis in Contemporary BrazilGovernance, Development, and Social Inclusion in Latin Americahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19120-7_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Valesca Lima¹

(1)

Maynooth University, Dublin, Ireland

Valesca Lima

Keywords

CitizenshipGovernanceParticipatory democracyBrazilCrisis

End Abstract

1.1 Introduction: Democratization and Citizenship

During the relatively short history of democracy in Brazil, the country has hardly experienced a more turbulent period than the current one. Some may argue that the process of impeaching President Fernando Collor de Mello in 1992—when he was accused of condoning influence peddling and thousands of people took to the streets to demand his impeachment—was a tough blow for a country that had two years earlier staged its first direct elections since the end of the dictatorship. Democracy is changing but not because of social revolutions, regime change, or protests. The pattern of democratic changes in Brazil is due to a combination of factors that started taking place roughly around the 2010s, and it is related to electoral results, widespread corruption, economic crisis, and the rise of authoritarianism . Brazil has been shaken by a change in government that saw the impeachment of the president, Dilma Rousseff, member of the leftist Worker’s Party (Partido do Trabalhadores, “PT”), in a rather ambiguous and politically charged process in 2016. Arguably, this was the start of a deep political and economic crisis. Indeed, it marks the country’s turn to the right, a trend observed not only in Brazil, but also in other Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Chile.

This book addresses the key challenges for participatory democracy in contemporary Brazil. My main reason for writing this book is to explain how participatory citizenship in Brazil has changed since the abrupt government move to the right in 2016. The overall aim of this book is to analyze changes in participatory governance, through the lenses of citizenship and governance theories. Elucidating this process of change is challenging, and my goal is to examine how Brazil’s recent turn to the right has had an impact on social rights and on access to spaces of citizen participation, along with an in-depth look at the causes of those changes. There are, then, three main goals: first, to examine the current state-of-the-art that guides the studies of citizenship and participatory democracy; second, to understand why those changes are taking place, and finally, to suggest ways of preserving democratic resilience in the country. These goals are reflected in the structure of the book.

The chapters in this book develop these goals further by focusing on changes in participatory citizenship, through: (a) an analysis of the meaning of citizenship within the context of governance in contemporary Brazil, given the dismantling of spaces for the participation of civil society that is currently under way; and (b) an exploration of the political conflict and the new meaning that participatory spaces (such as housing, health, and education councils) have taken on after the sudden shift to the right, and how these change will shape participatory citizenship in the future.

Based on findings and theoretical framework, two arguments are put forward in the book. First, it shows that Brazil’s recent turn to the right has had an impact on social rights and on access to spaces of citizen participation. Second, though civil society participation remains at the center of governance, the institutional setting is determined by the political agenda of the administration in office, defined at the moment by the political agenda of a right-wing government, thus rendering dissimilar agendas in terms of governance structures when compared to previous leftists’ governments.

Whether it is Mauricio Macri’s Argentina, the conservative government of Sebastián Piñera in Chile, and Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, there is no doubting that right-wing movements are on the rise in Latin America. Many could say this is an obvious counter-reaction to the Pink Tide (a period of nearly a decade in the 2000s, where 70% of the South America countries were governed by leftist governments, and many of those governments implemented successful poverty-reduction programs) or that the Pink Tide run out of steam after economic turmoil and widespread corruption. To explain how the legacy of the Pink Tide that lasted for over a decade fell in the hands of right-wing governments is difficult, but in this work, I attempt to explain how and why it happened. The signal coming from those right-wing governments are not very uplifting: for example, one of the first actions of Temer’s administration after taking the presidential seat from Rousseff was to abolish the Ministry of Women, Racial Equality, and Human Rights (which became a wing into the Ministry of Justice) and appointing an all-male cabinet; Macri launched anti-immigration campaign in the model proposed by Trump in the US, blaming unemployment and crime on undocumented immigrants; and Piñera is slowly but surely pushing reproductive rights backwards in Chile.

In Brazil, where this book is focused, Temer and Bolsonaro’s government are part of a shift toward reducing the democratic governance spaces that have been built over the last 20 years. The idea of participation began to be increasingly associated with the image and design of the PT and the dismantling of those spaces of participation is an unambiguous attempt to fracture the participatory policies related to the party, a view that is evidenced by the disarticulation and reorganization of several policy councils.

Furthermore, this book aims to contribute to the wider study of governance and citizen rights in the context of the current right-wing government and the consequences of those political changes for public policies and democracy in Brazil. The data for this book comes from a specific country and specific policy areas, but the questions, debates, and findings are useful for a reflection on the state of participatory citizenship in other Latin American countries.

1.2 The Structure of the Book

1.2.1 Values and Principles of Participatory Citizenship

Chapter 2, “Citizenship and Access to Rights” is intended both as a general introduction for non-theorists who are interested in learning more about the conception of democratic innovations and citizenship in Latin America, and as an overview for scholars who are seeking an up-to-date statement of the current state of affairs in Brazil. The first part of this chapter introduces the topic, outlining its empirical and theoretical significance, engaging the reader in a broader discussion around the topic of governance and citizenship. It lands this discussion in the regional context of Latin America, narrowing it down to the specific context of Brazil and to the transition from progressive public policies to current political tensions and questioned democratic practices. This chapter refers to current changes in participatory democracy and the consequences for citizenship rights. The second part of the chapter provides an in-depth review of current literature on citizenship and governance. It unpacks this literature according to the characteristics that define the struggle for citizenship rights, and the concept of governance, which, in the Brazilian context, takes on heightened importance.

1.2.2 Changes in Participatory Citizenship

My aim in Chap. 3, “Understanding the Changes in Governance and Participation in Brazil” is to provide an overview of the struggles for citizenship and innovative governance. In the first part of the chapter, I introduce the readers to the Brazilian experience of participatory democracy, as I look at the spaces of participation created since the 1990s, and examine data from policy councils and policy conferences. The analysis then moves to the reorganization of participatory spaces that took place under...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Citizenship and Access to Rights
• 3. Understanding the Changes in Governance and Participation in Brazil
• 4. The Effect of Political Crisis on Citizenship Rights and Authoritarianism in Brazil
• 5. Sustainable Citizenship and the Prospect of Participation and Governance in the Digital Era
• 6. Conclusion: Responding to the Great Challenges of Citizenship and Governance
• Back Matter