INTERPRETATIONS OF THE ECONOMIC POLICIES IN LULA AND ROUSSEFF GOVERNMENTS

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the controversy between the interpretations
of the economic policies in the Lula (2003 – 2010) and Rousseff (2011 – 2016) governments and their relation with the economic performance in those periods, primarily the
economic growth. From the methodological point of view, two choices are made. The
first consists on the separation of the governments and the creation of a section for each
one of them. It is understood that it results from a imposition of the object itself as, in
many cases, authors deal with them separately in their works. In this case, it is impossible to present the literature without pointing out this fact. The second consists on the
division of the interpretations in two groups: those more aligned to the mainstream and
those closer to the heterodoxy. This option aims to facilitate the exposition and make the empirical material studied more organic. The hypotheses are two: the first one is
that the mainstream authors explain the positive performance of Lula’s government
from the evolution of the external sector and blame the economic policies for the crisis,
with focus on the macroeconomic matrix from Rousseff ’s government; the second is
that the heterodox authors defend the economic policies from Lula’s government as
the main responsible for the highest growth rate and understand the crisis as a result of
exogenous variables, may them be external (international crisis), or internal (political or
institutional factors).