The Takeover of Social Policy by Financialization The Brazilian Paradox [Hardcover]

This book critically addresses the model of social inclusion that prevailed in Brazil under the rule of the Workers Party from the early 2000s until 2015. It examines how the emergence of a mass consumer society proved insufficient, not only to overcome underdevelopment, but also to consolidate the comprehensive social protection system inherited from Brazils 1988 Constitution. By juxtaposing different theoretical frameworks, this book scrutinizes how the current finance-dominated capitalism has reshaped the role of social policy, away from rights-based decommodified benefits and towards further commodification. This constitutes the Brazilian paradox: how a center-left government has promoted and boosted financialization through a market incorporation strategy using credit as a lever for expanding financial inclusion. In so doing, it has pushed the subjection of social policy further into the logic of financial markets.This book upends the so-called post-neoliberal reading of the new wave of social and economic development in Brazil at the turn of the twentieth-first century. It uncovers what I term 'the Brazilian Paradox' that is, the recent ongoing shift towards a mass consumption society coterminous with the resilience of underdevelopment. I argue that the persistence of economic and social inequalities and of low levels of productivity shows that the long-hoped-for synergy between social and economic policy in Brazil was ruptured, thereby failing to engender a virtuous cycle of inclusive growth capable of putting an end to underdevelopment. The book provides a compelling analysis of how the current social policy model developed by the center-left majority ultimately gave rise to a finance-led mass consumption society, rather than unwinding a long history of structural heterogeneity which has barred Brazil from reaching the status of a developed country.