O Novo Desenvolvimentismo como estratégia de promoção do crescimento econômico no Brasil no período de 2003 a 2013

Abstract

In 2003, New Developmentalism emerged as a third alternative economic strategy for promoting growth, critical of development policies that were based on Classical Developmentalism and Conventional Orthodoxy. The failure of Classical Orthodoxy policies in the 1990s in Latin America led to the rise of leftist governments in the region, resulting in Brazil's election of President Lula. From then on, the literature on the subject goes on to state that some of the measures defended by the New Developmentalism were adopted by the Lula government. The main objective of this paper is to discuss whether New Developmentalism was used as a strategy to promote economic growth in Brazil in the period 2003-2013, which comprises three presidential terms, first (2003-2006) and second (2007-2010) Lula, and part of the first Dilma administration (2011-2013), and which was marked by a robust economic growth of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product. Having as its main theoretical foundation the New Developmentalist Theory, the work sought to analyze and discuss characteristics of New Developmentalism in the period in question, focusing specifically on monetary policy, interest rate conduction and its effect on inflation, and in the conduction of exchange rate and its effect on the “Dutch Disease” problem. Furthermore, it sought to identify the main problems in implementing the policies proposed by the new developmentalist strategy. Based on the results, it was possible to conclude that: the addition of new developmentalist policies in the first Lula administration does not allow us to characterize it as a purist of the new model. The first Lula government (2003-2006) was initially marked by the maintenance of the neoliberal policy of the predecessor government and dealt with a high international demand for commodities, high interest rates and exchange rate appreciation. In the second Lula government (2007-2010) there was an expansion of policies to encourage domestic consumption and a growth model opposed to export-led. The third term, corresponding to part of the first Dilma Rousseff government (2011-2013), established a political agenda that favored Brazilian industrial entrepreneurs, promoted a weak exchange rate devaluation and a drop in interest rates. It was evident that in none of the governments of the period the Dutch Disease was fought.