Editor's Choice Ep. 7: Reform and Political Crisis in Brazil w/ Armando Boito

Latin American Perspectives Podcast

Kicking off our second season of LAP Editor's Choice, renowned Marxist political scientist and theorist Armando Boito joins us to discuss his recent book Reform and Political Crisis in Brazil: Class Conflicts in Workers' Party Governments and the Rise of Bolsonaro Neo-fascism.

This timely book examines the Brazilian political process from 2003 to 2020, focusing on the Workers’ Party's governments, their reformist policies, the political crisis that led to President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment, and the rise of Bolsonaro's neofascism. Drawing on a Marxist theoretical framework, Boito argues that ideological and party conflicts in Brazilian politics are closely tied to class-based distributive conflicts within larger Brazilian society. Thus, following their fourth consecutive defeat in the presidential elections, political parties representing international capital, segments of the bourgeoisie, and the middle class abandoned democratic norms to end the Workers' Party's cycle of governance, paving the way for the rise of neofascism.

Armando Boito is a Professor of Political Science at the State University of Campinas, Brazil, and editor of the Brazilian journal Crítica Marxista.

Reform and Political Crisis in Brazil can be purchased online through Haymarket books: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2019-reform-and-political-crisis-in-brazil

Additional reading from LAP and Armando Boito:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0094582X221140419

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0094582X19887910

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This episode was co-produced by LAP Outreach interns Lara Paredes and Mateus Quesada.