Continuity and Legacy of the Reformers: Dilma as a Successor of Lula and the Legacy of the Workers’ Party in Brazil

Bulgarian Historical Review, 52 (2024), No. 3-4, pp. 231-249
DOI:

Boryana Miteva-Zhekova

Faculty of History, St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University, 15, Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd., Sofia 1504, Bulgaria. ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2479-789X; E-mail: bnmiteva@uni-sofia.bg

Abstract: This study deals with issue of continuity and legacy of reformers in Brazil, especially with the Workers’ Party’s Governments. Focusing on Dilma Rousseff’s role as a successor of Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva it aims to analyze what were the significance and the effects of the Workers’ Party governance for the Brazilian democracy in the period of its reformation. This study claims that reforms of the Workers’ Party were not revolutionary, but evolutional. Therefore, there was clear continuity between periods of consolidation and reformation of Brazilian democracy. In addition, it argues that Dilma’s Presidency was not an iterance of Lula’s as it was believed. She inherited success of Lula’s Presidency, but significant problems of Brazilian democracy as well. Failing to resolve some of these and upgrade democratic system, she left behind traditional defects of Brazilian democracy, but also acute political crisis and social conflicts, bitter disappointment in progressive voters and collapsed political left in Brazil.

Keywords: Dilma Rousseff’s Presidency, Continuity in Brazilian democracy, Dilma and Lula compared, Workers’ Party reforms, Workers’ Party’s Legacy

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