Brazil: the institutional changes in the recent period and the new government

Abstract

This text discusses institutional changes implemented in the recent period in Brazil. If they are not reversed in a future government, they will have, on the one hand, redefined the place of the state in the economy and society, resulting, among other consequences, in the shrinking of public policies in general, and especially of social policies; on the other hand, they will have substantially altered the country’s labor market, expanding the presence of the already important and structural segment of informal workers. They consist of the Constitutional Amendment 95 (EC 95) and the set of articles and provisions of the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) that were amended by the labor reform. In the first section, aspects concerning the conditions inherited by the new government are analyzed; in the second one, we discuss the Constitutional Amendment 95; in the following section, we go over the labor reform and the labor market, both inherited from Michel Temer’s government. In section four, some of the ongoing measures of the new government are presented into detail.