From national to social developmentalism: a historical overview from the thirties to the Dilma Rousseff government

Abstract

This article seeks to formulate a macrohistorical analysis around the understanding of speeches, ideas and political-normative-social-economic keys throughout the period 1930-2016, to understand the power relations that made possible the application of different development perspectives. It aims to understand how the development discourse was deployed in Brazil throughout the twentieth century, and what were the conditions of application of this concept. Thus, the first section aims to analyze the bases on which the political and economic coalition that gave rise to the national-development project was based, and the particularities of its application during governments from Vargas to Kubitschek. The second section examines the transformation of the model based on the triennial economic development plans of the Quadros and Goulart governments, the alterations generated by the military dictatorship and its national development programs and plans, to reach liberal developmentalism and the constitutionalization of state planning through multiannual plans still in force. Lastly, the third section observes the emergence of the neo-developmental strategy during the governments of the Workers Party, its limitations and contradictions, its transformation into a social-developmental strategy, and finally its crisis. It is understood that a broad analysis of the historical processes and the different development models can offer a better understanding of the political and social aspects and the present and future limits and challenges for the projected development model in Brazil.