Author:

Natalia Raquel Razovich

Abstract:

On August 31, 2016, Dilma Rousseff was removed from office through an impeachment process. Tried under the technical-legal category of a crime of responsibility against the Budget Law, she was specifically accused of “manipulating” public accounts and taking out supplementary credits without Congressional approval. Beyond the questionable grounds on which the accusations were based and the controversial statements made by deputies and senators in the voting chambers, the impeachment process complied with the timelines and procedures established by the Federal Constitution. After 24 years, political instability reemerged in new forms, somewhat more complex than the institutional political crises of the 1990s, representing one of the most significant political-institutional crises in Latin America in recent years. The complexity of the phenomenon also stemmed from the fact that it occurred in a State considered, from an international perspective, an emerging power, which at first glance made it difficult to understand how a country in the midst of an international rise could begin to decline so abruptly. In light of this situation, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the socioeconomic processes that help explain the emergence of the political-institutional crisis in Brazil, represented by the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in 2016, taking into account the cycle of progressive governments from 2003 to 2016. Specifically, it aims, first, to describe the characteristics and subsequent limitations of the development model under progressive governments and their implications for the outbreak of the Brazilian crisis. Second, it seeks to analyze the process of social mobility during the progressive period and to identify the causes and actors involved in the subsequent episodes of social discontent during Dilma Rousseff’s administration from June 2013 onward. Third, it aims to identify the impact of changes in the national government on the economic development model and on the processes of social mobility and social discontent. As a general hypothesis, this thesis argues that the breakdown of the balance between a rigid development model and upward social mobility made the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 viable.