Neoliberal hegemony and trade unionism in Brazil

Abstract

The neoliberal governments of Fernando Collor de Mello and Fernando Henrique Cardoso came to power in Brazil through popular vote. It is true that in these two elections the power of money and the media were very important. Despite this, we believe that it would be wrong to attribute the victories of the neoliberal candidates in 1989 and 1994 solely to manipulation of the electoral process. In our view, these victories are an indicator that we are witnessing a process – broader and more complex than the electoral process itself – of the establishment of a new bourgeois hegemony in Brazil: the hegemony of neoliberal conceptions and political proposals.