Democracy, decision-making arenas, and economic policy in Lula's administration

This paper analyzes the characteristics of the fiscal policy in Lula's government, emphasizing its content and decision-making style in a comparative perspective, both with prior governments and between his two terms in office. The analysis is contextualized in the framework of the challenges introduced by the international integration model adopted in Brazil during the 1990s and by the expansion of social demands brought by the new democratic order. In spite of limits imposed by financial markets that ask for credibility, fiscal restrictions and high levels of primary surplus, the paper points out that there is room to orienting the fiscal policy towards other goals: economic growth and internal demand stimulus by means of income transfer programs. That was made possible, to a great extent, by the expansion of governmental decision-making arenas and by the adoption of a style of decision-making based more on negotiations.