by Publicabcp
Translated and reviewed by Matheus Lucas Hebling
The book Instabilidade e crise na política brasileira (Instability and Crisis in Brazilian Politics), edited by Armando Boito Jr. (Unicamp), Danilo Enrico Martuscelli (UFU), and Nátaly Guilmo (UFABC), is the product of a collective project funded by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and developed within the Rede Poulantzas Brasil (Poulantzas Network Brazil). The work brings together analyses grounded in original empirical research on contemporary Brazilian politics. Its aim is to understand why, beginning in 2015, the country entered a cycle of political instability and crisis, breaking with the relative stability that had defined the preceding period.
The study takes as its object the Brazilian political conjuncture from the crisis of Dilma Rousseff’s second administration onward. Its central goal is to explain the process of political destabilization and the conflicts running through both the democratic system and the struggle for state power. In examining this transition, the authors contrast the present period with the relative stability of the years 1994 to 2014, when alternation in power between the PT (Workers’ Party) and the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) did not call the democratic order into question.
The book’s central hypothesis is that the decisive factors in explaining this instability are the distributive conflicts among classes and class fractions operating in national politics. The authors foreground the clashes between the big bourgeoisie associated with international capital and the internal big bourgeoisie, as well as the disputes between these and various segments of the working classes.
The collection is organized in three parts: the first dedicated to class conflict and internal political crises; the second to foreign policy and Mercosur; and the third to theoretical reflection and longue-durée analysis.
The book examines how these contradictions are expressed in political alliances, institutional ruptures, and ideological reconfigurations. Its analyses are grounded in empirical investigation and span both domestic politics and the dynamics of Brazilian foreign policy.
The work sets itself apart from the institutionalist approach that prevails in political science by integrating the political process into the social and economic dynamics that structure it. It adopts a Marxist framework to examine the relationship among the state, class fractions, and political strategies.
The authors argue that recent events—including Dilma’s impeachment, the consolidation of Bolsonarism, and the attempted coup of 2022–2023—must be understood in light of these conflicts and of the shifting hegemony within the power bloc.
By assembling interpretations anchored in empirical research and sustained by a critical theoretical perspective, the book offers tools for understanding how recent political conflicts in Brazil are articulated. Without resorting to simplification, the authors demonstrate that the processes of instability and crisis are crosscut by disputes internal to the dominant camp and by the ways in which different classes and social fractions reorganize themselves in response to changes in the political landscape.
In summary:
The book analyzes the political instability that began in Brazil in 2015.
Its focus is to explain recent crises through the lens of conflicts between fractions of the dominant class and segments of the working classes.
The work articulates politics, economics, and society through a Marxist approach.
The chapters are organized along three axes: domestic politics, foreign policy/Mercosur, and long-term theoretical reflection.
The authors examine events such as Dilma’s impeachment, the rise of Bolsonarism, and the attempted coup of 2022–2023.
The book critiques the separation of politics from society fostered by institutionalist approaches.
About the Editors
Armando Boito Jr. holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP) and completed postdoctoral work at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (FNSP). He is a full professor of Political Science at UNICAMP and coordinator of the research group “Neoliberalism and Class Relations in Brazil.”
Danilo Enrico Martuscelli holds a doctorate in Political Science from UNICAMP and is an associate professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), where he also teaches in the Graduate Program in Social Sciences.
Nátaly Guilmo holds a doctorate in Political Science from UNICAMP and is a postdoctoral researcher in the Graduate Program in World Political Economy at UFABC, as well as a visiting researcher at the Technische Universität Berlin.
PUBLICATION DETAILS
Title: Instabilidade e crise na política brasileira (Instability and Crisis in Brazilian Politics)
Editors: Armando Boito Jr., Danilo Enrico Martuscelli, and Nátaly Guilmo
Publisher: Editora Lutas Anticapital
Year of Publication: 2025
ISBN: 9786585404983
Available from: Editora Lutas Anticapital
