The neoliberal ideal in Brazil in the 1990s and its implications in labor and in the productive sectors

Abstract

Brazil, as well as other Latin American countries, has undergone profound transformations in the 1990s with the adoption of the recommendations of the Washington Consensus, and its effects were seen in the changes in production structures, either by altering productive sectors as well as in the labor market. This paper seeks to describe these changes in Brazil: even though adopted years ago it still has effects on the model of international integration of the economy of the country today. It appears that the liberalizing measures advocated by the Washington Consensus have generated disintegration of some sectors of the economy, as well as growth in other sectors such as commodities. In the labor market there have been job losses with the liberalization of the economy and with the flexibilization of the labor laws.