As tramas da política industrial nos governos FHC e Lula: um olhar a partir do IEDI e da CUT

Abstract

Brazil suffers, in the 1990s, the imposition of the neoliberal synthesis, responsible for structural changes in the very concept of national industry and with negative repercussions on the level of employment and social inequality. The economic instability, as a result of the inflationary lack of control, was established as justification for the creation of macroeconomic austerity measures based on high interest rates, the overvaluation of the exchange rate and the expansion of the opening of the domestic market as a promotion of competitiveness. The success in controlling inflation was used as a political instrument by the Fernando Henrique government to forge support from industrial sectors to a more restrictive model to the productive sector. Although establishing distinct relations with the government, IEDI and CUT assume a position of resistance to the hegemonic movement in the period. The understanding of both entities maintains the perspective that the State needs to assume the coordination of industrial policy as a strategy for national development. Until 2002, the performance of the two entities takes place in different fields: the IEDI entrepreneurs, as a fraction of the block in power, act in a secondary way within the government; and the CUT, as opposition to the federal government, is engaged on the construction of a democratic and popular field of confrontation with neoliberalism. The inauguration of President Lula represents a change in the political conjuncture and opens space for the resumption of development measures. The indication of change in the political-economic trajectory favors the movement of the main social actors, both within the ruling block and in the absent classes of the government structure. The displacement of these sectors benefits the formation of a new coalition committed to the strengthening of the domestic industry and the resumption of growth. The basis for the consolidation of this coalition is in stimulating sustained development as a means of articulating productivity gains in companies and improving the distribution of income in the country. The strategy of the mass market, the increase of exports through the elevation of competitiveness and the rise of the public investments for the productive sector are priority axes of the Lula government for the resumption of the economic growth. The performance, in a complementary way, of the two actors analyzed in the research was decisive for the modification of the political-economic orientations as of 2002. This new coalition guaranteed sustainability to the Lula government to lead actions to benefit industrial growth and social inclusion policies. The resistance of these actors to the movement against the State in favor of the productive sector, hegemonic up to 2002, and the capacity of influence in the public policies for the sector, after this period, justify the option of this thesis in analyzing the industrial policies in the Fernando Henrique and Lula governments from the perspective of IEDI and CUT.