Radicals in Power

Radicals in Power provides a systematic account of the innovative redistributive democracy policies introduced in Brazil over the past 20 years by the Workers Party of Brazil (PT) at state level, in big city administrations, and medium-sized urban centers. Based on original field investigation, and with contributions both from scholars and active participants in the process, this volume provides a unique understanding of how a non-dogmatic leftwing political movement has instituted highly innovative experiments to involve ordinary citizens, especially the socially disadvantaged, in local policy choices and fiscal allocation decisions, as well as other experiments to achieve participation, social redistribution, and justice. It’s a pitty that the author didn’t mean the tile to be ironnacle, because as all parties (in power) the PT has transformed into a authoritarian structure that does not tolerate internal dissidence. Lula (the leader of PT and actual -2004 – president of Brazil) has become what was expected from him: a bourgeois burocrat.