Introduction

This chapter considers Brazil into two periods in its contemporary history: before and after the governments of the Workers' Party. It details the hypothesis according to which it is possible to identify a change in the Brazilian growth regime in the first decade of the 21st century, marked by an unequivocal evolution in the mediating institutions of the new model inaugurated. Until the beginning of 2014 the scenario was extremely positive in Brazil. The hatred of the elites for the Workers' Party was fueled by its regulatory model of the Brazilian economy. By contaminating the middle classes and fractions of the working class, the country became virtually ungovernable after Rousseff's re-election in October 2014. The enigma of elites' behavior in Brazil, and in Latin America in general, is easier to understand when one keeps in mind its historical trajectory in the last decades. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.