ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to laying out the possible economic contexts for 1986 to 1989 period. Economic forecasting has a long history of evolution and progress, by being used widely in the business world as well as being fully accepted in academic spheres. Sustained very high economic growth rates from 1968 through 1980 transformed much of Center-South Brazil into a quasi-European society, whije at the same time leaving tens of millions living as subsistence farmers or urban poor. Given the increased–and increasing–complexity of Brazilian society, combined as it is with political structures lacking firm popular roots, the possibilities of future political alignments remain fluid. With the electorate surpassing 60 million and expanding apace, Brazil’s continued political development requires institutionalization adequate to the growing demands for effective participation. Catholics generally reject the increasing political activism of the progressive wing and the Ecclesiastical Base Communities and support centrist and conservative political movements and leaders.
