ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the 1980–2010 period. It initially describes a major shift in theoretical formulation and in ideas on policymaking that occurred in the 1980s, away from the previous debate on development. It shows how in the new context of debt crisis of the Global South the focus of the economic debate shifted to stabilizing the high inflation that had been plaguing the Brazilian economy since the late 1970s, and to cope with the balance of payments constraint. This motivation plus the inability of traditional policies to bring inflation rates down, led to new ideas developed in new research centers that were fundamental in shaping the policies that successfully stabilized the economy in 1994. Next, the authors claim that, following the international trend, orthodox and neoliberal ideas became increasingly influential within the Brazilian economic debate, turning into the dominant approach in the early 1990s until the New Keynesian Consensus took hold in the 2000s. It finally deals with ideas generated in the context of disappointing social and economic outcomes, which eventually led in the 2010s to the resumption of academic and policy debate on new ideas under the labels “New Developmentalism” and “Social Developmentalism”.
