Brazil: A Country at a Standstill (Brasil: un país en compás de espera)

Anuario de la Revista de Ciencia Política (Santiago, Chile). The year of 2015, first year of Rousseff’s second term, was marked by corruption scandals, economic and political crisis. This scenario begins to unfold with the 2014 presidential elections, the tightest in the Brazilian history. The divergence between campaign promises, economic crisis and revelations of Lava Jato Operation has affected president’s approval ratings, giving ammunition to opposition to start a pro-impeachment campaign. The government has found it difficult to articulate their coalition and to implement its agenda, even after a cabinet reform. This article seeks to analyze economic and political fundamentals of this scenario that brought Brazil to a standstill. The findings discuss some of the implications of the crisis in terms of quality of democracy and challenges to be faced in the coming years.