A guerra de todos contra todos e a Lava Jato: a crise brasileira e a vitória do capitão Jair Bolsonaro

Abstract

Brazilian capitalism traverses from 2015 until today (2019) one of its greatest crisis, that occurs simultaneously in the fields of accumulation, political scene and institutions. This paper analyzes the crisis from Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment in 2016 until the victory of Captain Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. It seeks to show how the problems of accumulation – the result of an increasing conflict between capital and labor, of obstacles in the realization of merchandises and of external effects – have grown into a structural crisis due to the state’s inability to reverse this trajectory. This Government-level difficulty stems from (i) the economic “consensus of foolishness” of the dominant sectors, (ii) the displacement of the “power center” of the Brazilian state into the hands of the Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) federal police operation, and (iii) the loss of legitimacy of institutions. A significant part of this difficulty is the result of the anti-corruption mechanism (relaxation of legal regulation and generation of instability) used by Lava Jato. This mechanism, when set in motion, has generated a war of all against all in the country, in which foreign interests are the biggest beneficiaries so far.