The fiscal adjustment policies in contemporary France: homology the counterattack of the austerity doxa in Brazil

• Grant number: 17/27000-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Maria Chaves Jardim
• Grantee: Paulo José de Carvalho Moura
• Supervisor: Frederic Lebaron
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Research place: École Normale Supérieure, Cachan (ENS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/09816-4 - Fiscal adjustment as social construction: the justifications produced in the government Dilma Rousseff (2014-2016), BP.IC

Abstract

This is a proposal of BEPE that aims to contribute to the scientific initiation project developed in Brazil which investigates the fiscal adjustment implemented during the second term of Dilma Rousseff's government, from the perspective of the economic sociology, demonstrate that the fiscal adjustment policies is a social construct (Swedberg, 2004; Bourdieu, 2000; Abrammovay, 2003; Jardim, 2007). Therefore, to be seen as a legitimate belief, natural, obvious, possibly embeddedness (Polanyi, 1980) in social elements like hierarchies, prestige, common good, competition, professional capacity, etc.. Contrary to what the mainstream economics propagate, the notion that the fiscal adjustment is an option almost natural in the solution of the economic problems, the study shows that this premise is a social construct, given that to the economic sociology political and economic options are neither neutral, rational nor technical. By studying the justifications produced by Dilma's government to implement the fiscal adjustment programe, we aim at understanding the social elements that sustain these economic policies. Therefore, our hypothesis is that the discourses produced around the notion of the necessity of fiscal adjustiment policies by the Brazilian government are equivalent with the international context. The comparison with the French case will help us understanding the justifications of these fiscal austerity plans not as an isolated case, but as a doxa expressed through the moralities (Boltanski; Thévenot, 1991) that are 'embeddedness' in social elements and shared around the world, mobilized by political and economic authorities in order to legitimize the mainstream economic policies. (AU)