Reformas previdenciárias de FHC e Lula: metamorfoses da bancada sindical na câmara dos deputados

Abstract

The thesis analyzes the preference change from the Union wing members of Parliament in the Brazilian Parliament during the Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution 33/1995 - PEC33/1995 and the Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution 40/2003 - PEC 40/20003. First, we discuss which factors led unionist members of Congress to vote in favor of the social security reform proposal of Lula's government, PEC 40/2003, since its reform proposal was considered a continuation of the social security reform promoted only five years earlier by the neoliberal government of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), PEC 33/1995. Therefore, the aim is to discuss what factors motivated unionist members of Congress to present contradictory positions between one reform and another. The research has two stages. In the first stage, there is the literature review carried out on themes referring to the relations between the State and social classes; the constitutionalization of social security; the neoliberal regression of the conquests guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and, finally, the polemics about the proceedings of the social security reforms of 1998 and 2003. In the second stage, the empirical analysis uses the Content Analysis research technique. Based on the technique mentioned above, we analyze the statements made by union members in the 1998 and 2003 plenary sessions of the House of Representatives during PEC 33/1995 and PEC 40/2003. The bibliographical analysis added to the analysis of the empirical material revealed that the change of posture of the unionist parliamentarians resulted from conjunctural events resulting from the advance of neoliberalism from the 1990s.