Fernando Alcoforado*
Today, October 28, 2018, presidential elections are being held in Brazil. Given the climate of confrontation between the supporters of Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad, who is dividing the Brazilian population and even provoking a rupture of relations even between family and friends, it is a mission almost impossible to build social peace in the Brazil after the second round of presidential elections, regardless of who wins. The presidential election winner of Brazil must understand that it will only be able to exercise governability if it builds the social peace that is a state of balance and understanding among the inhabitants of the same country, where the respect between them is acquired by the acceptance of the differences and conflicts are resolved through dialogue, people’s rights are respected and their voices are heard, and all are at their highest point of serenity without social tension.
One fact is indisputable: Brazil is a politically divided country. On the one hand, there are those who supported Fernando Haddad and, on the other, those who supported Jair Bolsonaro. Without the gesture of building social peace by the winner of these presidential elections, the future President of the Republic will not acquire the conditions of governability. This means that neither Bolsonaro nor Haddad will acquire the conditions of governability unless they have the support of the vast majority of the population, since there will be insufficient support from Parliament and the economically dominant classes to achieve this goal. The social peace gesture directed by the President-elect to broad sectors of the population that voted for the opponent would make it possible to obtain the support of the great majority of the population. These are the conditions for a government to exercise Governance which, in short, expresses the possibility of the government of a nation to carry out public policies with the support of Parliament, the productive sectors and the population. There will be no governability, therefore, if the future President of the Republic has the support of only the Parliament and the economically dominant classes.
The existence of conditions of governance is essential for the future government to overcome the economic crisis in Brazil that broke out in 2014 and generated the general breakdown of companies, the increase in unemployment currently at an extremely high level (13 million unemployed) and the worsening of the population’s social conditions. Social peace is the condition without which the future President of the Republic could govern Brazil and promote social progress. Social progress will only be carried out in Brazil since there is also effective Governance that is related to the financial and administrative capacity of the Brazilian government and the competence of its managers to practice public policies. This means that the future government will have to solve the fiscal crisis to exercise Governance and solve Brazil’s economic problems. Governance is the competence of the managers of the Brazilian government to practice the decisions taken or, in other words, the capacity of the Brazilian State to exercise its government. Governance is to transform the governmental act into public action, articulating the actions of the government at all levels and with Civil Society. Without Governability conditions, an adequate Governance is impossible.
Social progress will only be achieved in Brazil since there is effective Governability that will only be achieved when: 1) the most constructive relationship possible of the constituted powers of the Republic (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) among each other in the decision-making process; 2) the most constructive relationship possible between the constituted powers of the Republic and the governments of the member states and municipalities of the Brazilian federation in the decision-making process; and 3) the most constructive relationship possible between the constituted powers of the Republic and Civil Society in the decision-making process. Governability expresses, in brief, the possibility of the government of a nation to carry out public policies resulting from the convergence between the various instances of the national State between itself and this with the organizations of Civil Society. The social peace gesture of the future President of the Republic would undoubtedly create the conditions for the existence of conditions of governability. The condition for social peace is to ensure in an effective national state governability and governance to promote social progress that is shared by the entire population.
Social peace is essential for the future President of the Republic to create the conditions to solve the problem of mass unemployment, since there is a lack of work today for 27.636 million Brazilians according to the Quarterly National Household Sample Survey compiled by the Institute Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The solution to unemployment in Brazil depends on the reactivation of the Brazilian economy, which depends to a great extent on the solution of the fiscal crisis that requires renegotiation with creditors, aiming at lengthening the period of payment of public debt burden for the federal government to dispose of resources necessary for public investments, especially in infrastructure, and then immediately adopt the measures described below:
- Elaboration of a program of works on economic infrastructure (energy, transport and communications) and social infrastructure (education, health, housing, basic sanitation and environment) that requires resources of around R$ 2.5 trillion.
- Public / private partnership in the execution of economic and social infrastructure works.
- Elaboration of an industrial development program that replaces imports and is aimed to raise exports to reactivate the Brazilian economy.
- Raising public savings by increasing public revenues and reducing government costs so that it has the resources to invest in economic and social infrastructure.
- Increase of the public collection with the taxation of the great fortunes, the dividends of individuals and the banks.
- Reduction of government costs with the elimination of superfluous expenses in all the powers of the Republic and the reduction of public agencies and commissioned personnel.
- Drastic reduction of bank interest rates to encourage private investment in economic and social infrastructure works, industry and the economy in general.
I hope that social peace prevails in Brazil so that the future government acquires conditions of governability and can overcome the gigantic economic problems of Brazil.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 78, holder of the CONFEA / CREA System Medal of Merit, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of 14 books addressing issues such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming and Climate Change, The Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world and The Great Scientific, Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.
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