The politics of pension reforms in Brazil: a comparative study of the Cardoso and Lula administrations

After reaching macroeconomic stability while privatizing state companies and implementing other first generation reforms, Brazil has tried to balance its fiscal budget by promoting a series of second generation reforms. The present paper discusses the political processes involved in one of the most critical of these, i.e. the reform of the pension system. By comparing the pension reforms enacted under Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, we try to understand how actors, preferences, and strategies shaped the final amendments approved in 1998 and 2003, respectively. We conclude that institutions have been crucial elements in the characterization of winners (present civil servants) and losers (the overall population and the future civil servants). Keywords: Social security reform; Institutionalism; Neoinstitutionalism; Path dependenc