From political economy to economic policy: The neo-developmentalism and the Lula administration. This article critically reviews the design of neo-developmentalist economic policies in Brazil, in the first half of the last decade, and their relationship with the economic policies of the Lula administration after 2006. Paradoxically, the neo-developmentalist policies were implemented jointly with the main (neoliberal) macroeconomic policies which had been introduced earlier. The article reviews the relevant literature, and examines the contradictory nature of this 'inflection' of economic policy. So far, this combination of policies has achieved an unquestionable - though provisional - success, despite the persistence of the structural macroeconomic problems due to the continuity of the neoliberal policies.

RESUMO Este artigo analisa o desempenho da economia brasileira durante os anos 90, à luz da mudança de política neomonetarista implementada de maneira desigual, mas incremental, ao longo desta década. O artigo mostra que essa mudança de política foi associada a, e contribuiu para, uma mudança na estrutura da indústria de transformação, a deterioração financeira do setor público, o aperto da restrição da balança de pagamentos e o aumento da dependência econômica externa. Essas mudanças estruturais foram em grande parte responsáveis pela crise cambial de 1999. As medidas políticas subsequentes falharam amplamente em lidar com essas fraquezas da economia brasileira.

ABSTRACT This paper reviews the performance of the Brazilian economy during the 1990s, in the light of the neomonetarist policy shift implemented unevenly but incrementally across this decade. The paper shows that this policy shift was associated with, and contributed to, a change in the structure of manufacturing industry, the financial deterioration of the public sector, the tightening of the balance of payments constraint, and increasing external economic dependence. These structural changes were largely responsible for the currency crisis of 1999. Subsequent policy measures have largely failed to address these weaknesses of the Brazilian economy.