With Lula and Dilma Brazil grew with income distribution, is out of the FAO World Hunger Map and promoted inclusion and upward mobility for millions of Brazilians. As never before in history.

There is something that unites three distinct moments of domestic politics in the last decades of the 20th century — the boom years of economic growth during the military regime; the years of stagnation after re-democratization, and the period of neoliberalism and privatization. Income inequality and the lack of opportunities for social mobility were never confronted. They never were on the agenda of priorities. That began to change after 2003.

With the global crisis of 2008, many countries, including developed nations, saw their inequality rates rise. In Brazil, not even the most severe crisis since 1929 was able to curb the extraordinary reduction of inome inequality initiated by Lula and expanded by Dilma.

A consistent policy of income transfer, coupled with significant increases in the minimum wage, stimulus of domestic consumption with expanded and cheaper credit, increased access to housing, health and education, created a reality that had long been considered impossible by many governments: a combination of economic growth, monetary stability and reduction of the extreme social inequality that has marked the history of Brazil since colonial times.

Who doesn’t remember a time when the government avoided adjusting the minimum wage for inflation, arguing that it would threaten economic stability?

Until recently, poverty and social exclusion seemed like natural phenomena, far removed from a situation that could be transformed by political decisions and government programs. After decades of growth without distribution or blind faith in the ability of free markets to provide income balance among Brazilians, the results of the decisive role of the state in conducting inclusive economic and social policies are there for all to see. With Lula and Dilma, 36 million Brazilians have emerged from extreme poverty, and thanks to Bolsa Família. 42 million rose to the “class C” (i.e., lower middle class).

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