Political economy and developmentalism during the Workers Party administrations (2003-2014): a case study of the incentives provided to the shipbuilding industry and its effects on the SUAPE region in Pernambuco (PE).
This thesis investigates the strategy adopted by the Lula and Dilma presidencies aimed at socioeconomic development during the period 2003-2014. Its starting point is a historical overview of developmental policies as well the theoretical debates that underpinned these strategies in Brazil since the beginning of the twentieth century. This debate is updated to the twentieth century, both conceptually and empirically through a discussion on the social-developmental policies adopted in Brazil by successive administration of the Workers Party (PT). This is done through a detailed case study on the Oil and Gas cluster and associated production chains. The Petrobras company and its subsidiaries became important drivers of growth behind Brazilian industry due to the launch of programs aimed at the renewal of the shipbuilding industry linked to the oil and refinery segment, the higher demand for platforms associated with higher growth and the increase in local content which guided the competitive tenders that were organized by the federal agency ANP from 2004 onward. These factors, in addition to the funds from the BNDES and FMM, generated a temporary rebirth of shipbuilding, with important impacts on associated production clusters. This thesis illustrates the results of these policies, particularly in the Northeastern region of the country (that is, in the surroundings of the Ipojuca area in the state of Pernambuco, where the shipbuilder Atlântico Sul is located). By doing so, we emphasize the most important contradictions of the economic policies adopted by the federal administration of the Workers Party: on the one hand, a series of incentives were provided to Brazilian industry –such as national content rules, the generation of effective demand and supply of abundant financial resources by the National Development Bank; on the other, the federal administration maintained high interest rates and an overvalued currency, which generated facilities for imports, with important impacts on the trade balance and challenging the viability of domestic industry.