Embedded Neoliberalism: The Public Policy of the Inequality Regime
This manuscript presents an overview of Brazil’s “embedded neoliberalism”, a peculiar form of integration, mediated by the state, of a national economy to the global financial markets. The analysis highlights the policy making cases of worker’s pension funds and affirmative action. In this effort, the manuscript provides a broader view on the role of discourse coalitions in policy making, arguing that overarching “cultural wars” are often framed as economic debates and their outcome can guide policy action in their aftermath. In this effort it is also proposed a theoretical bridge linking the literatures of public policy and economics, arguing that mainstream economic discourses influence the policy process in all policy subsystems.