Americans generally think of Brazil  as a country of beaches, jungles,  

and Christ the Redeemer: a friendly tourist  destination with fun and festivities. But  

Brazil isn’t just a nice spot for a vacation.  It is one of the most unequal countries in the  

world. But it’s also a country with one of the  most successful socialist movements of our time.

In 1888, Brazil abolished slavery – the  last country in the Americas to do so.  

But even after a republic was established in  1889, elites excluded most people from voting,  

using their power to enrich  themselves and their families.

For decades, Brazil was a textbook  oligarchy, based on “coffee with  

milk politics” – a reference to the agrarian  economies of the two most influential states.  

The government acted above all to protect elite  interests while millions languished in poverty.

As Brazil urbanized, peasants flocking to  cities could see prosperity around them  

but couldn’t reach it. They built sprawling  informal settlements called “favelas,”  

Stark illustrations of the country’s disparity.

By the early 1960s, an alternative vision  emerged, based on land redistribution and  

expanded democracy. Communists, peasants, workers,  and students supported this reformist push.

But then, fearing a communist takeover, the United  States and local elites supported a military coup.  

From 1964 to 1985, Brazil was  ruled by a BRUTAL dictatorship  

that killed and tortured thousands of people.

But by the late 1970s, something was changing.  

Workers noticed their wages were not  keeping pace with the rising cost of living.  

It turned out they were getting paid  significantly less than the regime let on.

So, led by a combative, charismatic union leader  named Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – commonly  

known as “Lula” – workers in the industrial  heartland around São Paulo went on strike.

Lula understood well the indignities of the  working class. His parents were illiterate  

peasants who struggled to give their kids a  better life. He didn’t learn to read until he  

was 10. When he was 18, he crushed his pinky  in a workplace accident. By the time he was  

seen by a doctor, four hours later, there  was no choice but to amputate the finger.

Driven by these experiences, Lula and those  around him realized that workers needed  

their own political party. So, in 1980, they  created the “Partido dos Trabalhadores” – the  

Workers’ Party. It was the first party in  Brazil created for workers, by workers.

The Workers’ Party grew quickly. And in 2002,  

after three failed attempts,  Lula was elected president.

In office, Lula recognized that  Brazil’s fundamental problem  

was the grinding poverty and inequality that  previous governments had mostly ignored.  

So in 2003, Lula’s administration introduced  “Bolsa Família” – “the family stipend.”

Basically, the government would guarantee  an income to families in “extreme poverty,”  

those earning less than 17 dollars per person per  month. And when poor families over the official  

poverty line were expecting a child or had a  child below 18, they would get extra income too.  

As long as families get vaccinations  and keep their kids in school, they  

can receive benefits indefinitely. There is no  mandatory drug testing, and no work requirement.

With this guaranteed monthly income, poor families  can meet their basic needs and afford safer living  

conditions. The program doesn’t provide a lot by  American standards. Most families receive about  

38 dollars a month. But for the neediest  Brazilians, it has been transformational.

Compared to what other countries were doing,  

the scale of Bolsa Família was incredible.  In the 1990s, U.S. President Bill Clinton  

had implemented “welfare reform.” He made it  more difficult to access government benefits.

Promising to “end welfare as we know it,” he  instituted work requirements and drug tests.

It became so complicated and humiliating  to secure government assistance that many  

Americans who needed support received  no help at all. Extreme poverty soared.

Brazil’s radical experiment, meanwhile,  

had the exact opposite effect. Bolsa Familia  quickly became an international success story.

For one thing, it dramatically reduced poverty.  By 2015, the percentage of the population living

below the international poverty line had  dropped from 13 percent to just three.

the most unequal countries in the world, it has  cut wealth inequality by as much as 20 percent.

Bolsa Família has also significantly reduced child  labor, and improved educational outcomes for the  

poorest children. Studies suggest the program  has helped lower rates of domestic violence,  

postpartum depression, suicide,  and even tooth decay in children. 

Bolsa Família isn’t just a cash transfer program.  It’s a successful attempt to wrestle with a legacy  

of social neglect. For many Brazilians, Bolsa  Família is the most tangible example of the  

state acting on their behalf. It represents  the very promise of citizenship. It directly  

attacks poverty in the present, enabling  families to invest in their children’s future.

Lula left office in 2010 as one of  the most popular leaders on Earth,  

and the most popular in Brazilian history. Bolsa  Família was a major reason for that. In fact, when  

a far-right extremist won the presidency in 2018,  he sought ways to rebrand the program as his own.

So while the United States sought to push people  out of poverty by forcing them off of welfare,  

socialists in Brazil did the exact opposite:  they opened government support to more people.  

In the U.S., poverty went  up. In Brazil, under Lula,  

poverty shrunk, inequality fell, and the  economy grew to five times its size in 2002.

Now, Brazil is still marked by serious inequality.  But the Workers’ Party showed that governments can  

act to dramatically reduce poverty. The first step  is recognizing that poor people don’t become less  

poor if their government calls them lazy, or makes  them take a drug test just to afford groceries.  

Enable families to meet their material needs, and they’ll lead better lives.

Lula remains popular in Brazil because  he acknowledged that everyone deserves  

a dignified life, regardless of their class  or income. And as we confront the rot that  

prosperous elites in this country  have allowed to fester for too long,  

we might learn something from the  example of the Workers’ Party in Brazil.

I’m Andre Pagliarini, professor of history  and Latin American studies at Dartmouth,  

for the Gravel Institute.