The Democratic Alliance Coalition and the Process of Reform

Abstract

The formation of the Democratic Alliance coalition paved the way for the victory of Tancredo Neves to the presidency of the Republic on 15 January 1985 and marked the end of the Brazilian authoritarian regime. In constructing the new democratic order which, in the case of Brazil, involved not only questions of a political character but also strong reform promises of a social and economic nature, the coalition would prove much less successful. This chapter will argue that the structural basis of the coalition and the programmatic terms under which it was organized provided extremely difficult instruments with which to accomplish the reform process, once it was transformed into a governing coalition.