CRISIS OF THE SOCIAL WELFARE STATE AND AUSTERITY POLICIES IN BRAZIL AND PORTUGAL: SAVING ON SOCIAL RIGHTS TO SOLVE THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

Abstract

This article has as its theme the implementation of austerity policies as a measure to contain spending on social rights and a strategy to raise the economy. The research problem asks: is the implementation of austerity policies, with the reduction of public investments in fundamental social rights and flexibility of rights in Brazil and Portugal, a way for the solution to the economic crisis? The objective is to ascertain whether the implementation of austere measures arising from the neoliberalist notion can be considered an element that solves the economic crisis in Brazil and Portugal. The method used is the historical-critical combined with the deductive method. The procedure method is monographic and the research technique is bibliographic and documentary. The study is based on authors such as Ingo Wolfgang Sarlet, Manuel Castells, Amartya Sen, Robert Alexy and Thomas Piketty. As main results, it was found that the implementation of austerity policies, in addition to not raising the growth of the economy, generates the worsening of social inequalities, already latent in the countries studied.