BALANCE OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS VS. PROMOTION OF SOCIAL RIGHTS

A FALSE ANTAGONISM

Abstract

The social and economic collapse brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic required governments to make a huge financial effort in an attempt to at least mitigate the impact suffered by people. And this effort is already charging its bill: public debt has reached alarming levels. Consequently, the debate on how to deal with this reality of fiscal strangulation is once again back on the agenda, imposing to the countries making choices. Cut spending and, by extension, limit social rights or bet on public investments to balance debt? The first path, that of fiscal austerity, has been imposed in recent decades, but today once again became more relevant the developmental vision, that understands it is more appropriate to seek other strategies to balance revenues and expenditures. Brazil, however, by the choice of the last governments, is stuck with the first system, whose maximum expression is the Constitutional Amendment n.º 95/2016, which, by stipulating a ceiling for the expansion of social investments, ended up making it difficult to meet a wide universe of human needs, now particularly aggravated by the pandemic.