What is the PT? Brazil's Workers Party (PT) between formal representative and participatory democracy

In February 2004, on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the PT, Paul Singer, economist and one of the party's most distinguished members, raised the question: What is the PT today? This was not just a rhetorical question. For many observers of Brazilian politics as well as for many of the PT's founding members, the answer is far from obvious. Whereas only as little as two or three years ago social scientist were full of praise for the PT's experiments in participatory municipal democracy in places like Porto Alegre, more recent reports about the PT in power have been increasingly cautious if not outright scathing. For, over the course of one decade, the party that was celebrated by some as giving socialism new meaning has almost completely reformed itself, ditched most of its old policy platforms and principles and fully embraced Brazil's formal political spectacle with most, if not all, of its ‘traditional’ trappings, or so it seems. The aim of this short commentary is to provide some tentative answers to Paul Singer's question

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