Securing social governability: Party-movement relationships under Lula’s Brazil

This article provides a new interpretation of the changes that occur in partycivil
society relations when progressive parties of mass-based origin gain state power by
looking at the experience of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) during the Lula administration.
The need to preserve what is defined here as ‘social governability’ changes
the nature of party-movement relationships when political parties move from opposition
to government. The article shows how the PT in national executive public office,
to a large extent, managed to secure social governability through reward-based linkages,
such as the distribution of jobs in the state apparatus and the allocation of massive
state subsidies.