Guedes defends the right to criticize “without censorship and persecution”

Changing the focus from economics to politics, former Finance Minister Paulo Guedes discussed the current Brazilian polarization in a new internet broadcast of the MBA Macroeconomics & Portfolio Management, launched in partnership with Grupo Primo, owned by financial influencer Thiago Nigro.

Beyond the division between left and right, Guedes defended to his virtual audience of students the need to leave “barbarism” to achieve what he calls the “open society of the future”. Polarization, for him, is not the best path to prosperity.

The head of Economy in Jair Bolsonaro’s government defended respect for democracy and the right to criticism, noting that the right needs to have space to speak without suffering censorship and persecution.

Basing his reasoning on the philosopher Karl Popper, author of the book The Open Society and its enemiesGuedes explained the long history of cooperation between societies in search of evolution, demonstrating that the pillars of prosperity are democracy and a market economy.

“Adam Smith [pai do liberalismo moderno] he did not invent the market economy, he just observed what already existed. He didn’t invent capitalism to exploit workers and all the blahblahblah of the ‘sociology of misery’ created by [Karl] Marx. The trajectory of our evolution shows that the more capital and technology, combined with democracy, the more wealth and prosperity”, said Guedes.

In the pillar of political evolution, Guedes started from the ideas of the French Revolution of “liberty, equality and fraternity” to explain the emergence of the modern conception of right and left – left-wing revolutionaries against right-wing conservatives.

Revolutionary ideas spread around the world and culminated in the dictatorships of the 20th century, on both sides of the political spectrum. From Mao Tse Tung, Stalin to the current dictatorships of Venezuela and North Korea, on the left side. And extreme right-wing, like Hitler, in Germany, a reaction to the Socialist International Movement, on the left, which preached the union of the world’s workers against the established power.

“Hitler brought together German businesspeople, but with socialist foundations, so much so that he created the National Socialist Party of German workers. They were extremists on one side and the other, dictatorships called ‘fascists’, on the right, and ‘communists’, on the left “, stated the former minister.

Contrasting evolution in both spectrums, Guedes showed that the left has moved towards socialism, which wants the transformation of the system within revolutionary ideas, but through civilized methods. On the right, there are conservatives, who live with differences, but do not want to change the established order. “Both, however, believe in democracy,” he explained.

Making a metaphor with a horseshoe, the former minister showed the proximity between social democrats, on the left, and liberal democrats, on the right, both close to the center. They converge towards the centrality where, according to Popper, the open society of the future is.

The difference between them, explained Guedes, is the weight of the State in the economy: both believe in democracy, in the value of civilization, but the liberal democrat knows that the key to prosperity is in the free market.

In more advanced societies, the former minister considered, the division between left and right is milder – this is the case in England, where liberals and conservatives alternate in power without much impact on the life of the country.

For Guedes, Brazil’s deep polarization and the gap between left and right are part of a transitional stage. “There is no hope of having peace and prosperity with so much division. I have never defended this vision of conflict, of extremes, where one attacks the other”, he highlighted.

To reach the top of the horseshoe, of the great open society defended by Popper, Guedes believes that it is necessary to have a dynamic vision of society, as demonstrated by the millennial evolution from primitive tribal societies towards democracy, always improving.

“In this sense, I am not a conservative, who has a static view of society,” he stated. He stressed, however, that conservatives and liberals are together, on the opposite side of the socialists: “I participated in an alliance government between liberals and conservatives.”

Regarding Brazil’s political trajectory since the dictatorship, the former minister highlighted that the redemocratization process was led by the left, leading to the election of Tancredo by Congress, and the Sarney government. The absurd mistakes in combating hyperinflation, especially with the Cruzado Plan, culminated in the rise to power of a right-wing government in the country’s first direct election after the dictatorship. “Collor, however, was not supported and made the mistake of freezing assets and displeasing the entire Brazilian society,” recalled Guedes.

Since then, we have always been going in “circles to the left”. The Real Plan was successful, but the re-election of Fernando Henrique compromised fiscal policies due to excessive spending. “There was a reaction to a government focused on the market economy but with a lot of noise,” said the former minister.

For him, today Brazil’s political arc is more sophisticated – we are walking in the horseshoe arc. The challenge, according to Guedes, is to resume growth on a solid basis, with attention to social issues, but with fiscal and monetary responsibility, respect for private property, autonomy of the Central Bank and other civilizing parameters, especially with respect to democracy and the right to criticism .

“The right needs to have space to speak and show what it considers wrong, without suffering censorship and persecution”, he concluded.