Le Parti des Travailleurs brésilien constitue une expérience marquante de construction d’un parti de gauche et de masse. Quand il nait en 1980, beaucoup se posent la question de sa nature. En 2002, quand Lula devient président du Brésil, cette question ne mérite sans doute plus la même réponse. Le PT s’est bureaucratisé, institutionnalisé et professionnalisé. Il a connu une sorte de social-démocratisation accélérée. L’étude part des spécificités du mouvement ouvrier, du syndicalisme et de la dictature (1964-1985) au Brésil. Le PT nait en 1979-80, de grandes luttes sociales, autour des syndicalistes « authentiques » (dont Lula) ; de la gauche catholique ; de militants d’extrême gauche; de l’intelligentsia de gauche ; des élus « progressistes ». Dès ses débuts, le parti s’implante dans la classe ouvrière industrielle, le secteur tertiaire (banques en particulier), les quartiers populaires, et une partie des campagnes. Le PT des années 1980 est militant, dans l’opposition sociale et politique. Après l’élection présidentielle de 1989, ratée de peu par Lula, le PT change : l’opposition parlementaire remplace la rupture; des dirigeants professionnels laissent moins de place à la base militante ; l’antilibéralisme se substitue à l’anticapitalisme; les alliances s’étendent toujours plus au centre. Jusqu’à 2001, le PT reste opposé aux politiques néolibérales. Mais le grand tournant aura lieu avec la campagne présidentielle de 2002. Le programme du parti connait une « dé-radicalisation » progressive, étudiée à travers cinq aspects significatifs du socialisme pétiste. L’étude des contenus et des styles de 4 campagnes présidentielles, de 1989 à 2002, complète ces conclusions. / The Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) is an outstanding experience of a left-wing mass party. When it was born in 1980, many people wondered about its nature. In 2002, when Lula became the President of Brazil, this question did not deserve the same answer. The PT became bureaucratic, institutional and professional, experiencing a sort of accelerated Social-Democratization. As its starting point, this study takes the specificities of labour movement, trade unionism and the dictatorship (1964-1985) in Brazil. The PT originated in 1979-80 from mass social struggles around “authentic” trade unionists (such as Lula), left-wing Catholics, far-left activists, the left-wing intelligentsia and some “progressive” elected representatives. From the outset, the party established itself among the industrial working class, the tertiary sector (particularly the banking sector); in working-class neighbourhoods and some rural areas. The PT in the 1980s was militant, in the social and political opposition. After the 1989 presidential election narrowly missed by Lula, the PT changed: parliamentary opposition replaced the project of a clear social and political break; professional politicians left less room to the rank and file; opposing neo-liberalism took the place of anti-capitalism; its alliances increasingly broadened towards the centre. Until 2001, the PT opposed neoliberal policies. Yet the major turning point was to come with the 2002 presidential campaign. The party programme went through a gradual de-radicalization studied through 5 significant aspects of the Petista socialism. The study of contents and styles of 4 presidential campaigns from 1989 to 2002 completes these conclusions

O objetivo da tese é o de compreender a reestruturação da política de assistência social durante o governo de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003 - 2010). A hipótese que orientou a pesquisa foi a de que essa reestruturação e seus principais redirecionamentos resultaram diretamente das posições e conquistas alcançadas por agentes políticos específicos, os assistentes sociais. Dentre esse conjunto de profissionais destacou-se a liderança de um grupo de professores e pesquisadores de cursos de Serviço Social de universidades públicas e confessionais, em sua maioria formada por militantes do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), que soube aproveitar uma janela de oportunidade aberta no primeiro ano do governo Lula, para gerar as alternativas político-administrativas necessárias a fim de que a política de assistência social fosse implantada segundo os princípios e visões que vinham defendendo desde a década de 1980. Ao longo do governo de Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995 - 2002), esses agentes formaram uma visão alternativa a respeito da política de assistência social, em que o Estado deveria assumir o protagonismo nas ações socioassistenciais, uma vez que o direito social à assistência é um dos pilares do sistema de seguridade social criado com a Constituição Federal de 1988. A assistência é definida por eles como proteção social, isto é, como política que previne e dá cobertura contra determinados riscos sociais. No caso da assistência, isso implicou a construção das seguranças: de acolhida; de renda; do convívio ou vivência familiar, comunitária e social; do desenvolvimento da autonomia individual, familiar e social; da sobrevivência a riscos circunstanciais. Essa concepção, desenvolvida especialmente por um grupo de pesquisadores da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) sob a liderança de Aldaíza Sposati, sedimentou-se como uma das bases da Política Nacional de Assistência Social (PNAS/2004) e do Sistema Único de Assistência Social (SUAS/2005), construídos ao longo do governo Lula como forma de materializar o direito social à assistência e de organizar um sistema descentralizado de gestão dessa política, coordenando as ações de municípios, estado, Distrito Federal e União. O processo de reordenamento institucional dessa política revela a estratégia bem sucedida de um grupo de assistentes sociais com dupla ou tripla inserção: como professores universitários, como gestores dessa política no nível municipal/estadual e ou como militantes do PT, essa comunidade de especialistas acumulou capital simbólico suficiente no campo científico e no campo político para ocupar posições decisivas nos primeiros anos do governo Lula, o que lhe permitiu reordenar a política de assistência social e garantir-lhe um estatuto político inédito. / The aim of this thesis is to understand the restructuring of social assistance policy during the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). The hypothesis that guided the research was that this rebuilding and its principles redirections resulted directly from the positions and conquests achieved by specific political agents that are the social assistants. Among this group of professionals it is possible to highlight the leadership of a group of teachers and researchers in Social Work courses in public and religious universities, mostly formed by militants of the Workers Party (PT), which took advantage of a window of opportunities that were opened in the first year of the Lula\'s government, to generate the political and administrative alternatives that were necessary in order to implement the social assistance policy according to the principles and visions that had been advocated since the 1980s. During the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995 - 2002), these agents formed an alternative view of the social assistance policy, in which the state should take the leading role in the actions of social assistance, since the right to social assistance is a pillar of the social security system created by the Federal Constitution of 1988. Assistance is defined by them as \"social protection\", which means, a policy that prevents and provides coverage against certain social risks. In the case of assistance, this entailed the construction of \"securities\" of fostering; income; family, community and society life; development of individual, familiar and social autonomy; survival of circumstantial risks. This conception, specially developed by a group of researchers at the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) under the leadership of Aldaíza Sposati, was set as one of the basis of the National Policy of Social Assistance (PNAS/2004) and of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS/2005), built along the Lula government as a way of materializing the right to social assistance and to organize a decentralized system of management of this policy, coordinating the actions of municipalities, state, Federal District and Union. The process of institutional reorganization of the policy reveals the successful strategy of a group of social workers with double or triple insertion: as university professors, as managers of this policy at the municipal/state and/or as members of the militancy in the Workers Party, this \"community of experts\" accumulated sufficient symbolic capital in science and in politics to occupy decisive positions in the early years of Lulas government, which allowed them to reorganize the social assistance policy and grant an unprecedented political status.