Conclusion: A Half-Century of Change

This concluding chapter summarizes some of the insights that have emerged from the study of a half-century of change presented along the chapters of the book Paths of Inequality in Brazil – A Half-Century of Changes. It shows that Brazil’s democracy gave way to reductions in inequality in a number of significant dimensions. However, despite such dramatic changes, inequality has remained resilient in a number of relevant dimensions during the first decade of the twenty-first century. This chapter also addresses some theoretical controversies of the comparative literature on inequality. It discusses whether high inequality can lead to democracy and redistribution and whether wealth concentration is compatible with income redistribution. It demonstrates that well-being consists of more than just the income dimension, favoring then for the study of the multidimensionality of inequality in order to better understand the mechanisms through which accumulation of advantages/disadvantages remains. It finally argues that inequality reduction is the result of a combination of factors, which means that any monocausal theory of the phenomena cannot capture its encompassing dynamics.