While scholars, activists and pundits from around the world have heralded the Lula years as a breakthrough for poverty reduction and the forthcoming emergence of Brazil as a dynamic economic superpower, many of their counterparts in the country as well as a number of Brazilianists elsewhere, have expressed great disappointment.

Tracing back the trajectory of Brazilian Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT), Hernan F. Gomez Bruera explores how holding national executive public office contributed decisively to a pragmatic shift away from the party's radical...