This book upends the so-called post-neoliberal reading of the new wave of social and economic development in Brazil at the turn of the twentieth-first century. It uncovers what I term 'the Brazilian Paradox' that is, the recent ongoing shift towards a mass consumption society coterminous with the resilience of underdevelopment. I argue that the persistence of economic and social inequalities and of low levels of productivity shows that the long-hoped-for synergy between social and economic policy in Brazil was ruptured, thereby failing to engender a virtuous cycle of inclusive growth capable...