NEOLIBERALISM AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HEGEMONY DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the process of insertion and consolidation of neoliberalism in different historical contexts, with emphasis on its political, economic, and educational implications, particularly in Brazil during the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. To this end, a qualitative approach is adopted, based on bibliographic and documentary research, grounded in the analysis of critical authors of neoliberalism, such as David Harvey, as well as the use of institutional data and official documents, such as the National Privatization Program (PND) and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education (1996). The analysis shows that neoliberalism, far from being restricted to the economic sphere, has constituted a comprehensive political rationality, reshaping the role of the State and expanding the centrality of the market in social organization. International experiences, such as Chile under Augusto Pinochet and the United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher, demonstrate the implementation of these guidelines, later incorporated into the Brazilian context. In Brazil, there was a consolidation of policies of privatization, deregulation, and fiscal adjustment, accompanied by significant transformations in the educational field. It is concluded that such reforms promoted the expansion of the private sector in higher education and the progressive commodification of education, restricting its character as a social right and subordinating it to the dynamics of capital, with direct impacts on the widening of social inequalities.