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Dilma Rousseff
Retired figureBrazilBorn 1947

Dilma Rousseff

President of Brazil (2011-2016) · President of the New Development Bank (2023-present)

An economist who fought the military regime and was tortured, she became Brazil's first woman president, was impeached in 2016 and later headed the BRICS bank.

Compare yourself See the 12 scores
Profile on 12 axes8 of 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stand

Dilma Rousseff, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership-35
    PublicPrivate
  2. 02Markets-45
    PlannedFree

    The 'new economic matrix' of her first term meant subsidised loans, tax relief for favoured industries and ordered cuts in power prices. Her second term began with austerity, but the first term drives the score.

  3. 03Welfare-60
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04Authority-50
    DemocraticStrong leader
  5. 05Security-15
    LibertyOrder

    On the liberty side are the Truth Commission and the Internet Civil Framework on online rights. On the other side is a 2016 anti-terrorism law that civil liberties groups criticized.

  6. 06StructureNo clear record
    LocalCentral
  7. 07MoralityNo clear record
    ProgressiveTraditional

    As president she stayed away from abortion and other moral questions, so there is no firm basis for a score.

  8. 08ReligionNo clear record
    SecularReligious
  9. 09TechnologyNo clear record
    EmbraceCaution
  10. 10Culture-30
    MulticulturalNational identity

    The score rests on university quotas by race and income, and on Mais Médicos, which recruited thousands of doctors from abroad, mostly Cubans.

  11. 11Trade+40
    GlobalProtected

    Her government raised local-content rules and taxes on imported cars, though it also negotiated inside Mercosur.

  12. 12Foreign policy-40
    CooperationStrength

4 axes have no clear record, so matching leaves them out.

Who is Dilma Rousseff?

Dilma Rousseff comes from Belo Horizonte, where she was born in 1947 to a Bulgarian-born father. In her youth she took up arms with underground groups fighting Brazil's military rulers. Police seized her in São Paulo in 1970. She was tortured and stayed in prison until the end of 1972. Later she worked as an economist and energy official in the south, joined the Workers' Party in 2001 and served under Lula as energy minister and chief of staff. Voters made her president in 2010 and 2014. The Senate removed her in August 2016 over budget breaches. Today she heads the BRICS-backed New Development Bank, and holds no elected post in Brazil.

Political views

  • In 2011 she founded the National Truth Commission, whose job was to investigate rights abuses from 1946 to 1988.Source: planalto.gov.br
  • A 2012 law she signed gave half of all federal university seats to students from public schools, including set quotas for Black, mixed-race and Indigenous applicants.Source: planalto.gov.br
  • Started Mais Médicos in 2013, which sent Brazilian and foreign doctors to areas with too few of them.Source: planalto.gov.br
  • In 2014 she signed the Internet Civil Framework, a law on net neutrality, privacy and online free speech.Source: planalto.gov.br
  • Under a provisional measure of 2012, power firms could renew licences only if they lowered their rates. It was a government-driven effort to bring down energy bills.Source: planalto.gov.br
  • Her removal in 2016 followed a ruling by the Federal Accounts Court. It said her government had used accounting maneuvers called 'pedaladas fiscais' and spent through decrees Congress had not approved.Source: www18.fgv.br

Legacy

Her supporters see a woman who stood up to the dictatorship. They credit her governments with bigger social programs, quotas at universities, wider health care and a probe of past state crimes. They call the impeachment a parliamentary coup, because the charges were about budget rules, not personal enrichment, and she was allowed to keep her political rights. Critics blame her interventionist economics, including controls on fuel and power prices and cheap loans, for the deep recession of 2014-2016. They also hold her to account for the Petrobras bribery scheme, which went on while she chaired the company and later ran the country. On 31 August 2016 senators voted 61 to 20 to remove her.

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Dilma Rousseff: questions

Was Dilma Rousseff a socialist?

Her party, the Workers' Party, is on the left, and she favoured a large state role in the economy. As a young woman she joined armed resistance to the military regime.

Why was Dilma Rousseff impeached?

Senators removed her in August 2016 for breaking budget rules. Her supporters call that a coup, while her critics say she broke the law.

What is Dilma Rousseff doing now?

She leads the New Development Bank, a lender founded by the BRICS countries. Her second five-year term there began after her election in March 2025. She holds no elected office in Brazil.

Sources

Portrait: 04-06-2024 Reunião com a Presidente do Novo Banco de Desenvolvimento Dilma Rousseff (53769684843) (cropped).jpg by Vice-Presidência da República, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and converted to grayscale by 12axes-test.com.