The political arena in a Tourism Brazilian public policy thought a CDA methodology

Abstract

This paper investigates how the discourses of the involved actors – State, productive sector, and civil society – shaped the political arena during the legislative process of the Emergency Program for the Recovery of the Events Sector (PERSE, in Portuguese), ultimately solidifying in the form in which the law was approved. By analyzing the context of post-pandemic economic recovery, the study employs the methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis (ADC, in Portuguese), emphasizing the parameters of power, ideology, and hegemony. The research reveals that PERSE was conceived and structured with a predominant pro-productive sector discourse, favoring large corporations while marginalizing workers. Additionally, it highlights the co-optation of civil society entities into the discourse of the tourism trade and, in some cases, their inertia. This configuration reflects the power dynamics between the State and the productive sector, reinforcing an economic logic to the detriment of a broad and inclusive approach to tourism as a whole. The paper concludes that PERSE, in its current form, exhibits structural limitations, perpetuating the tendency of aligning the State and its public policies with the interests of capital, as discussed by Fernandes (1976).