The most prominent issue in Brazilian politics in 2010 was the Presidential election. The sucess of the PT-led coalition should be understood in the context of a positive evaluation of the outgoing administration, and of optimism with respect to the future. The analysis of the first year of Dilma Rousseff’s government shows that it has been characterized more by continuity than by innovation, both in terms of the actors that participate in it as well as in terms of the contents of public policies. This article argues that this continuity has resulted not only from a clear Presidential strategy, but also from a complex economic and political
scenario, which has made it harder to implement big changes in 2011