'Brazil needs to change': change as iteration and the iteration of change in Brazil？s 2002 presidential election

luiz inácio lula da silva？s triumph in brazil？s 2002 presidential election was construed in terms of a promise of radical change, and so against the holders of the status quo. this article argues that in fact a more subtle political game was a stake in the election, a contest over the meaning and limits of change itself. the article examines how the various players lula da silva, outgoing president fernando henrique cardoso and the psdb？s presidential candidate josé serra invoked and iterated a discourse of change to define and redefine the political dividing lines that marked out the electoral dispute and attempted to set or fix the distinctions between their political positions.