Dilma and her party are politically dead. She has single digit approvals nationwide, even in the poorest areas. That is why she has no Congressional support, because every lawmaker is distancing himself/herself from her, as she is now considered toxic. So, no, the surveys are not biased.
As an outside educational observer,I would think that social mobility, a key element in scial inclusion in Brazil, began to move some what more quickly in the last 25 to 30 years and was given a just and internationally acclaimed legal boost by Dilma's Affirmative Action Law for Universities in 2012.
That impression is an incorrect perception of the country. Brazil went through several spikes in social mobility since world war II. My family, in particular, which was of very humble origins (my grandmother was a semi-illiterate seamstress in the poor north) was catapulted into the middle class during the "economic miracle" of the 1970s. So did millions of other families.
Brazil's fight against poverty is a long one, and has been and continues to be won in incremental steps. It the result of decades of well intention but ill conceived attempts, half-hearted policies, local community actions, broad economic growth, etc....Illiteracy, child mortality, malnutrition, life expectancy, access to healthcare, those are all indicators that have consistently been improving for over 50 years and are NOT the results of some policy implemented 8 years ago. Past governments from the left and the right, and even the evil military dictatorship and yes, Dilma's too, all played a hand on those improvements. Some more than others, but they all played a part on that.
This idea that one and only one government came and "helped the poor" is BS, wishful thinking, South American clientelism or a combination of all of these.
