The New Developmentalism and the Challenges to Long-Term Stability in Brazil

Abstract

A new developmentalism is said to have taken hold in Brazil over the past decade. Incorporating multiple policy strategies, it has three main pillars: promoting inclusive growth in the home economy, engaging the international economy to underpin national development and to sustain long-term growth, and pursuing internal and external objectives through the collaboration of a strong state and a strong market. In spite of several major accomplishments, this approach has disproportionately used industrial policy tools to privilege firms in traditional sectors and foster increased reliance on commodities, tendencies that have been enabled by bureaucratic incoherence and weak oversight of public financing. This makes it unlikely that deep productive transformation, a key developmentalist objective as defined by the East Asian experience, will materialize. Dizem que nesta última década, um novo desenvolvimentalismo tomou posse no Brasil. Incorpora muitas estratégias, as quais tem três suportes principais: a promoção dum crescimento globalmente compreensivo no mercado nacional, o aumento das relações com a economia internacional para apoiar o desenvolvimento interno e sustentar o crescimento a longo prazo, e a alcance de objetivos pela colaboração entre um Estado e um mercado fortes. A pesar de várias realizações importantes, este política há empregado, desproporcionalmente, instrumentos de política industrial no sentido de favorecer as empresas dos setores tradicionais e aumentar dependência nas materias primas: uma tendência possibilidada pela incoerência nos procedimentos burocráticos e pela fiscalização fraca dos gastos públicos. Por isso é pouco provável que se realizar qualquer transformação da produção, a que deve ser um objetivo chave desenvolvimentista segundo as padrões da experiências recentes da Ásia oriental.

Neo-Developmentalism and Regional Integration: IIRSA Impact in the Environmental Agenda in the Amazon

“…The politicians conceived the Brazilian economy from 2003 to 2016 as potentially underutilized due to unrealized productivity gains that could be captured through infrastructure development and economic growth. This approach turned areas as Amazon in economies of scale; consequently, opening the region via state support to higher private-sector investment (shifting workers of lower productivity), and expanding the participation in foreign markets as a government goal [7,17,18].…”

Foreign policy of the New Left: explaining Brazil's Southern partnerships

“…These policies have played a significant role in developing Brazil's internal markets, and have had major social ramifications, notably increases in the minimum wage, which have significantly reduced Brazil's extreme levels of inequality (Carrillo 2014;Costa, Fritz and Sproll 2015). However, certain problems inherent in the developmentalist agenda, including an overdependence on commodity exports, became harder to ignore after 2011, when economic growth began to slow (Costa, Fritz and Sproll 2015;La Botz 2015).…”

“…For instance, the promotion of outward investment has involved a far more interventionist approach under PT administrations, especially in instances where the Brazilian state has attempted to secure gains in manufacturing (Calvert and Pickup: forthcoming (Amato 2015). However, gains in trade were largely a product of high global commodity prices, and the overall balance of trade will be significantly affected when these prices fall (Costa, Fritz and Sproll 2015;Carrillo 2014). Far too much reliance has been placed on the commodity boom: while in 2006 Brazil had a trade surplus, with two thirds comprising intermediate or final consumer goods, by 2013 there was a trade deficit in manufactured and semi-manufactured goods of US$60 billion, and exports were based largely on commodities (Costa, Fritz and Sproll 2015: 21).…”

“…If, as he maintains, the new developmentalist agendas lack mechanisms for accountability and oversight (Carrillo 2014), the PT government's exclusion of Brazilian civil society, and its failure to include foreign civil society organisations in its activities abroad, further aggravate these tendencies. Zibechi (2012) describes various instances of regional resistance to a Brazilian presence, among them incidents in Paraguay where citizens fighting for land reform have confronted Brazilian companies.…”

An Emerging, Post-Neoliberal Power: The Practice of Brazilian South-South Cooperation in Haiti

“…In general, both the Lula and Dilma administrations took "neo-developmentalist measures" to ensure gains for both large-scale, domestic capital and for workers (Boito and Berringer, 2014). For some, these policies were significant in the growth of Brazil's internal market and have resulted in clear gains for workers, especially through increases to the minimum wage, which had the most impact on Brazil's devastating problem of inequality (Carrillo, 2014;Costa, Fritz & Sproll, 2015). However, certain problems apparently inherent to the developmentalist agenda, including an over-dependency on commodity exports, became harder to ignore before the impeachment, since growth began to slow in 2011 (Costa, Fritz & Sproll, 2015;La Botz, 2015).…”