Crafting Coalitions for Reform

Crafting Coalitions for Reform PDF Author: Peter R. Kingstone
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271043777
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
The success of political efforts to create a more open economy in Brazil over the past decade has depended crucially on support from the industrial sector, which long enjoyed the benefits of protection by the state from economic competition. Why businesses previously so sheltered would back neoliberal reform, and why opposition arose at times from sectors least threatened by free trade, are the puzzles this book seeks to answer. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with industrialists and business association representatives, as well as a wide range of other sources, Peter Kingstone argues that the key to understanding the behavior of industrialists lies in the impact of four factors on their preferences for reform: the effect of economic crisis on industrialists' perception of the viability of the earlier development model; the sectoral location of their firms in the economy and the advantages historically accruing therefrom; the adjustment options available to them given their position in the market; and the credibility of the government's promises about reform and its tactical choices for getting them implemented through the political system. The mix of these four factors, Kingstone shows, left business preferences relatively malleable and thus available for support of reform, even in the face of potentially high costs. Whether such support was forthcoming depended on industrialists' perceptions of the ability of government leaders to deliver on their promises. Widespread resistance to reform occurred when leaders lost their credibility. Under Fernando Collor's leadership, that credibility was never recovered; under Fernando Henrique Cardoso's, it was recovered through increasing concessions to industrialists on the character of the reform program.

Property Threats and the Politics of Anti-Statism

Property Threats and the Politics of Anti-Statism PDF Author: Gabriel Ondetti
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108830854
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Contemporary tax burden differences in Latin America are a function of historical threats to private property.

Democratizing or Reconfiguring Predatory Autocracy? Myths and Realities in Africa Today

Democratizing or Reconfiguring Predatory Autocracy? Myths and Realities in Africa Today PDF Author: Tatah Mentan
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956558575
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
The celebrations that heralded democratic change in the 1990s in Africa have gradually faded into muffled cries of anger and attendant violence of despair. Almost everywhere on the continent so-called democratic leaders are openly subverting the people's will and disregarding national constitutions. Ordinary people find themselves removed from the centres of power, marginalized and reduced to helpless and hopeless onlookers as political leaders, their friends and families noisily enjoy the spoils of impunity. From Nigeria to Zimbabwe, Kenya to the Ivory Coast and Uganda to Cameroon, the writing is on the wall. The experiment with democracy has blatantly taken a dangerous nosedive. There is a crisis of honest, committed and democratic leadership, in spite of the advancements in education and intellectualism of the populace, and despite the influences of globalization and new understandings of governance. In this brief volume, Tatah Mentan makes an incisive diagnosis of how the "security forces" brutally crush protests against bids to stay in power through corrupt electoral practices as well as how opposition voices have been hunted down and crushed or intimidated into graveyard silence. This is a clarion call for Africans to embrace the values of People Power in synch with the dictates of the current global imperatives. There is no place for visionless leadership. Africans need to raise their voices to recapture their freedom.

Democracies in Peril

Democracies in Peril PDF Author: Ida Bastiaens
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108628079
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Globalization is triggering a 'revenue shock' in developing economies. International trade taxes - once the primary source of government revenue - have been cut drastically in response to trade liberalization. Bastiaens and Rudra make the novel argument that regime type is a major determinant of revenue-raising capacity once free trade policies have been adopted. Specifically, policymakers in democracies confront greater challenges than their authoritarian counterparts when implementing tax reforms to offset liberalization's revenue shocks. The repercussions are significant: while the poor bear the brunt of this revenue shortfall in democracies, authoritarian regimes are better-off overall. Paradoxically, then, citizens of democracies suffer precisely because their freer political culture constrains governmental ability to tax and redistribute under globalization. This important contribution on the battle between open societies and the ability of governments to help their people prosper under globalization is essential reading for students and scholars of political economy, development studies and comparative politics.

Brazil Today [2 volumes]

Brazil Today [2 volumes] PDF Author: John J. Crocitti
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313346739
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
For students, business people, government officials, artists, and tourists—in short, anyone traveling to or wishing to know more about contemporary Brazil—this is an essential resource. The two-volume Brazil Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic is an introductory work intended for those in search of basic information about Brazilian institutions, businesses, social issues, and culture. At the same time, it is a work that reflects the nation's geographic, demographic, economic, and cultural diversity. The wide-reaching encyclopedia offers an entry for each Brazilian state with information about the land, climate, economy, and culture. It also offers extensive coverage of the country's political parties and leaders, its governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the environmental issues and social problems that shape Brazilian politics today. In addition, the work pays considerable attention to the economy and business through entries on industry, agriculture, commerce, banking, and economic policies. Finally, there are entries that illuminate various aspects of Brazil's culture, including the nation's social movements, religion, education, music, cuisine, and literature, as well as personalities from sports and entertainment.

The Oxford Handbook of the Brazilian Economy

The Oxford Handbook of the Brazilian Economy PDF Author: Edmund Amann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190600004
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 849

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Book Description
Brazil is a globally vital but troubled economy. This volume offers comprehensive insight into Brazil's economic development, focusing on its most salient characteristics and analyzing its structural features across various dimensions. This innovative Oxford Handbook provides an understanding of the economy's evolution over time and highlights the implications of the past trajectory and decisions for current challenges and opportunities. The opening section covers the country's economic history, beginning with the colonial economy, through import-substitution, to the era of neoliberalism. Second, it analyses Brazil's broader place in the global economy, and considers the ways in which this role has changed, and is likely to change, over coming years. Particular attention is given to the productive sectors of Brazil's economy, for example manufacturing, agriculture, services, energy, and infrastructure. In addition to discussions of regional differences within Brazil, socio-economic dimensions are examined. These include income distribution, human capital, environmental issues, and health. Also included is a discussion of Brazil in the world economy, such as the increase in "South-South" cooperation and trade as well as foreign direct investment. Last but not least is a discussion of the role of the Brazilian state in the economy, whether through state enterprises, competition policy, or corruption.

Reforming Brazil

Reforming Brazil PDF Author: Mauricio Augusto Font
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739105870
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This groundbreaking work is the first volume in English to examine Brazil's historic policy reforms of the 1990s and the political, economic, and social results. For years the large and ineffective government of Brazil could neither improve the country's greatly uneven distribution of wealth nor maintain inflation at reasonable levels. In the 1990s, long overdue changes bettered the government's fiscal performance, tamed inflation, and addressed chronic social ills stemming from the imbalance of wealth. But many problems, and many questions, remain. Why is Brazil still so poor, and why is inequality so intransigent? Were some of the reforms counterproductive, or could they have been implemented in a more effective way? Collecting essays by top Brazilianist scholars from various disciplines and intellectual traditions, Reforming Brazil provides new insights for international policy makers, economists, and scholars of Brazil.

Democratic Brazil

Democratic Brazil PDF Author: Peter R. Kingstone
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 9780822972075
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
After 21 years of military rule, Brazil returned to democracy in 1985. Over the past decade and a half, Brazilians in the Nova Repœblica (New Republic) have struggled with a range of diverse challenges that have tested the durability and quality of the young democracy. How well have they succeeded? To what extent can we say that Brazilian democracy has consolidated? What actors, institutions, and processes have emerged as most salient over the past 15 years? Although Brazil is Latin America's largest country, the world's third largest democracy, and a country with a population and GNP larger than Yeltsin's Russia, more than a decade has passed since the last collaborative effort to examine regime change in Brazil, and no work in English has yet provided a comprehensive appraisal of Brazilian democracy in the period since 1985. Democratic Brazil: Actors, Institutions, and Processes analyzes Brazilian democracy in a comprehensive, systematic fashion, covering the full period of the New Republic from Presidents Sarney to Cardoso. Democratic Brazil brings together twelve top scholars, the "next generation of Brazilianists," with wide-ranging specialties including institutional analysis, state autonomy, federalism and decentralization, economic management and business-state relations, the military, the Catholic Church and the new religious pluralism, social movements, the left, regional integration, demographic change, and human rights and the rule of law. Each chapter focuses on a crucial process or actor in the New Republic, with emphasis on its relationship to democratic consolidation. The volume also contains a comprehensive bibliography on Brazilian politics and society since 1985. Prominent Brazilian historian Thomas Skidmore has contributed a foreword to the volume. Democratic Brazil speaks to a wide audience, including Brazilianists, Latin Americanists generally, students of comparative democratization, as well as specialists within the various thematic subfields represented by the contributors. Written in a clear, accessible style, the book is ideally suited for use in upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate seminars on Latin American politics and development.

The Information Revolution and Developing Countries

The Information Revolution and Developing Countries PDF Author: Ernest J. Wilson (III.)
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262232302
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
An analysis of the problems and possibilities of the information revolution in developing countries, taking into account political, institutional, and cultural dynamics and structures.

Brazil

Brazil PDF Author: Alfred P. Montero
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745681107
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Once deemed a “dysfunctional” democracy with a “feckless” set of political institutions and a “drunk” economy, today’s Brazil has undergone a complete reversal of fortune. Now in its third decade of democracy, the economy is blossoming and large-scale development projects are underway, including the exploitation of massive, off-shore oil reserves, a nationwide effort to modernize infrastructure, and preparations for the hosting of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Inequality and poverty are reducing and even Brazil’s political institutions are more governable and are producing a higher-quality democracy than most observers once thought possible. Alfred P. Montero’s timely and wide-ranging book explores Brazil’s amazing “turnaround” - from improvements to the working of its political institutions and judiciary, to the renewal of economic growth, the advent of innovative social policy, and the emergence of a new foreign policy agenda. Unpacking both overly optimistic as well as pessimistic views of Brazilian politics and development, Montero offers illuminating insights into the country’s transformation and its increasing significance on the international stage.