Brazil

Abstract

In terms of the categories used to classify the world’s political systems, Brazil usually occupies a middle position. Economically, for example, Brazil is often classified as a newly industrializing country, between the wealthier, increasingly postindustrial countries and the poorer agrarian economies. Politically, Brazil is a new liberal democracy, having returned to civilian rule in 1985 after a period of military rule. As such it shares some characteristics with the established liberal democracies, but also with less liberal regions. The key to understanding Brazil, however, is to realize that it reaches these middle positions by embodying opposite extremes simultaneously, and not by actually occupying a single, average position. Brazilians themselves sometimes call their country “Belgia,” half Belgium and half India, in one country. Thus, Brazil’s per capita income, which places it between the richest and poorest countries of the world, hides the fact that many Brazilians are among the world’s poorest while a few are among the richest. The newly industrializing economy is actually a dual economy, which has extensive industrial enterprises — and the largest remaining tropical forests in the world. The new liberal democracy carries substantial authoritarian legacies from the previous regime, which itself had liberal elements.

Early stages of the research for this chapter in 1989–1991 were funded by the Institute for the Study of World Politics, the Midwest Universities’ Consortium on International Affairs, and a MacArthur Pre-Dissertation Grant. Research in 1996 was supported by the Professional Development Fund of the College of Liberal Arts, Colorado State University. I would like to thank Helge Jörgens for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Any remaining errors of fact and interpretation are, of course, my own.