This volume, the product of a research project at the University of Texas, successfully brings together scholars who focus on important policy questions in the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Brazil. The problem of redemocratization in the present period of transition is examined through 11 substantive chapters organized around four themes: institutional and historical setting; economic policy and development; social policy and social issues; and the role of political parties and the labor movement.
The editors affirm in their brief introduction and conclusion that, despite a proliferation of actors in Brazilian socioeconomic development and a political process responsive to new social forces and their demands, “the redemocratization process has not yet produced a change in the political order of the country” (p. 286). This proposition is reinforced in the first section of overview essays. Richard Graham provides a historical synthesis of coronelismo, populismo, and autoritarismo patterns of rule during the twentieth century and argues that political practices in Brazil systematically deny workers a share in political power. Enrique Lewandowski explores the implications of local and state government during the period of the New Republic; he believes that periods of democratization tend to accompany the strengthening of federative institutions and regional leaderships.
A second section delves into economic policy through Werner Baer’s adept survey of macroeconomic changes from 1974 to 1987; a helpful summary by Benedict Clements and Scott McClain of export promotion policy and the shift from export subsidies to currency devaluation as the means for implementing this; and an analysis of the complex and incoherent policies directed toward exploitation of the Amazon, which, Neil Schlecht argues, have disrupted the environment and dislocated human populations.
Social policy and social issues are analyzed in a third section. Vilmar Faria and Maria Helena Guimarães Castro show how the failure to confront social inequalities consolidated the opposition to the military regime, but furthermore how, during the present democratic period, prospects for change in social policy are unlikely as long as conservative elements control the transition process. Angela Atwood traces how health care during military dominance shifted from a collective-preventive to an individual-curative system, which resulted in the organization of health care to meet the needs of higher-income groups. Lea Ramsdell demonstrates a similar finding in a look at housing policy oriented to eradicating squatter settlements and urbanizing them into the larger urban system. Anne Hall looks at populist and technocratic approaches to urban policymaking and surmises that “Brazil has been characterized by inadequate high-level political commitment to modify the goals of national development according to considerations of urban development” (p. 201).
In the final section, David Fleischer provides a full treatment of Congress and the new political party system, including a mass of data and trends that underscore the continuing dominance of politicians and their resistance to policy changes and progressive changes. Peter Swavely shows how an independent and militant labor movement serves as a major force in challenging paternalistic social relations and building democratization.
While these essays individually do not break much new ground, they succeed in synthesizing trends and developments over the past two decades, and they draw the reader into interesting surveys on important policy issues. Collectively these essays fill a gap in the literature on Brazilian policymaking and the implications for political, economic, and social questions.
