Decadent Developmentalism The PoliticalEconomy of Democratic Brazil : The Political Economy of Democratic Brazil

Brazil features regularly in global comparisons of large developing economies. Yet since the 1980s, the country has been caught in a low-level equilibrium, marked by lackluster growth and destructive inequality. One cause is the country's enduring commitment to a set of ideas and institutions labelled developmentalism. This book argues that developmentalism has endured, despite hyperactive reform, because institutional complementarities across economic and political spheres sustain and drive key actors and strategies that are individually advantageous, but collectively suboptimal. Although there has been incremental evolution in some institutions, complementarities across institutions sustain a pattern of 'decadent developmentalism' that swamps systemic change. Breaking new ground, Taylor shows how macroeconomic and microeconomic institutions are tightly interwoven with patterns of executive-legislative relations, bureaucratic autonomy, and oversight. His analysis of institutional complementarities across these five dimensions is relevant not only to Brazil but also to the broader study of comparative political economy. "Chapter 1 Introduction Brazil has been caught in a low-level economic equilibrium for much of the generation since the return to democracy in 1985. Over three and a half decades, Brazilian per capita income has grown more slowly than citizens' incomes in both wealthier developed nations as well as developing economies. The chaos of the late 2010s - including the worst recession in a century, massive corruption scandals, street demonstrations, and a presidential impeachment drama - underscored demands for change but led to few shifts in the incentives that drive actors toward this suboptimal equilibrium. The potential opportunity offered by these intertwined economic, legal, and political crises also proved insufficient, as of this writing, to significantly remake resilient political and economic structures. There is considerable agreement about the sources of Brazil's low-level equilibrium. But why does this consensus not translate into action? A long tradition of developmentalism, dating back seven decades, continues to exert enormous influence on the economy, wielded through dominant ideas about policy, reinforced by the institutions of policy implementation, and sustained by the interests that benefit from these institutional frameworks"-- Provided by publisher This book describes the institutional context that has thwarted the emergence of either a capable developmental or a neoliberal alternative in Brazil since the return to democracy in 1985. The work is a key source for scholars and students of comparative political economy, political science, economics, sociology, and development studies. Complementarities Between Political And Economic Institutions Have Kept Brazil In A Low-level Economic Equilibrium Since 1985.