Brazil, the Entrepreneurial and Democratic BRIC
Date
2010
Authors
Burges, Sean
Armijo, Leslie E.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd
Abstract
By most objective metrics, Brazil is the least imposing of the BRICs countriesless populous than China and India, slower-growing in recent years than China, India, or Russia, and the only member of the group lacking nuclear weapons. We argue that Brazil's material capabilities are more significant than commonly supposed. Moreover, Brazil's democratic transition in the mid-1980s, along with that of its neighbors, has for the first time enabled Brazil to realize its promise of becoming a regional leader in South America. On the basis of its democratic and regional prominence, Brazil has become an effective political entrepreneur at the global level, initiating and participating in multilateral fora as diverse as the trade G20, the financial G20, and now the BRICs club. On issues of style, inclusion, and distributive justice, Brazil reliably sides with the South. Yet its core public policy instincts embrace familiar Northern preferences: liberal, and mixed-capitalist, democracy.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: Brazil; BRICs; Democracy; Emerging powers; Global governance; Power transition
Citation
Collections
Source
Polity
Type
Journal article