Heterodox Shock in Brazil:Técnicos, Politicians, and Democracy

Abstract

The recent experiences of transition to democracy in Latin America have taken place in circumstances which suggest a need to rethink the political and social dimensions of inflation. The experience of the 1980s reveals that the once familiar road which led from an inflationary spiral and a rising foreign debt to the collapse of democracy can also be travelled by other types of regime. The crisis of the bureaucratic-authoritarian regimes, Chile apart, reflected an inability to deal with those same focal points of political and economic uncertainty. The sequence which runs from high (or hyper) inflation to political regime change may be neutral, in the sense that it is indifferent to whether the regimes affected are democratic or authoritarian.

Markets, Politics, and Learning: Explaining Monetary Policy Innovations in Brazil

“…3 For an excellent overview of Brazil's exchange rate and monetary policy since the end of the Second World War, see Coes (2009). 4 See, for example, Sola (1991) and Smith (1989). 5 On the Real Plan and its economic consequences, see Amann and Baer (2003); Cardoso (2000).…”

Macroeconomic Concerns and Intrastate Bargains: Explaining Illiberal Policies in Brazil's Automobile Sector

“…A second explanation for the variance in Brazilian policymakers' preferences focuses on career paths and background. Building on the literature on policymaking in Mexico in the late 1970s and 1980s, a number of scholars have emphasized the divergent policy preferences among traditional politicians, tgcnicos, and increasingly central politicotkcnicos (Sola 1991;Schneider 1991;Loureiro 1997;Power 2001;Grindle 1977;Camp 1985;Centeno and Maxfield 1992). 'WhiIe the politicans are expected to support policies that provide them with electoral support, the other two groups give greater weight to technical considerations.…”

Neopopulism and its limits in Collor's Brazil

“…Furthermore, attempts at economic adjustment during the last years of military government were denounced by the opposition as anti-popular as they entailed heavy economic costs in the form of job losses and a decline in real wages. Thus, with the return to democracy, the economic policies of the new democratic government were politically conditioned by demands for economic redistribution and for retaking economic development with measures to address the country's &social debt' (Sola, 1991, p. 169, Bresser Pereira, 1991 immersed in the political game, thus losing his status as political outsider. Eventually Collor fell between two stools.…”