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The Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Brazil: Decision Making and Influence From 1964 to 1992

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Steven M. Helfand
Steven M. Helfand*
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Abstract

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Based on primary research and fifty interviews, this article analyzes the history, institutions, and politics of agricultural policy formulation in Brazil from 1964 to 1992. It focuses on how trade, credit, and support-price policy evolved in response to economic crisis and democratization in the 1980s. Although the economic crisis caused policy to be redesigned, the change in political regime and in the institutions of interest-group representation significantly influenced the direction of policy reform. The return to a democratic regime permitted the Congress and the Brazilian judiciary to play more significant roles in shaping agricultural policy. Simultaneously, democratization led to the questioning of corporatist institutions and the emergence of more participatory organizations in the agricultural sector. These changes have caused policy making to become increasingly subject to explicit rules, which should lead to more predictable policies and a long-term reduction in discrimination against Brazilian agriculture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , 1999 , pp. 3 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Ignez and Mauro Lopes for invaluable assistance in conducting the research for this article and for countless conversations that have helped me to understand agricultural policy in Brazil. I would also like to thank Alain De Janvry, Albert Fishlow, Keith Griffin, Peter Houtzager, and three anonymous LARR referees for valuable comments on an earlier draft.

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