The ambiguous stance of Brazil as a regional power: piloting a course between commodity-based surpluses and national development

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article argues that economic growth relying on commodity-based exports – combined with domestic market expansion for consumption, an overvalued exchange rate and high interest rates – constrained national development as much as it did Brazil’s status as a regional power, particularly in the 2000s. The Brazilian ‘neo-developmentalist model’ – pursuing export surplus in the balance of trade and foreign investment – was based excessively on government incentives for the export of natural resources. With regard to agrarian issues, Brazil again played an uncertain role as a regional power during the governments of both Lula (2003–2010) and Rousseff (2011–2016), despite important differences between the two administrations. On the one hand, the country encouraged the transfer of family farming policies to other Latin American countries. On the other hand, the government’s ‘national champions policies’ were also paramount in forging the expansion of agribusinesses and other multinationals across the continent. The very nature of this ambiguity rests on the contradictions between the narrative of a national development project and the reality of deindustrialization and commodity-based economic surplus. By drawing on aggregate data and secondary sources, this article explores the limits and contradictions of the Brazilian development path in becoming a more influential regional power in the 2000s.