Democratic Transition Process in Brazil - Essay Example

?Comparative Politics Research Project The Democratization of Brazil occurred during the period between 1985 and 1988. Political power was transferred from “the authoritarian power holders”1 to the common man in 1985 with the military releasing control of the political institutions in the country. The transition that took place was largely influenced by the traditional political elite class. However, the incorporation of the participatory budget helped to improve the situation and work towards the reduction of poverty. In the new political context, the pattern of public investment witnessed a change at the urban level. In the last twenty seven years Brazil has made itself well known for its participatory institutions. The Brazilian economy has been going through a phase of boom and a big section of the population has moved above the poverty level and entered the middle class. Towards the beginning of this paper I shall discuss the economic situation in Brazil in the early years of the twentieth century when there was military regime. The process of urbanization had started to take place in the final years of the military authoritarian rule. The condition of the poorest section of the population was grave since they were suppressed and neglected. In the later part of the paper I shall elaborate on the living conditions of the poor, which has improved gradually since the democratization. But before moving into the discussion of the main issues presented in this paper, I shall briefly discuss a few terms, the understanding of which is important for the reading of this paper. This paper deals with the process of democratic transition in Brazil and addresses the question whether the incidence of reduction of poverty in Brazil is directly correlated with democratization in the country. Literature review Numerous researches have been conducted about the economic situation of Brazil and its democracy and it is evident that there is an economic link but none has specifically given conclusive evidence of the democracy link to poverty and its correlation. According to a report by the Network of Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI, 2006), Brazil is one of the Latin American countries that has fought poverty after its democratization and hence indicating a link between poverty and democratization. The same link is supported by Fukuyama, Diamond and Plattner (2012) who discuss the relationship in detail and sheds more light into there being a relationship between the two in Brazil. According to a paper by Avritzer, with the onset of democracy the poor could take part in the decision making mechanism of the country which improved the representation of their interests in the policies set. It helped them to have greater access of the public goods leading to better living conditions of the poor. Research Question The Democratization of Brazil took place between the years of 1985 and 1988. In 1988, the transition was finalized by enacting “a new democratic constitution.”2 The Constitution framed in 1988 paved the way for certain important changes in regard to civilians’ access to social services as well as creating participatory institutions. In 2012, approximately twenty eight million people could be lifted out of severe poverty and the middle class has expanded with some thirty six million people joining the middle class3. The research question is “Is the democracy in Brazil the cause of poverty reduction?” . This paper would also deal with the other question that re-states the research question, i.e, “Is there a correlation between democracy and poverty in Brazil?” Terms involved in this paper This paper talks about the democratization of Brazil and the consequent reduction of poverty in the country. By democracy we imply “a political regime with free competitive elections , without major prescriptions and with universal adult suffrage”4. In a democratic country the citizens enjoy “freedom of speech and the press, freedom of political association, and individual civil rights”5. The citizens of such a country have a sovereign government that has its own “autonomous executive, judiciary and legislative branches.”6 In this article we shall refer to the term democracy in a sense which would give room to both liberalization and democratization. Liberalization by itself means the end of repression with the fall of authoritarian regime, which re-establishes the fundamental “civil and political rights”7 of the citizens. But liberalization does not guarantee the formation of an institution through competitive elections that would allow alternation in power after specific terms of service by the party in rule. Democracy incorporates the alternation in power and the transition to democracy would involve both aspects of liberalization and democratization. We have come across the phenomenon of ‘clientelism’ in widespread practice in Brazil. In political science the definition of ‘clientelism’ can be stated as the “unequal, hierarchical, personalized and reciprocal exchange of favors between two individuals, a patron and a client”8. In the context of a democratic country this exchange takes place for votes. The modern day explanation of “political mass party ‘clientelism’” says that the organized political parties make use of the resources of the state so as to win the electoral support of the clients. ‘Clientelism’ is the selective distribution of benefits which is not justified by some recognizable ideology or any party program. Although non-clientelistic ideal-type political parties channel resources unevenly to the social classes or territorial groups, the distribution is less selective and is coherent with the well established ideology of the party. Hence ‘clientelism’ is viewed as ‘particularism’, which involves egoism and distrust, rather than universalism, which is based upon solidarity and trust. This is a controversial definition and often overlaps with the notion of corruption. However, as Ongaro views it, ‘clientelism’ is not to be equalized with corruption. Corruption is the misuse of civic power or making private gain, for the individual or the party. The difference lies in the fact that monetary exchange is an inevitable part of corruption, while ‘clientelism’ involves material inducements for political manipulation. The practice of ‘clientelism’ does not sustain itself without patronization by the public. The recipients of the benefits in most cases belong to the pockets of poverty existing in the country9. The political parties that are often headed and controlled by the elites take part in such exchanges in order to gain their electoral support. This paper discusses the context of participatory budgeting (PB) in Brazil in the period after democratization. Participatory budgeting is a process by which the interests of the civilians are presented to the government for the cause of civic improvement and discussions and negotiations are made in the budget allocation made by the municipalities. It is important to know the role and understand the importance of participation in budgeting. Participation by the civic communities increases the accountability and the performance of the party in power10. In this process three streams of meetings continue parallel throughout the year, namely, “neighborhood assemblies, “thematic” assemblies, and meetings of delegates for citywide coordinating sessions.”11 This process has been found to improve facilities of public utilities for the city dwellers of Brazil. In these meetings the government presents an investment plan for the present year. The criterion to be followed during allocation of investment budgets amongst the districts is decided through a public debate. The representatives of the communities of low income districts take decisions about resource allocation through participatory budgeting. Economic Condition in Brazil during Authoritarian Regime Before 1985 More than 70 percent of the Brazilian population lived in the rural areas in the beginning of the twentieth century12. However, the poorest section of the population hardly had any access to their rights of citizenship. They could not even articulate their demands clearly and their views were not considered potential enough to be incorporated in to the decisions of the society13. Access to public goods by the poor was limited and in some cases were almost none. Brazil’s growth rate was one of the fastest in the world during the period of military rule. The growth rate averaged at almost 9 percent per annum between 1968 and early 1980s14. There was industrial growth along with mechanization of agriculture which formed a diversified economy. Growth in Brazil during the 1970s was financed through a huge increase in external debt. It became a crushing burden on the economy that siphoned off a major portion of the national savings. Focus on production of goods was shifted “away from domestic consumption”15 towards export. The currency was devalued to make Brazilian exports more attractive in the international market. But devaluation led to rise in inflationary pressure. During the economic growth in the 1970s Brazil saw an extensive process of urbanization. The authoritarian power holders visualized that in a modern country, the bulk of the population should be residing in large cities. But the process was out of proper control. In the last year of authoritarianism before 1985, the cities of Brazil gave home to seventy one percent of the country’s population. The cities grew in a disorganized way and in many places illegal urban settlements came into existence. The modernization came into being without any structured plan. The cities became the residing place of the rich, in which the poorer section did not have any reservation. Social services did not rise at the same rate alongside rapid increase in the population of the cities. The urban poor were subjected to negligence and even had to occupy plots of land in the cities illegally. The cities lacked proper sewage system and drinking water facilities. The emerging picture was that of crowded cities with scarcity of basic necessities. The economic boom did not act as a boon in all aspects of the economy. Instead of alleviating poverty, it increased income inequalities with urban-rural inequalities on the rise at a greater degree. The pattern of income distribution, in Brazil, showed high skewness; one of the most skewed patterns in the world in 1975. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of the top 10 percent of the population. The bottom half of the population earned only 12.6 percent of the national income16. During transition – Elite control over transition In effect the transition to democracy was controlled from above by the elites of the prolonged authoritarian regime. The capacity of the elite class to control the transition played a vital role in dictating the direction as well as success of democratization in Brazil. Under effect of the control of the “transition from above”17 significant features of the authoritarian regime remained alive during the democratization. Although during the two years of 1985 an 1986 Brazil’s economy grew very fast, the march towards a full democracy entailed its own problems. The country had seen the passage from authoritarian military decree to a democratic government, but, it did not yet have a properly defined institutionalized democratic regime. The political institutions were found to have close resemblance of authoritarian rule rather than being the bearer of democracy18. The new constitution provided very little power to the Congress. Even after two years of the process of democratization of Brazil, finance bills could only be initiated by the President. The expenditure measures presented by the executives had stipulated amounts which had to be adhered to by the Congress. Effectively, the Congress had minimal or no Control over the Budget system of the country. The weakness of the Congress can be attributed partly to the authoritarian law and partly to the lack of strength of the political parties. These parties failed to act as devices of democracy as they did not fulfill their duties towards the society. For a long period of time the political parties had been used by the traditional elites to preserve their oligarchy. The political parties used to be patrons of these elites in the authoritarian regime, controlled by them. The political parties even after democratization had been under the influence of the small elite groups. The political elites mostly did not represent popular interests. The political parties in their shade did not show any trend of representing non-elite interests. There was limited participation in to these groups by the civilians. The parties hence failed to convert the societal interests into effective policies that would work towards the benefit of the larger society. To redress political inequality, the political parties of the country had to include all the classes of population that made up the society. Increased participation by the general public would work towards the lessening of the inequality. The political parties had to be strengthened in order to be able to represent the interest of the common man and to become responsive of the needs of the poor. The political parties being unable to represent the poor, their interests remained unattended and suppressed. Democratization In 1985 “The process of participatory budgeting”19 had been introduced in Brazil which brought about changes in the lives of the poorer sections of the population. The concept of participatory budgeting evolved in Porto Alegre, one of the mostly populated cities in the southern part of Brazil20. This process came into practice in 1989 after the democratization of the country and was a part of the reform programs aimed at improving the living conditions of the urban poor. The initial design of the participatory budgeting was a compromise of the diverse proposals that were made regarding the issue. In this process the participation by the people at the grass root level was scaled up to the city level by making a combination of “direct and representative democracy”21. With the process of democratization many fresh forms of participation emerged and leftist political parties grew. Most of the Brazilian cities saw a left-right division between the political parties. There were concentrated pockets of poverty visible in a similar manner in most of these cities. Only one city in the country, Porto Alegre, could reverse the situation after democratization. In this city participatory budgeting was successful. Although the different cities in the country underwent the democratic participation process post transition; the actual process of reversion of the priorities was evident only in the city of Porto Alegre. Impacts of the End of the Authoritarian Period The process of participatory budgeting had been adopted by the whole of Brazil after its introduction to the city of Porto Alegre. It had positive impacts on several aspects of the economy. Three notable ways should be mentioned in this respect that brought changes in Brazilian politics. Democratic practices in the country were broadened. The new ways of politics made room for the society’s poor. With the process of inversion of the priorities and requirements of the society, the poor section of the population gained greater access to the public utilities. The structure and composition of the elite oligarchy started to change. A new political group formed by the people belonging to the lower income groups entered the field of politics. It appeared to them that politics is a field which is accessible to them. As the poor civilians began to enter politics, the scenario changed gradually from the picture that was seen in the early 1970s. During this time ‘clientelism’ was a way for the poor sections of the people to get access to public goods. In Rio de Janerio the practice of ‘clientelism’ was prevalent. With increased participation of the people that previously used to be excluded from all sites of participation, the elite control of the administration of the country became more volatile. The political environment became more autonomous and independent. Some new practices also emerged and public demand for public goods was presented to the local governments. According to a survey report, it was found that forty one percent of the people interviewed admitted to have access to public goods through personal political connections. Fifty four percent of the respondents accessed public utilities through mobilization. These were the two main sources to access public goods in the city of Porto Alegre until the year of 1990. With the practice of participatory budgeting, clientelistic neighborhood associations did not have much control over public utilities any more. This worked towards the reduction of poverty in the country to a larger extent. The poor people were used to the phenomenon of the decision making for the “important acts of political citizenship”22 being done through personal networking with the influential people rather than through open public channels. But the new regime brought in “an element of political will to the process of claiming public goods”23. Access to public goods such as water and tenure of land improved for the poor people. This strengthened the existence of the poor in the society and made a better place for them. Although the new process has created changes in the democratic practices in the country, much is still left to be done to dismount the old practices and take better grip over the newer ones. Regional inequality decreased as a result of participatory budgeting. Meaningful investments have taken place in the poorest section and the middle-income level of the population. Places like “Restinga, Leste, Humaita, and Extremo Sul received resources”24 at the aggregate as well as per capita level. Brazil after 2000 - Reduction in inequality The growth rate of Brazil in the period of twelve years between 1993 and 2005was a little over 1 percent per year.25 Yet, compared to the other nations in the developing world, the percentage of Brazil’s population living below the poverty line fell from 17 percent to 8 percent between 1981 and 2005. This is a huge reduction, accounting for a reduction of more than half, leading to an annual reduction of 3.2 percent. The reduction is greater than that in other developing countries like India and China, whose annual growth rate has been higher than Brazil. Amongst the several factors acting behind such a dramatic change one major player is that of inequality. The measure of inequality in Brazil, as estimated by the Gini Index, has dropped sharply since 1993. Inequality in India and China has increased all these years, which casts a dampening effect upon the growth effect that leads to reduction in poverty. All sectors of the Brazilian society have been mobilized through different initiatives to fight against poverty. The activism of the common public has been possible due to the absence of an authoritarian rule. The poor that had been neglected at every step had now become aware of their claims and rights. This rise of awareness amongst the poor is an indispensible part of any reform that would act towards their betterment. Redistribution of income has also successfully addressed the problem of poverty in Brazil. Different cash transfer programs adopted in and after 1990 played important role in reduction of poverty. These included Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) that were targeted to the poor families for their benefit. The canopy of conditional cash transfers under the democratic government has been successful in shrinking poverty in Brazil26. Conclusion The hypothesis that the phenomenon of reduction of poverty in Brazil has some positive correlation with the country’s democratization is supported by the extensive research made for my research proposal. The process of transition of the social, economic and political conditions of the country is noted through the changes that have taken place in Brazil since the beginning of the twentieth century. The incidence of poverty has lessened after the authoritarian rule prevalent in the period of 1964 to 1984 was replaced by a democratic government. New policies, such as the participatory budgeting, were constructed under the new democratic system and the policy has been successful in protecting the poor. Various programs have been successful in pulling up the standard of living of the poorer section of the population, a portion of which has now entered the middle class. The conditional cash transfer program which was pioneered by Brazil after the establishment of democracy has been particularly worked towards the amelioration of inequality and poverty in the country. Thus, the quest to find a connection between democratization and reduction in poverty in the country is aided by evidence. However, much research is yet to be conducted in this sphere which would help in drawing a more concrete inference about the validity of such a correlation. References Arnold J. Heidenheimer & Michael Johnston, Political Corruption: Concepts and Contexts. Transaction Publishers, 2002. Anwar Shah, Participatory Budgeting. World Bank Publications, 2007. Bhatnagar et al. “Participatory Budgeting in Brazil”. World Bank. Last modified January 9, 2013. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/14657_Partic-Budg-Brazil-web.pdf Eduardo Viola & Scott Mainwaring, “Brazil and Argentina in the 1980s”, Journal of International Affairs 38, no. 2 (1985): 193. Edoardo Ongaro. Public Management Reform and Modernization: Trajectories of Administrative Change in Italy, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010. Francis Fukuyama, Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner. Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy. JHU Press. 2012. Frances Hagopian. “The Traditional Political Elite And The Transition To Democracy In Brazil”. Kellogg.nd. Last modified January 9. 2013, http://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/091.pdf Hagopian, Frances & Scott Mainwaring. “Democracy in Brazil: Origins, Problems, Prospects”. Kellogg.nd. Last modified January 9, 2013. http://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/100.pdf Josh Lerner, “Participatory budgeting: Building community agreement around tough budget decisions” National Civic Review 100, no. 2 (2011): 30 Leonardo Avritzer, “LIVING UNDER A DEMOCRACY: Participation and Its Impact on the Living Conditions of the Poor” Latin American Research Review Special Issue 45, (2010): 166-185. Linz, Juan J. & Alfred Stepan. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. JHU Press, 1996. Marquetti, Adalmir, Schonerwald da Silva, Carlos E. & Campbell, Al., “Participatory Economic Democracy in Action: Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre, 1989–2004” Review of Radical Political Economics 44, no. 1 (2012): 62-81. “Poverty, Inequality and Democracy”. WMD. Last modified January 10, 2013. http://www.wmd.org/documents/BratislavaConferenceReport.pdf Sarah de Sainte Croix. “Brazil Strives for Economic Equality”. The Rio Times. Last modified January 9, 2013. http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-business/brazil-strives-for-economic-equality/# “The gloves go on”, The Economist, Last modified January 10, 2013. http://www.economist.com/node/14979330 Read More