...Analysis of Democracy in Brazil and Chile Hagopian vents her frustration towards the democratization of Latin American countries by describing it as “flawed both because it does not take account of differences across the region and because it is overly static” (pg.125). The clarity in transitioning into a democracy in Latin American countries has not been defined uniformly that there are clear differences amongst the effectiveness of democracy in specific countries. Hagopian specifically uses Chile and Brazil as her examples of “the dimensions of Democratic quality.” She uses these two countries as a comparison to distinguish the characteristics of a “good” democracy, which would include both the participation and satisfaction of the citizens of the country. Amongst most of the Latin American countries, Chile and Brazil has become amongst the strongest democratic countries and can become a lot stronger with improvements. However, both countries vary in strengths between different dimensions of quality that defines a “good” democracy. These variances are analyzed by Hagopian to determine the degree of effectiveness by considering accountability, participation and responsiveness between governance and individuals as a reciprocal relationship. Recommendable changes are necessary for both Chile and Brazil to continuously prosper politically, civilly and together economically. Although both Chile and Brazil are developing predominant democratic reputations, their contrasts in democratic...
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...Introduction Racial disparity and discrimination is not a new concept to any nation. In fact, many were built on the back of slave labor, whether the slaves were indigenous peoples or imported bodies. While many nations have undertaken measures to overcome racial disparity, others have encouraged racial democracy. Brazil, a modern and industrialized nation, suffers from racial discrimination based on their position in the world economy and built on the ideology of the past. History Brazil’s history is rife with racism and slavery, dating back to its discovery by Pedro Alveres Cabral in 1500. Brazil was originally settled with the intention of harvesting Brazilwood. However, over time the profits from that were supplanted by sugar, which soon became the major export (Phillips 117). Over a short period of time, Brazil became the leading producer of sugar in the Atlantic world. The production of all these exports meant cheap labor was needed. During this time, the Portuguese were sending between 4,000 and 5,000 slaves per year to Brazil from Angola and West Africa; by the 18th century, one million slaves had been imported (117). The continually shifting landscape meant that Brazil’s exports continued to shift. By the time the 19th century came around, Brazil’s major export was coffee as sugar production had shifted to the Caribbean Islands. The continued influx of European slaves and citizens resulted in an uneven population. European labor was generally more skilled...
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...Short Writing Assignment Is Brazil a Multiracial Democracy? There are so many comparisons between Brazil and the United States of America. Both Brazil and the United States of America are the largest multiracial societies in the Americas, as well they both share a history of slavery, and plantation slavery at that, and finally both societies have confronted the legacy of slavery in the form of deeply entrenched racial inequality(Racial Inequality in Brazil and the United States, page 229). With all these similarities you would imagine that they both would be making strides toward a more equal society. It is safe to safe that the United States of America is at a state of more equality than any time in the history of this country, but where does that put Brazil? Are they making the same strides as the United States of America? Brazil is most definitely a Multiracial population, which would lead you to believe that it is a multiracial democracy, but that assumption would be far from the truth based on all the research that I have done and based on the articles that I have read. In the year 1991 51.6% of Brazil’s population was white, while 42.6% of the population was brown, and 4%was black (Demographic Censuses). When you look at that compared to the United States of America in 1980 when 83% of the population was white, while only 11.7% of the population was black and 5% of the population had some other orientation (1980 Census of Population). When you look at Trivett 2 ...
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...The myths of “racial democracy,” the “the melting pot,” and “salad bowl” theories. The myths of “racial democracy,” the “melting pot,” and “Salad bowl” theories This paper will examine the theories of the “melting pot” and “salad bowl” and also look at “racial democracy” in Brazil. Secondly, this paper will look at cultural assimilation using these theories. Finally it will look at the myths of these theories and how they have affected the American and world societies. Have Americans really reached either the “melting pot” or “salad bowl” theories of cultural assimilation? Is Brazil really a “racial democracy” or is this also a myth and how does this differ with America? The United States of America is one of the most culturally diverse nations on earth. In 2009, Michael C. Lemay states, “the United States of America is arguably the most ethnically and racially diverse nation on earth”. Who is an American, I am using the term Americans to be defined as individuals who were native born, naturalized citizens, and individuals who consider themselves Americans from the United States of America. Generally speaking most Americans grow up, in ethnically homogeneous communities (Putnam, 2007) vice the differing theories of “melting pot” or “salad bowl.” While Americans live and work in communities that are ethnically and culturally diverse the issues of intolerance and prejudice against various ethnic and racial backgrounds has been a plague throughout...
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...Is Brazil a racial paradise? This was a hard question for me to answer because there were parts of Brazil that were racist and parts that weren’t. There were places that looed poor and that is where some African’s lived and there were places that looked wealthy where some African’s lived. The film had said Brazil is diverse; a hybrid country. As soon as hearing that, there was no way Brazil is a racial paradise. There were 75 African descents making Brazil the second largest African population. Professor Gates goes around asking people he meets what color would they describe his skin. It was interesting that it seemed as if some people were hesitant to answer the color black, but there were a lot of people describing his skin color as they would use the colors of the rainbow. African slaves were brought to Brazil by the Portuguese, and they brought everything them. Their culture, religion, God, etc. Knowing that this country holds the second largest African population, right away you would you think that everyone here is black, and there is no racism. What was weird to me was European immigrants were brought to Brazil to outnumber explaining it to be a hybrid country. Brazil was the last country to embellish slavery, yet they declare themselves as a racial democracy. They say that they are a racial democracy but Africans that live there in Brazil believe that it is all a lie. When Gates went into the hair salon a hair dresser was talking about how some black women have a low...
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...Executive Summary Investing in Brazil, as with any country, entails exposure to a variety of political, social, economic, and other risks, but also entails potential benefits for multinationals corporations. Political Risk- Brazil has been a stable democracy for 25 years. Despite some unique risk as corruption, Brazil has been rating overall medium risk for dynamic risks, governance framework, political violence and business and macroeconomic environment. Financial Markets in the country & Sources of Capital for the multinational corporation Brazil is now the eighth-largest economy in the world and will continue to seek a growing international role. The country has also been considered a confident player on the world stage and also seat temporary at the UN Security Council. The Brazilian Bovespa index of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange has been doing very well with several shares from different sectors which are providing steady growth to the Bovespa index. There are many financial service as the private multi-purpose commercial banks, universal banks, play the leading intermediary role in the country’s financial sector. Public financial institutions are also among the leading intermediaries, promoting rural economic activity and agricultural production through the provision of subsidized loans. Tax Structure & Investment Incentives for which foreign based companies are eligible Brazil’s Tax Laws and system, Brazil's corporate tax rate for 2010 around 34%...
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...My Idea of Development Development in its very basic meaning is the progression from one state of being to a more desirable state of being. Take for instance human development; maturing and becoming a contributing member of society is its goal. It is more desirable to be a mature and productive adult than to remain a child or child-like. The same goes for the development of nations and their economies and political and social systems. It is the goal for developing nations to mature and become stable contributing members of the global community and economy. In human development, part of becoming an adult is gaining the ability to be self-sufficient and having the confidence to continue to be so. Once again if we apply this idea to the development of nations, part of developing is becoming a nation that is sustainably self-sufficient. Obviously the development of third world countries is vastly different from human development, but if you look at the factors that contribute to successful human develop you can generalize them to fit with the development of nations. Whether talking about the development of a human being or a nation, almost everyone would agree that there are fundamental elements that ensure success. Those elements are proper nutrition, good health, education, positive reinforcement and confidence, ability to take care of one’s self, and stability. Michael P Todaro and Stephen C. Smith define the traditional view of development as “the capacity of a...
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...Global Order? Introduction: Liberalism: dominant ideological force shaping western political thought. Identified with western civilisation itself. Lib v. Popular inter-war period by idealists who believed warfare was an outdated way of settling events. Heywood- the central theme of liberalism in all its forms is harmony Peace is normal Faith in HN Democracy is necessary Outline what Neo-Liberalism believes in1) peace and security2) Economy – capitalism, no government intervention, invisible hand, free trade, absolute advantages, relative advantages. David ricardo. 3) Democracy Democracy and the USA ( link USA with liberalism) Ability of USA to steer world order is diminishing All about state capitalism: Rising powers are wanting a greater share of the spoils → challenging liberalism and thus USA → russia and china veto UN involvement in Syria Newly powerful states are starting to advance their own agendas for the world order: weaker US will find it harder to defend liberalism Todays rising states are large non-western developing countries. Brazil/China/India HOWEVER: Most people believe India/Brazil likely to support liberalism e.g. India has a commitment to interdependence. India is a joiner – it wants to be included e.g.recently pushed for a permanent seat on the UN security council Economy The recession has bolstered this narrative. The economic crisis started US- tarnished American model of liberal capitalism The more the West becomes involved in...
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...China The first one is the economy. China's economy has been typically the best-performing economy or among the best-performing economies in the world since 1979 when reforms began, averaging about 7 percent growth. One note of concern, though, is that those conditions that allowed that 7 percent growth are not likely to be prevalent in the years to come, because for over 30 years, China has relied extensively on lower wage rates and export-driven growth. But wage rates have been bid up, as happens; the Chinese are victims of their own success, you could say. And secondly, the rest of the countries in the world are not going through high rates of growth, and they’re not going to be importing the way they had been historically. So, that formula isn’t going to be as successful going forward as it has been. China needs to shift away from an export-driven economy to more of a consumption model. It needs to be mindful about funding its state-owned enterprises, about subsidizing state-owned companies. It needs to lessen its reliance on low-end manufacturing and move up the value chain. By the way, these aren’t my observations; these are observations by Chinese leadership. If you follow any Chinese leader’s speech on China’s economic transformation, these are the points he’ll make. We would call that market rationalism or just normal evolution as a country rises to middle-income status. But there are also some countervailing impulses. There’s a strong streak of economic nationalism;...
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...Arianne Cerize A. Aman The Meaning of Development: Brazil and Costa Rica Economic development is the presumed solution to absolute poverty and to many of the world's other most pressing problems. But what is development, and how do we know it when we see it? The term, development, has been used in several ways. Traditionally, it was equated with growth of per capita income. Since the 1970s, other indicators of development have become widely used by development scholars and development agencies such as the World Bank. The meeting of basic needs (or, equivalently, reduction in absolute poverty), the creation of modern employment opportunities, and the achievement of a less unequal distribution of income and farmland have all become important criteria in determining the level of development. Traditional measures of growth, especially in developing countries, may be misleading in that they fail to account for the environmental destruction that often accompanies spurts in temporary and unsustainable economic growth; and economists are devising measures of the national capital stock that includes environmental wealth. The United Nations has placed both educational attainment and health standards on equal footings with per capita income as development criteria, in the widely followed United Nations Development Program human development index (HDI). Some leading development scholars, such as Amartya Sen, Denis Goulet, and Dudley Seers, have gone further. They argue that more intangible...
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...(a)Forces that exist in the business and cultural environment of the country: Economic, Socioeconomic, Political, Legal, Financial and Labor. ECONOMIC FORCE: Economic Indicators | 2013 | 2014 | GNI, PPP | 3,163,865,194,242 | 3,212,749,599,240 | GNI/per capita, PPP | 15,490 | 15,590 | GDP | 2,392,094,501,287 | 2,346,118,175,194 | GDP growth (%) | | 0.1 | Inflation, GDP deflation (%) | | 6.9 | Agriculture/ value added (% of GDP) | 5.6 | 5.6 | Industry/ value added (% of GDP) | 24.4 | 23.4 | Service/ value added (% of GDP) | 70.0 | 71.0 | Exports of goods and services (% of GDP) | 12.0 | 11.5 | Imports of goods and services (% of GDP) | 14.4 | 14.3 | GDP Forecast Inflation Forecast Level of development: Developing Top industry: Textile, Cement, Shoes, Chemicals SOCIOECONOMIC FORCE: Socioeconomic indicators | 2013 | 2014 | Total population (million) | 204,259,377 | 206,077,898 | Population growth (%) | | 0.9 | Population density (people per square) | 24.4 | 24.7 | Fertility rate (children born per woman) | 1.8 | 1.79 | Life expectancy (years) | 73.9 | 73.28 | Income level: upper-middle income Below Poverty Lines: 8.5% of population Population distribution: The population is divided mainly in big cities like Sao Paulo ( 19.924 million); Rio de Janeiro (11.96 million); Belo Horizonte (5.487 million); Porto Alegre (3.933 million); Recife (3.733 million); Brasilia (3.813 million) Sex ratio: At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female ...
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... an end to Russian intervention in Ukraine’s politics and the establishment of a clean government to replace the kleptocracy of President Viktor Yanukovych. But their fundamental demand is one that has motivated people over many decades to take a stand against corrupt, abusive and autocratic governments. They want a rulesbased democracy. It is easy to understand why. Democracies are on average richer than nondemocracies, are less likely to go to war and have a better record of fighting corruption. More fundamentally, democracy lets people speak their minds and shape their own and their children’s futures. That so many people in so many different parts of the world are prepared to risk so much for this idea is testimony to its enduring appeal. Yet these days the exhilaration generated by events like those in Kiev is mixed with anxiety, for a troubling pattern has repeated itself in capital after capital. The people mass in the main square. Regimesanctioned thugs try to fight back but lose their nerve in the face of popular intransigence and global news coverage. The world applauds the collapse of the regime and offers to help build a democracy. But turfing out an autocrat turns out to be much easier than setting up a viable democratic government. The new regime stumbles, the economy flounders and the country finds itself in a state at least as bad as it was before. This is what happened in much of the Arab spring, and also in Ukraine’s Orange revolution a decade ...
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...than most emerging markets. Brazil’ Gdp grew 7.5% in 2010 and they are currently the 8th largest economy in the world. This economic growth combined social programs has strengthened the purchasing power of each consumer. For the first time, a majority of Brazilians are now middle class, and domestic consumption is an important driver in Brazil’s growth. The rise in domestic demand and employment, has pushed inflation to 6% causing the central bank to boost interest rates. Because of this, the value of their currency has risen nearly 40% since 2009. Now that we’ve defined Brazil’s economy, lets take a look into Brazilian society. The second aspect I researched was Brazil’s culture. Brazil is rich in diversity and considered a high context culture. Within this culture, they value people and social harmony, relationships, and group identity. I’ve found that it’s important to establish relationships when conducting business in brazil. Because of the many different cultures, Brazillians have adapted to mixed foods. However, rice, beans, and meats are a predominant food in their diet. Brazil In addition to culture, political stability needs to be assessed as well. So lastly, I will discuss with you Brazil’s political stability. Brazil is a constitutional democracy, with a system of checks and balances to prevent abuses of authority. They scored an 8 in the political risk index, which demonstrates their solidity as a country . In recent years, Brazil has experienced no terrorist...
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...beginning with L-Z will take the test in 1LIB 66 •Please bring a #2 pencil. Friday: students will go to their scheduled discussion sections and take the second part of the exam. Format: 3 mini-essay answer; 40-60 multiple-choice questions; 5-10 fill-in-the-blank questions; and 5-10 two-sentence answers. Short-essay answer: concisely answer the following questions. Be prepared to answer all of them. ACTUAL QUESTIONS FOR THE EXAM 1) Consider what you learned in lecture and from the readings by Rohter, Guimarães, Goldstein, Vaughan, and Stout. Discuss how people are racialized in Brazil and Cuba. Be sure to cover the following issues: a. What historical conditions explain the high level of inequality in these countries? Why are socio-economic conditions connected to race? (10 pts) b. Provide one concrete example from the readings that shows how constructions of race in Brazil and Cuba are similar, and one concrete example from the readings to show how they are different (10 pts) c. Discuss why identities are mediated and how media is used as part of the process of racialization (10 pts). Use one example provided in class to explain your argument (10 pts). 2) Considering the movie “Even the Rain” and from the readings by Barron, Thomson, Spronk, and Monasterios discuss the connections between extraction process, natural resources and social movements in Bolivia. a. Explain what the connections are between the extraction process, natural resources and...
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...REPORT – BRAZIL Distribution of income Brazil has historically a very unequal income distribution. In the 90´s Brazilian government believed that if high inflation rate were cut down, the income distribution would improve. In fact, after a successful plan of stabilization of the inflation, the unequal pattern of income distribution did improve in a consistent way in this decade. Other important aspect about income inequality in Brazil is related to regional pattern of income distribution, which is extremely unequal between different regions of the country. Although a generally improved distribution of income took place, the differences between regions remained in the 90’s. However, the current level of unequal income distribution is yet very far from the pattern of many developed countries. [1] Growth and structural changes have not altered significantly Brazil's extremely unequal distribution of wealth, income, and opportunity. Despite impressive increments in economic growth and output, the number of poor has risen sharply. Most of the poor are concentrated in the rural areas or in the country's large cities or metropolitan areas. Poverty, measured by the local minimum wage, declined from over 52% of the population, in the beginning of the nineties, to about 38% in 2005, meeting the Millennium Development Goal. Extreme poverty, defined as income of less than a dollar a day (in purchasing power parity), declined from 8.8% to 4.2% in the same period. [2] Trade In...
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