The Travail of Brazilian Democracy in the “New Republic”

1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Smith

On March 15,1987, Brazil celebrated the second anniversary of the Nova República, the popular term for the new civilian government headed by José Sarney. While commemoration of the return to more open, competitive politics after 21 years of authoritarian rule is certainly cause for justifiable national pride, a worsening economic crisis combined with escalating domestic social and political conflict leave many Brazilians deeply worried about the future of their incipient democracy.By conventional standards, Brazil has joined the ranks of fullfledged political democracies. Nevertheless, a more stringent view would hold that Brazil has really only entered into a new, more complex phase of political transition in which genuine democracy has yet to become firmly established. The new civilian government must now address fundamental issues of social justice and more balanced, equitable economic growth than was realized under authoritarian rule.

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amira Mittermaier

‘Aīsh, huriyya, ‘adāla igtimā‘iyya (“bread, freedom, social justice”) were key demands of Egyptian protesters in early 2011. Whereas the call for bread evokes immediate need, social justice is often associated with structural transformations and a better tomorrow. In light of this temporal tension, this article calls for a critical rethinking of an orientation toward the future by dwelling on the ethical and political potentials inherent to traditions of giving, sharing, and hospitality that are fundamentally oriented toward the present. Drawing on fieldwork in Cairo during 2010 and 2012, I think about an ethics of immediacy that is embodied in seemingly non-revolutionary everyday practices, but that also emerges from stories about Tahrir as a space of togetherness and solidarity. I argue that such an ethics is obscured in dominant neoliberal concepts of social justice, which foreground individual responsibility, productivity, and economic growth. Concretely, the article places the Tahrir utopia in conversation with a Sufi khidma that provides guests with food, tea, and a place to rest. Both spaces, I suggest, gesture toward modes of being in the world which rupture the state’s monopoly of politics, enable alternative forms of circulation and distribution, and encourage forms of relationality different from capitalism (in both its welfare and neoliberal renditions). By bringing these spaces into conversation, I seek to problematize a pervasive neoliberalization of social justice and to contribute to an anthropology of the otherwise.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-491
Author(s):  
Ehsan Rasoulinezhad ◽  
Parisa Sabri

The two main current economic problems in Russia and Iran are Western sanctions and oil price spikes. On the one hand, the West introduced economic sanctions against these two countries, which affected the national economy of these two countries. On the other hand, since Iran and Russia are heavily dependent on revenues from oil exports, any sharp changes in world oil prices significantly affect the budgets of these two countries. Despite the implementation of the various strategies of the two countries against sanctions and the collision with oil price shocks, their economies are sensitive to these two hyper problems. The main goal of this work is to study probable scenarios for the future economies of Iran and Russia under the conditions of Western sanctions and oil price fluctuations. Our article shows that for the future economies of Iran and Russia there are four economic scenarios in the form of transformation of the economic structure, rapid economic growth, economic stagnation and economic crisis. In the first scenario, there is an increase in sanctions by the West and its allies against the economies of Iran and Russia, and on the other hand, the price of oil is increasing. This scenario is the most possible future for the economies of Russia and Iran. The second possible scenario for the future economies of Russia and Iran is the rapid economic development and economic growth that will arise as a result of a decrease in political tension with the West, which ended with the lifting of economic sanctions and rising world oil prices. The third option that can be foreseen for the future economies of Russia and Iran is economic stagnation, which will occur if the sanctions of the West and its allies are reduced and world oil prices are reduced again. The fourth possible scenario for the economies of Iran and Russia is an economic crisis. Such a scenario appears when the conflict with the West increases and global oil prices fall, resulting in a large-scale decline and as a result of the economic crisis for the future economies of Iran and Russia. By the way, these two economies must adapt to such unpredictable economic events. They can accelerate import substitution, multilateralism in the Eurasian region, and so on.


Moreana ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (Number 193- (3-4) ◽  
pp. 54-73
Author(s):  
Nicolas Tenaillon

As a renowned jurist first and then as a top politician, Thomas More has never given up researching about a judicial system where all the fields of justice would be harmonized around a comprehensive logic. From criminal law to divine providence, Utopia, despite its eccentricities, proposes a coherent model of Christian-inspired collective living, based on a concern for social justice, something that was terribly neglected during the early 16th century English monarchy. Not only did History prove many of More’s intuitions right, but above all, it gave legitimacy to the utopian genre in its task of imagining the future progress of human justice and of contributing to its coming.


Author(s):  
Isabel Cepeda ◽  
Pedro Fraile Balbín

ABSTRACT This paper explores Alexis de Tocqueville's thought on fiscal political economy as a forerunner of the modern school of preference falsification and rational irrationality in economic decision making. A good part of the literature has misrepresented Tocqueville as an unconditional optimist regarding the future of fiscal moderation under democracy. Yet, although he initially shared the cautious optimism of most classical economists with respect to taxes under extended suffrage, Tocqueville's view turned more pessimistic in the second volume of his Democracy in America. Universal enfranchisement and democratic governments would lead to higher taxes, more intense income redistribution and government control. Under democracy, the continuous search for unconditional equality would eventually jeopardise liberty and economic growth.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 221-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Paus

Since 1982, most Latin American countries have witnessed slow economic growth and a persistent net transfer of funds to the rest of the world as a result of sharply reduced inflows of private international bank lending and large debt payment obligations. Against this background direct foreign investment (DFI) has received increasing attention as one important element in overcoming the present stagnation-cum-debt crisis as well as in contributing to renewed economic growth. This article explores the possible contributions of DFI to the future economic growth and development of the region.1


2013 ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Liljana Gavrilovska ◽  
Vladimir Atanasovski

The Standards Education (SE) in the field of ICT gains increasing momentum worldwide. The strategic value of the ICT standards and their influence on the economy proves essential towards countries’ development and their economic growth. This paper overviews the relevant current SE initiatives with a special emphasis on the South Eastern Europe (SEE) case and Macedonia. It discusses the level of ICT penetration, the recognition of the SE importance and the involvement of the relevant stakeholders in the SE curricula design on various education levels in Macedonia. Finally, the paper pinpoints the future directions towards transparent and harmonized SE.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myrna Morales ◽  
Em Claire Knowles ◽  
Chris Bourg
Keyword(s):  

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