Globalization is a key word in today’s society. Hobson and Ramesh (2002, 5) define globalization as letting a sovereign state adapt its policies to fit into the new global reality. Changes in a global world like the Cold War make a wide transformation in the global political economy which is defined as globalization, these changes alter the policies to which a state must adapt to, to fit into the new global reality (Saull 2005, 269). Latin America is not seen as a pioneer in globalization. Actually, these countries are coming into the globalization circuit long after other countries. For this essay, I am going to look at Brazil and its globalization process looked upon from the political perspective. The research question of this essay will be: is Brazil moving towards increased globalization or do we see a trend towards deglobalization after the year 1990? The year 1990 is chosen because from then on a lot of countries changed their economic policies in order to overcome the ‘lost decade’. First, this essay will look at the history of globalization in Brazil around 1990. After this the pact between Brazil and other countries will be discussed. Then the foreign aid given by Brazil is explained. After this, an example of deglobalization of Brazil is given. Another point that is discussed is the foreign direct investment in Brazil. Eventually, the place of Brazil as a potential power is discussed.
The history of globalization in Brazil has everything to do with trade liberalization and becoming democratic. Brazil joined the World Trade Organization in 1995, a pact that makes the rules for a global trading system (Mares and Trinkunas 2016, 126). Another pact crucial for the trade liberalization of Brazil is Mercosur. This pact was created in 1991 between Argentina and Brazil to “develop competitive industrial and service enterprises through a customs union” (Mares and Trinkunas 2016, 126-127). Both World Trade Organization and Mercosur are pacts that enhances the trade liberalization of Brazil. The spread of democracy begun long before 1990 in other countries in the world. But Brazil only got democratic around 1980. In 1982 the first direct elections of state governors in Brazil happened (De Castro and de Carvalho 2003, 471). Another key event in 1988 was the implementation of a new constitution (De Castro and de Carvalho 2003, 471). From then on, the country really was ruled democratic. Before becoming globalized Brazil needed to have its trade liberalized and its politics democratized. Trade liberalization is important in order to fit into the global trade market. Democratization is important in order to fit into the global political network which involves many democratized countries. When many countries are democratic and have their trade liberalized it is easier to increase the interaction between countries and their economic and political interests.
An example of the globalization of Brazil is their membership of Mercosur. Mercosur is nowadays a pact between multiple countries, among which Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Paraguay, to improve and promote free trade as a southern common market. Mercosur works eventually as an economic and political integration project (Casanova and Kassum 2014, 132). As Heywood (2014, 494) says, Mercosur enhanced the ‘open regionalism’ by engaging trade in this region. Being a member of a pact between multiple countries enhances the globalization of Brazil. Brazil is therefore not only looking at its own political and economic sphere, but also at countries that are nearby and important for trade without overcoming enormous distances. Brazil is adapting its economic market and political policies to fit into the new global reality which is filled with pacts between countries to enhance their collaboration. This collaboration is mostly good for all the countries involved because working together can bring advantages. An advantage of Mercosur for Brazil was the opportunity of increasing their trade in a regional sphere. Brazil took this opportunity and this has resulted in an increase of the economy of Brazil.
Foreign assist projects implemented by the government of Brazil also enhances the globalization of the country. As Gutmann and Lesser (2016, 187) state, Brazil started foreign assist projects in the global south countries in order to “achieve higher standards of human and economic well-being”. An example of a Brazil foreign assist project is the Agricultural Research Corporation in Ghana which helps the inhabitants to invest and renew agriculture with capacity training workshops and technology development (Gutmann and Lesser 2016, 188). Helping other countries improves their conditions. These improved conditions can eventually be a benefit for Brazil, because this can lead to more trade or better political contacts. Eventually helping underdeveloped countries with one’s knowledge or money can thus lead to benefits for the country who gives the aid. Key information is that Brazil used to get aid from Western countries because Brazil had a huge debt with a high amount of people living in poverty (De Castro and de Carvalho 2003, 482). Brazil definitely benefitted from this aid, which we can see from its debt relief and now giving aid to other countries. This can hopefully become a process that continues itself positively by getting out of debt and then helping other countries to get out of debt.
An example of deglobalization is the amount of work put into its country to make Brazil more equal by tightening the gap between poor and rich. An example of this is the zero-hunger policy of President Lula in 2003 (de Castro and de Carvalho 2003, 484). An example of the zero-hunger policy that Lula made was the Bolsa Familia program which gave direct cash payments to poor families which they only got if their children went to school and were vaccinated (Kupchan 2012, 137). The zero-hunger policy fought poverty and hunger through multiple projects and councils. Money that could have gone to foreign assist projects have then been invested in their own country. Eventually this can lead to deglobalization of Brazil because then they are investing in their own country and not looking at a global reality but only at their own reality. Although this may be true, Brazil must look at their own problems first before helping another country. Tightening the gap between poor and rich is a good idea before helping other countries to tighten their gap between poor and rich. Of course, there is a limit to investing in one’s own country but to a certain amount it will enhance its own economy and therefore other’s trade markets. In the end, the initiatives made in order to minimize the hunger and poverty were successful, both poverty and hunger are nearly wiped out (Mares and Trinkunas 2016, 56). From then on, Brazil could help other countries to minimize their poverty and hunger.
Another example of political globalization was the opening of the Brazil market for foreign investors. In the 1980’s the flow of foreign direct invest to Brazil was 2 billion US dollars, in 2012 this was 76 billion US dollars (Casanova and Kassum 2014, 65). We can derive from this that Brazil has grown as a foreign direct invest country. As Casanova and Kassum (2014, 66) state, Brazil has become an economic power in the global world. Brazil nowadays has an influence on other countries because of its economic power. It can execute this power by using its government. Being an economic power thus has everything to do with politics. Becoming an economic power has a lot to do with government policies for the economy of the country. When a country is an economic power the government still chooses what it will do with this power. An effect of getting foreign direct investment in Brazil is the increase of foreign exchange reserves. With these reserves, Brazil bought United States Treasury bonds and has become a lender to the International Monetary Fund (Casanova and Kassum 2014, 66). For this reason, we can state that Brazil has made increasing steps to globalization with its increase in their foreign direct investment market.
Nowadays as one of the bigger economic powerful countries, Brazil could be seen as an upcoming leader in the global world. As Casanova and Kassum (2014, 160) state, Brazil’s foundation of economic and political strength have never been stronger. Brazil has changed in small amount of time from an underdeveloped country to one of the strongest countries. Brazil has an abundance of resources nowadays which gives them power and influence (Casanova and Kassum 2014, 160). The country has, as said earlier, improved its own conditions which is a great accomplishment. Although they are not in the position of a leader in global politics, they are trying to reach it and this is a reachable goal in the future. Brazil is not only important for the countries included in Mercosur, even countries at the other side of the world want to have Brazil in their pacts in order to include this bigger power. Implementing this big dream of becoming a rule maker in the global world comes with multiple steps like engaging the people of Brazil and enhancing its economy to stay on top (Casanova and Kassum 2014, 163-164).
To conclude, is Brazil moving towards increased globalization or do we see a trend towards deglobalization after the year 1990? Brazil is moving towards increased globalization and thus not moving towards deglobalization. First the history of Brazil globalization is crucial for a better perspective on the timetable after 1990. This history is influenced by trade liberalization and the making of a democratic nation. As a result, from 1990 on, multiple pacts were formed between countries, this resulted in a more globalized continent. An example of a pact is Mercosur which supports integration and free commerce between the countries in the pact. Another example named is the World Trade Organization. The next argument for globalization is that Brazil has set up foreign assist projects which increases their globalized character by helping other countries all over the world. Globalization is also seen in the big foreign direct invest market in Brazil. From 1980 until now, the market has had an enormous boost and has increased to billions of US dollars. Because of the big foreign direct investment market, Brazil is nowadays a force to be reckoned with. The country has a big influence on the world market including the pacts made in the world. A counterargument is that from 2003 on Brazil invested a lot of money into their own country in order to make the gap between poor and rich smaller and to end hunger and poverty. This can be a sign of deglobalization by not investing in other countries and only looking at their own perspective. To refute this counterargument, it can be stated that investing in one’s own country can be a good idea in order to become stronger and eventually help other countries even more because of this. In the end, Brazil is growing in globalization and power. The country has a Brazilian dream to become one of the rule makers in the global world, but if this will happen we can only see in the future.