Brazil's Modernization Theory

Despite the fact that Brazil has improved in their economy over the past few decades, it is however a weak state in the sense of its: political institutions, institutional arrangements, political parties, and uneven economic development. As Huntington has argued, Brazil’s transition in reference to the Modernization theory does not fit the society because getting rid of the traditions in the region has led to a non-legitimate bureaucracy. And in other words, the modernization theory sequence is incorrect for the development of a state because institutions need to be created first in a society. In this paper Brazil’s Fragile State Index ranking will be shared, and although their ranking is one of the highest in state capacity, there are still …show more content…
Since 1964, the Brazilian military government was the authoritarian military dictatorship who played a heavy role in the state (Mexico has faced the same issue), and up until today the decision of transitioning Brazil back to a democratic state was influenced on behalf of the military. Even though the military is not in power, there are still individuals who have seated themselves in different sectors of the government, especially positions in the bureaucracies. Referring back to globalization, when the theory evolved the military being in power was encouraged in order to overturn democratic regimes and keep labor costs low through political repression. This scenario explains the dramatic number differences between Brazil’s GDP ($2.346 trillion ), and Gini coefficient (52.9 . Although a democratic regime formed in response to the recession, military ministries, along with navy, and aviation ministries still at play in the Brazilian government. Even though military influence may have not been felt in the major economic and political decisions since the transfer to a democratic regime, it does not mean that their voices do not play a role in the system . Either way a military is difficult to subject to democratic accountability and control because there is no democratic rule in a military, and a military …show more content…
In 2006, transfers targeted towards health and education decreased the Gini coefficient to .220 which is a great improvement because the closer the Gini is to 1, the more equality there is. This effort demonstrates that tax intensification can provide results to revenue inequality. But, if these transfers are absent, then the effectiveness of Brazil’s districts to provide public services would be unequal. Again, these transfers do not guarantee that the revenues will be distributed directly to the public services because of clientilism , and yes, corruption still does