Bolivia and Brazil seem to have this conundrum in common: both are on the verge of massive mineral wealth– Brazil with oil, Bolivia with Lithium–and both are still emerging democracies with spotty, if not weak governmental institutions. A book by Terry Lynn Karl of Stanford University called “The Paradox of Plenty” does a noble job Read more about Bolivia and its Lithium: The Next Saudi Arabia? (via The COHA Blog)[…]
The price of majority consensus in Congress is rising as the Rousseff administration muddles through yet another ugly compromise with allies. Over the past week, the magazine Veja broke a story about how political bosses within the Ministry of Transport have siphoned-off large amounts of cash, approximately 4 to 5 percent of total funds earmarked Read more about The Costs of Rousseff’s Coalition Continue to Mount[…]
Brazilians have a saying, that every corruption scandal “ends in pizza.” The malfeasant and the enforcer settle things by sharing a meal and leaving behind what brought them together in the first place. Unlike other Latin American elites, the Brazilian elite peculiarly tend towards consensus as opposed to hot-headed conflict. Rather than incriminate each other, Read more about Brazil’s Congress: Paying for Consensus[…]
[Published on http://www.freedominfo.org/news/ by Greg Michener] President Dilma Rousseff reversed her support for expedited passage of a Brazilian freedom of information law this week, ceding to Senators’ desire to reappraise the law and include weakening amendments. The proposed changes to bill 41/2010 aim to eliminate time limits on how long information can be classified as Read more about Freedom of Information Bill in Jeopardy as Rousseff Backtracks[…]
Brazilian legislators have passed an innovative law to deal with overcrowding and high recidivism in Brazil’s prisons: one day less in prison for every 12 hours spent in the classroom, reports Folha de São Paulo. As world population continues to surge past 7 billion people, prison overcrowding and repeat incarceration have become major policy problems Read more about Dealing with Overcrowding in Brazil’s Prisons: Innovative Legislation Passed[…]
Research shows that the news media’s issue-attention cycle tends to be short, averaging about three days for a major story. When it diverges from this norm, you can bet that the event is either truly sensational or else the media has a vested interest in it. In the case of the first major ‘crisis’ to Read more about Why the Media Have Made the Palocci Scandal into a Crisis[…]
The worst thing about Brazilians taxes—which are the heaviest of any country in the hemisphere—is not the amount of tax paid or how government often misuses them, but rather that Brazilians don’t even know how much tax they pay in the first place. This past week, the Folha de Sao Paulo reported that the average Read more about Tax Transparency and a Fairer Brazil[…]
A surprising turn of events threatens to de-rail President Dilma Rousseff’s bid for greater governmental openness and transparency in Brazil. Brazil was on track to pass its long awaited freedom of information (FOI) law on May 3rd, World Press Day— a deadline set by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff just after President Barack Obama’s mid-March visit. Read more about Impeached Ex-President Pockets Brazilian Freedom of Information Law[…]
How are inequality and poverty best addressed? Successive governments have focused on conditional cash transfers, such as Bolsa Escola and Bolsa Familia, in which money goes to parents in return for keeping their children at school, among other conditions. These programs have diminished absolute poverty and helped ensure that future generation will gain the basic Read more about More Census Results for Brazil– Inequality and Poverty[…]
The 2010 Brazilian Census came out about a week ago, and it reveals some startling numbers. Illiteracy Almost 10 percent of Brazilians remain illiterate, despite the rate falling from 13.6 percent in 2000. Although this is a remarkable drop in historical terms, authorities view the reality to be much brighter for youth; the illiterate segment Read more about Census 2010: By the Numbers[…]