Inside a Champion An Analysis of the Brazilian Development Model Héctor Alimonda Debating Development in Latin America: From ECLAC to the Brazilian Azevedo Said To Be a Woman in Brazil: Gender Inequalities and Development Larissa Packer Workers’ Party Lauro Mattei Brazilian Development at the Beginning of the 21st Century: From Nature to Natural Capital: How New Legal and Financial Mechanisms Create a Market Economic Growth, Income Distribution, and Environmental Destruction Camila Moreno for the Green Economy Christian Russau Lula “Superstar” – Why the Brazilian Development Green Economy and Development(alism) in Brazil: Resources, Climate and Energy Politics Model is a Huge Success Abroad Gerhard Dilger Extractivism and Nuclear Ambitions – The Carlos Tautz, João Roberto Lopes Pinto, and Maíra Borges Fainguelernt The Big Agent Brazilian Development Model and the Germans Britta Rennkamp “Development First” in the of Change: The National and Transnational Expansion of Brazilian Companies Through the G-20 and the BRICS? – Reflections on Brazil’s Foreign Politics and Civil Society Silvio Caccia National Development Bank BNDES Thomas Fatheuer The Amazon Basin – A Paradigmatic Bava Short Circuits of Production and Consumption Fábio Pierre Fontenelle Pacheco A Region Between Destruction, Valorization, and Resistance Marilene de Paula Obstacles for Brazil Unknown to Many Brazilians: Agroecology as a Solution to the Food, Ecological, and Development? – Human Rights, Infrastructure Policies, and “Mega-events” in Brazil Magnólia Social Crises Alberto Acosta The Buen Vivir – An Opportunity to Imagine Another World INSIDE A CHAMPION PUBLICATION SERIES ON DEMOCRACY Inside a champion An Analysis of the Brazilian Development Model Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Published under the following Creative Commons License: http://creative- commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. 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Inside a Champion An Analysis of the Brazilian Development Model Publication Series on Democracy Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation 2012 Concept: Dawid Danilo Bartelt, Camila Moreno, Marilene de Paula Editor and compilation: Dawid Danilo Bartelt Editing: Ana Carollina Leitão Translation: Alexandra de Vries, Glória Duarte, Gregg Mervine, Lindsay Munro, Maria Dettmers, Martin Heuser, Regina Weps de Navazo e Renato Rezende Proofreading: Ana Carollina Leitão, Franziska Mayer, Robert Furlong, Teo Teasca Graphic design: CravoRosa Design Estúdio (according to designs by blotto design) Title photos: Construction of Belo Monte hydroelectric dam (UHE Belo Monte – PA), Minplanpac, flickr.com (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); Traffic reflected by the stock exchange facade (Bolsa de Valores – RJ), Andréa Farias, flickr.com (CC BY-SA 2.0); View of the remodeling of the Maracanã Stadium (RJ), Genilson Araújo, Agência O Globo Printing: Grupo Smart Printer ISBN 978-85-62669-07-1 This publication can be ordered from: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (office Brazil), Rua da Glória, 190, sala 701, Glória, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, CEP 20.241-180 T +55 21 3221-9900 F +55 21 3221-9922 E [email protected] W www.br.boell.org Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Schumannstr. 8, D-10117 Berlin, Germany T +49 30 28534-0 F +49 30 28534-109 E [email protected] W www.boell.de CONTENTS Dawid Danilo Bartelt Introduction 7 STRUCTURES OF THE MODEL 17 Héctor Alimonda Debating Development in Latin America – From ECLAC to the Brazilian 18 Workers’ Party Lauro Mattei Brazilian Development at the Beginning of the 21st Century – Economic 31 Growth, Income Distribution, and Environmental Destruction Camila Moreno Green Economy and Development(alism) in Brazil – Resources, Climate 45 and Energy Politics Carlos Tautz, João Roberto Lopes Pinto, and Maíra Borges Fainguelernt The Big Agent of Change – The National and Transnational Expansion of 60 Brazilian Companies Through the National Development Bank BNDES Thomas Fatheuer The Amazon Basin – A Paradigmatic Region Between Destruction, 75 Valorization, and Resistance COSTS OF THE MODEL 89 Marilene de Paula Obstacles for Development? – Human Rights, Infrastructure Policies, and 90 “Mega-events” in Brazil Magnólia Azevedo Said To Be a Woman in Brazil – Gender Inequalities and Development 102 Larissa Packer From Nature to Natural Capital – How New Legal and Financial 114 Mechanisms Create a Market for the Green Economy THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION 129 Christian Russau Lula “Superstar” – Why the Brazilian Development Model is a Huge 130 Success Abroad Gerhard Dilger Extractivism and Nuclear Ambitions – The Brazilian Development Model 145 and the Germans Britta Rennkamp “Development First” in the G-20 and the BRICS? – Reflections on Brazil’s 156 Foreign Politics and Civil Society ALTERNATIVES 171 Silvio Caccia Bava Short Circuits of Production and Consumption 172 Fábio Pierre Fontenelle Pacheco A Brazil Unknown to Many Brazilians – Agroecology as a Solution to the 182 Food, Ecological, and Social Crises Alberto Acosta The Buen Vivir – An Opportunity to Imagine Another World 192 APPENDIX Letter from Salvador 211 Abbreviations 219 About the authors 220 Note Dear reader, for a better understanding, the values ​​in Real (R$) were converted into U.S. Dollar ($) using approximate exchange rates. INTRODUCTION In a two-page advertisement in May 2012, the Itaú Bank summed up things as they now stand: “We are no longer the land of the future, we are the land of the present. We are in the limelight now.”1 Brazil’s foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, said much the same thing that same month when he stated: “For the first time in history, Brazil is an international power.” He continued by saying that Brazil is currently moving on the global political stage on an equal footing with stable nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, and that it is justifiably being afforded a great deal of attention as a result. This feeling of “and now it’s our turn” is something that can scarcely be overestimated in its significance for politics and the collective consciousness of the country. It guides and legitimizes Brazilian politics – both at the domestic and international levels – and drives forward the development model, which is celebrated abroad as much as it is criticized by those affected as well as by critical observers. In the past 10 years, Brazil has undeniably gone through a remarkable process of transformation. According to government statistics, 28 million people have left absolute poverty – measured as an income of less than $40 per month – behind them. Independent research offer figures of 18 or 20 million. However, no matter the estimate, Brazil has managed to halve the number of the very poor and thus has reached the first Millennium Development Goal. What is more, almost 40 million inhabitants have risen to a “new middle class,” and the government has set the lowest threshold for family income at around $660 per month. The state has changed its role in the international finance system from that of debtor to creditor, the economy has been growing continuously for years, and unemployment figures are low. In addition, those who were formerly considered environmental sinners have also kept in line with the transformation trend: The process of rainforest deforestation – the largest individual factor responsible for Brazil’s CO2 emissions – has slowed considerably since the beginning of the decade. At the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, Brazil even announced that it intended to voluntarily reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 36–39 percent by the year 2020. Within just a few years, it seems as though the highly indebted feeble giant – An Analysis of the Brazilian Development Model entrenched in a vicious cycle of poverty and violence – has become a vigorous leviathan fostering claims to global leadership. The international community 1 “Não somos mais o país do futuro, somos o país do presente, a bola da vez,“ O Globo, May 15, Introduction Inside a Champion 2012, pp. 2–3. 7 likes to see Brazil as a socially oriented, economically successful state that is sensitive to environmental and climate-friendly issues – one that has even managed to get the endemic destruction of the Amazon rainforests under control – and as a great power on its way to the top: a fact that can no longer be ignored by the global political community. Apparently, Brazil has top top marks in all disciplines – a champion. A champion? It was this perception of Brazil abroad that led us to bring out a publication about the Brazilian development model. Because, in Brazilian civil society, another perception of its own state and the politics it pursues prevails. From the perspective of social and ecological justice, social movements and NGOs recognize a development paradigm that is all too similar to what came before and that, at the same time, has revived several large-scale projects from the times of the military dictatorship. They have also been criticizing a model that even conventional economic opinion considers to be founded on unsteady ground, as it relies on the exporting of raw materials and agrarian products – markets that are traditionally subject to considerable price fluctuations. Above all, however, critics say it is a development model that incurs considerable social and ecological damage as well as significant costs. This publication takes a closer look at this discrepancy between how Brazil is perceived by those outside of and within its borders. In doing so, we must bear in mind that the debate surrounding the Brazilian model is taking place within an international context, the parameters of which were summarized at the Rio+20 Conference. What kind of development do we want on the planet, what kind do we need, and what can we still achieve in the future? These should have been the main questions posed by a UN conference dealing with sustainable development, a “Rio+20,” in the year 2012.