Introduction

Holders of Brazilian foreign debt may talk of privatization, but it is unlikely to go far. After 1967, the Brazilian economy was partially reoriented toward export-led growth. Conciliation, pragmatism and cooptation, the methods by which Brazilian elites have traditionally managed change, were confirmed again in 1985 as enduring features of the political culture. The 1984 Lei de Informatica matica which reserves large sectors of the computer and information industries to Brazilian national companies is a case in point. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to ease the impoverishment of Brazil's lower classes, to create enough wealth so that what Brazilians call the "social debt" of illiteracy, poor health and low incomes can be addressed, in sum to create a more just society. Coalition-building may be as Brazilian as rice and beans, but so is party fragmentation. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.