ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on uneven economic performance and on two dimensions of the evolving Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) forum. The first dimension is the gradual and persistent institutionalization of the bloc. The second dimension is the outreach process and its regional and global dilemmas. The critical position of BRICS regarding global neoliberalism contrasts with the political path adopted by Brazil since the coup in August 2016. Brazil has been applying severe austerity policies based on a neoliberal script, thus showing the intrinsic contradiction at the heart of the evolving institutional consolidation of BRICS. The final declaration reiterated the importance of international cooperation while stressing the need for reform of the international financial institutions to ensure that the systemic importance of the BRICS countries would be institutionally recognized. Certain tendencies are evident when it comes to institutional densification.
