Business-State Relations in Brazil

This book joins an empirically rich case study of port reform in Brazil with a penetrating argument about how vested interests can block even such beneficial initiatives as infrastructure development. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in business-state relations and institutional change in emerging economies. - Kathryn Hochstetler, Professor of International Development, LSE ' Brazil cost is a longstanding challenge that has just been made much more acute by the depth of the country's 2014/16 politico-economic upheavals. Mahrukh Doctor's major new contribution goes well beyond prior debates, and provides indispensable guidance both to the past and to the future. It incorporates the crucial political and social aspects of an issue that has too often been tackled from a decontextualized economic perspective. So it brings out the institutional mediations that help explain why change and reform has proved at best sluggish and incremental. This is not just an authoritative new contribution to Brazilian studies, but also a much needed spur to wider reanalysis of the challenges confronting many emerging market policymakers. - Laurence Whitehead, Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford, UK Given the renewed emphasis in Brazil on investment in infrastructure, this book, an analysis of the Port Modernization Law of 1993, is very timely. It should appeal not just to specialists in infrastructure and ports, but to anyone interested in business-state relations and state formation in the Global South. Written by one of the most astute contemporary observers of Brazilian political economy, the book helps us to understand why the reform of state institutions in Brazil is so often slow and incremental. - Anthony Pereira, Director, Brazil Institute, King's College London