Abstract

MACEDO CINTRA, Marcos Antonio. Dependence without development: the limits and contradictions of Brasil’s insertion into the international community in the nineties.Translated byIrén Castillo,  Mónica Pliego. Inv. Econ [online]. 2003, vol.63, n.243, pp.73-121. ISSN 0185-1667.

Monetary, financial and exchange crisis in Mexico (1995), in Southeast Asia (1997-98), in Russia and in Venezuela (1998), in Brazil and in Ecuador (1999) reveal a similar process underlying the economic and financial instability in peripheral countries, the so-called emergent markets. All these countries carried out capital account liberalisation and financial deregulation, the instability beginning with a considerable increase in capital inflows followed by an abrupt loss of international reserves. This paper represents an attempt at showing limits and contradictions inherent in such an economic strategy on the basis of the Brazilian economic stabilisation program implemented between June 1994 and January 1999 and later deepened with the depreciation of the Brazilian currency (real). The author argues that such an international insertion model has widened the country's external dependence in addition to not resulting in a development process capable of integrating the less privileged classes into the Brazilian society las a whole.