Linking Promises to Policies: Law and Development in an Unequal Brazil
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Diogo R. Coutinho
The 1988 Brazilian Constitution contains a wide variety of social and economic rights and expressly embraces development as a fundamental goal. For the results to be effective, however, constitutional provisions of this type require permanent implementation and articulation of public policies that, in turn, are intensely mediated by the law. Assuming that the legal dimension of social policies ultimately matters for development, the article seeks to identify and discuss the distributive effects caused by some Brazilian welfare institutions and their legal arrangements. After describing the regressive outcomes produced by the tax and pensions systems and arguing that such effects reinforce Brazilian's historically rooted deep inequality, the article discusses Programa Bolsa Família, a conditional cash transfer in Brazil, and presents the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on law and development (the LANDS project).
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction
- Linking Promises to Policies: Law and Development in an Unequal Brazil
- The Persistence of Formalism: Towards a Situated Critique beyond the Classic Separation of Powers
- Development Bank, Law and Innovation Financing in a New Brazilian Economy
- John Rawls' Justice as Fairness and the WTO: A Critical Analysis on the Initial Position of the Multilateral Agricultural Negotiation
- Turning Trips on Its Head: An "IP Cross Retaliation" Model for Developing Countries
- Exceptions and Limitations in Indian Copyright Law for Education: An Assessment
- The Indian Competition Act: A Historical and Developmental Perspective
- Transit and Trade Barriers in South Asia: Multilateral Obligations and Development Perspective
- Stock Market and Shareholder Protection: Are They Important for Economic Growth?
- Product Patents and Access to Medicines in India: A Critical Review of the Implementation of TRIPS Patent Regime
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction
- Linking Promises to Policies: Law and Development in an Unequal Brazil
- The Persistence of Formalism: Towards a Situated Critique beyond the Classic Separation of Powers
- Development Bank, Law and Innovation Financing in a New Brazilian Economy
- John Rawls' Justice as Fairness and the WTO: A Critical Analysis on the Initial Position of the Multilateral Agricultural Negotiation
- Turning Trips on Its Head: An "IP Cross Retaliation" Model for Developing Countries
- Exceptions and Limitations in Indian Copyright Law for Education: An Assessment
- The Indian Competition Act: A Historical and Developmental Perspective
- Transit and Trade Barriers in South Asia: Multilateral Obligations and Development Perspective
- Stock Market and Shareholder Protection: Are They Important for Economic Growth?
- Product Patents and Access to Medicines in India: A Critical Review of the Implementation of TRIPS Patent Regime
