New state activism in Brazil and the challenge for law

Abstract

There have been significant changes in government policy in Brazil since 2000, and these are having an influence on the law. Emerging from a limited experience with neoliberalism, the country has embraced new forms of state engagement in the economy and social relations. Because these changes are recent and may not yet have been fully consolidated, we follow Arbix and Martin by describing the resulting constellation as “new state activism” (NSA), a term that suggests neither a return to the past nor a clearly consolidated alternative model. Studies of state activism and law in Brazil show new roles emerging for legal institutions. New polices and institutions, including a new kind of industrial policy and a robust social policy, differ from both classic developmental state and neoliberal approaches. They favor a strong state and a strong market, employ public-private partnerships, seek to reduce inequality, and embrace the global economy. These policies require policy and rule flexibility, coordination among public actors and between them and the private sector, conditions to maximize synergy between public and private actors, and measures to preserve the legitimacy of government intervention. This, in turn, creates new roles for law. In the following sections we trace the emergence of NSA, identify its salient features, note how it differs from prior forms of state intervention, explore some of the forces that have shaped this new form of state action, and provide a preliminary assessment of the significance and challenge of these developments for the law. © Cambridge University Press 2013.