Desenvolvimento e subdesenvolvimento na periferia: comparação entre a abertura econômica do Brasil e China na década de 1990.

Abstract

How did Brazil and China conduct their economic opening policies in the face of the expansion of neoliberalism in the 1990s? It is common practice in International Relations to observe that economic disparities influence interstate behavior. In light of this, and based on a theoretical approach anchored in the Development Theories of International Political Economy, the object of study is the Brazilian and Chinese economies in the face of the Washington Consensus. The research is based on the central argument that the measures adopted by Brazil in its economic opening process favored the primary sector, while in China the industrial sector was expanded. In order to verify this argument, the general objective of the research is to analyze the economic policies adopted by the Brazilian and Chinese governments in the 1990s. The specific objectives are: (i) Contextualize the historical period that led to the expansion of the neoliberal doctrine in the 1990s; (ii) Identify the characteristics of the economic policy of economic openness adopted by Brazil and China; and (iii) Compare the degree of economic openness and the trade balances of Brazil and China based on the indicators of Export Effort and Import Dependence. This exploratory research is based on a qualitative and comparative methodological approach to a case study, adopting mixed methods for data analysis. On the qualitative side, the research involves a process tracing to identify factors that conditioned the economic opening up of Brazil and China. On the quantitative side, it measures the economic openness of the countries. As a result, it is considered that Brazil's economic opening has favored its primary sector, while China's has favored its industrial sector, thus validating the central argument of the research.