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Abstract
The field of international development has undergone major shifts as South–South cooperation expands. New questions are being raised about the political implications of this cooperation, including with respect to democracy and human rights. In this paper, we analyse the role of Brazil, a democratic provider of South–South cooperation, in fomenting these principles in Africa. We find that explicit democracy promotion makes up a minority of Brazil’s cooperation with Africa. However, Brazil also engages in social policy initiatives which, despite not being labelled as democracy and human rights promotion, are inspired by Brazil’s own experiences with re-democratization—what we refer to as “democratization by association”. We argue that these initiatives—mostly geared towards institution-building in areas where Brazil seeks to promote itself as a hotbed of policy innovation—are disembedded from the political context in which they arose in Brazil. While this disembeddedness allows the Brazilian state to maintain its official discourse of non-interference, it also makes the political impact of Brazilian cooperation in Africa highly uncertain.
Notes
The article was inspired by a paper presented at the conference “Promoting Democracy: What Role for the Emerging Powers?”, held on 15 and 16 October 2013 in Ottawa, Canada and organized by Gerd Schonwalder from the German Development Institute. The authors thank Gerd Schonwalder and the other conference participants for the comments and suggestions.
1 Al-Arief, Citation2014.
2 The full text of the decree, in Portuguese, can be accessed at: <http://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/decret/1980-1987/decreto-91524-9-agosto-1985-441903-publicacaooriginal-1-pe.html>.
3 Ferderative Republic of Brazil, 1988.
4 With respect to bilateral relations with Equatorial Guinea, for instance, officials presented the sharing of good practices such as Bolsa Família as potentially leading to improvements in the partner country.
5 Uchoa, Citation2010.
6 An Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Humanitarian Action encompassing 11 ministries was created in 2006 to improve coordination. In 2006, Brazil provided humanitarian assistance to only two countries; by 2008, that number stood at nearly 20 countries. Ministério das Relações Exteriores.
7 Murta, Citation2011.
8 Within civil society, one of the most vocal critics of Brazilian foreign policy has been the São Paulo-based human rights NGO Conectas. <http://www.conectas.org/en/actions/foreign-policy>.
9 The corresponding author participated in the MRE Dialogues in March 2014, in Brasília. More information is available on the MRE website: <http://diplomaciapublica.itamaraty.gov.br/itamaraty/60-dialogos-sobre-politica-externa-um-debate-entre-governo-e-sociedade-sobre-o-papel-do-brasil-no-mundo>.
10 Asano and Waisbich, Citation2014.
11 Tribunal Regional Eleitoral do Rio Grande do Sul (2006) ‘Voto eletrônico: Edição comemorativa’ Porto Alegre.
12 <http://www.abc.gov.br/>.
13 US Department of State (2011) ‘Open government partnership: first high level meeting—fact sheet’ Washington: 17 April 2012.
14 Interview conducted by the authors with FIOCRUZ technician serving at the factory in the Maputo province. Maputo, Mozambique, November 2013.
15 The factory’s impact on Mozambique’s approach to HIV/AIDS is also limited by competing views by donors on how to address the epidemic. Interview by Danilo Marcondes with FIOCRUZ staff member in Brasília, December 2014.
17 Interview with Brazilian diplomat, conducted by Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Brasília, May 2014.
18 Remarks by a senior Brazilian diplomat at workshop held in Rio de Janeiro under Chatham House rule in February 2015.