The Collor Administration: Liberal reformism and the New Brazilian foreign policy

Abstract

This article discusses liberalization during the Fernando Collor Administration (1990-1992), seeking to demonstrate that the process was far more complex than the academic literature has acknowledged. The argument is that liberal reformism was dually inspired, namely by neoliberalism and the "competitive integration" project, and that it met resistance from both proponents of national developmentalism and its distributive version. It addition to schematically reconstructing these sets of ideals, the article discusses various state policies inspired by them, including foreign policy, foreign trade reform, privatization, etc. Finally, it seeks to identify the agents that sustained such policies and ideals. The article concludes with the overall results and suggestions for further research on the theme.