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BRAZIL AND INDIA.   Term Paper ID:30668 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Compares the political cultures of the two countries.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Compares the political cultures of the two countries. Problems of scarce resources, extensive poverty and inequality, and a weak position in the international economic system. Weak economices. Lack of opportunity for the majority of the population. Class stratification in urban Brazil. Threat of rural land reform. Caste system of India. Paper Introduction: COMPARATIVE POLITICS OF BRAZIL AND INDIA INTRODUCTION Scarce resources, extensive poverty and inequality, and a relatively weak position in the international economic system, shapes the politics and government of all less-developed states. In reviewing the political cultures of Brazil and India, it would appear that the issue of scarce resources as regards these states is more involved with the inability to get at and distribute the resources that exist in these countries. This is in both cases due to the extensive poverty and inequality that exist in these two countries. In both countries, this situation is the result of traditional political and social cultures, and the fact that their economies are relatively weak in comparison with the more dominant eco Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. 85). References Dutt, Sagarika (1998). India has beenshaped by remarkably diverse forces: ancient Hindu tradition, myth andscripture; the impact of Islam and Christianity; and two centuries ofBritish colonial rule. 545). The Politics of the Possible: TheBrazilian rural Workers' Trade Union Movement. Kochanek, Stanley A. Sharma, Shalendra D. 347-371.----------------------- 12 Politics and Social Change in Latin America: Still aDistinct Tradition. Morse, Richard (1992). Ironically, the governing alliance represents a politicallysuccessful combination of technocratic social democratic thinking andpatriarchal traditions within the common ground of neoliberalism (Roett,1992, p. In Brazil, southern Brazilian politics are based in patrimonialismwhile politics of northeastern Brazil are based in patriarchalism. 167). Maybury-Lewis, Biorn (1994). The freedom that girls enjoy isrestricted after they reach the age of puberty; in northern India, evenamong the Hindus, female seclusion is common (Kochanek, 1995, p. In both countries, this situation is the result of traditionalpolitical and social cultures, and the fact that their economies arerelatively weak in comparison with the more dominant economies of theglobal economic system; however, it can also be seen that the traditionalpolitical and social cultures create the conditions in which the economywill remain weak in comparison with the developed world. The ruralruling classes saw this unionism as a direct revolt against their authorityand power, and were enthusiastic in putting it down, while the corporatistsallied with the military saw suppressing the union movement in the citiesas being necessary for continued economic development involvingreinvestment of profits in future growth, rather than in providingincreased current benefits to the workers. September, Vol. In terms of modernizing the country, this universally-recognizedcaste system - which emphasizes acceptance of one's station in life -operates to kill the thing that any evolving society requires: an opennessof opportunity. This is not unlike the appeal of Islamic fundamentalism in otherdeveloping nations, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, since manyinvestors from the developed world do not wish to invest in countries runby such governments because of the fact that they end up stimulating socialunrest instead of stability, which creates conditions that are notconducive to safety of investment.THE STATE OF BRAZIL One should look at a country's political culture to get a grip oneconomic changes. The majority own some land, usually inscattered parcels, but a substantial number must rent all or part of theland they farm, either for cash or for an agreed-upon share of the harvest.Shares typically range from one third to one half the harvest. COMPARATIVE POLITICS OF BRAZIL AND INDIAINTRODUCTION Scarce resources, extensive poverty and inequality, and a relativelyweak position in the international economic system, shapes the politics andgovernment of all less-developed states. Each caste has its own origin myth,traditional occupation, rules relating to kinship, diet, and various formsof behavior. Through the current political alliance of parties, the traditionalpolitical elites of the largely-rural northeast have effectively protectedthemselves from the threat of serious land reform. A caste is a hereditary groupwhose members intermarry only among themselves. "Democracy, Neoliberalism and Growth WithEquity: Lessons from India and Chile." Contemporary South Asia; November1999; Vol. Additionally, this traditional society values males over females.Even though the government has officially abolished the dowry system, itstill exists in the society, and a poor family can go deeply into debt inorder to obtain the dowry to marry a daughter. 19, No. Philadelphia: TempleUniversity Press, 1994. Thispluralism is acknowledged in the way India arranges its own affairs: allgroups, faiths, tastes and ideologies flourish and contend. The difficulty in obtaining liberalization in Brazil, or any otherLatin American country, begins however in its political tradition. The way to achieve higher status in futureincarnations is to accept one's station in life and live accordingly (Dutt,1998, p. Land reform was aconceivable threat precisely because the political objective of the socialdemocratic policy-makers of the more-developed southern region of Brazilwas the reform of the current use of rural land in much of the northeast.Both parties still find themselves in alliance when it comes to theeconomic development of the country, in opposition to the working classtrade union movement which is opposed to both the traditional rural rulingclasses and the newer urban ruling classes, neither of which find it intheir interests to make improvements in the daily life of the common people(Maybury-Lewis, 1994, p. This traditional view of society and politics was opposed by thecorporatism which is the political creation of patrimonialism. Hinduism, which is followed in one way or anotherby over 8 percent of the population, has as its social mainstay a systemof castes that divide society. Brazil: Politics in a Patrimonial Society.Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Castes are graded in a social and ritual hierarchy in whicheach expects respect from inferior groups and gives respect to superiorones. One is modern and part of the widerglobal economy, though in both cases it benefits only a minority of theoverall population - and one that is traditional and even anti-modern, inwhich the majority of those who reside in that society have no hope of everbreaking out of it. As a result of the lack of opportunity for the majority of thepopulation, neither country can acheive its full potential, and thus willremain in a relatively weak position economically as regards the moreadvanced societies of the global economy. 16). This form of political organization particularly appealed to themilitary, with its heirarchical structure and top-down command system.This was reinforced during the period of military rule after the coup of1964. 349). The idea of India is of one land embracingmany. Political and social relations within a patriarchal entity tendtoward the "communal," whereas social relations in the patrimonial entity -outside of the relationship between members of the administration and theleader - can tend toward the "associational." That is, one of thedistinguishing characteristics between a patrimonial and patriarchal entityis that the latter is composed entirely of "members" while theother is composed of those who belong to the "administration" and those whodo not but are compelled to belong to the social entity through the threatof force (Morse, 1992, p. It is a nation of grat contrasts: there are seventeen majorlanguages and 22, district "dialects," some of which are spoken by morepeople than Danish or Norwegian, with a population of 94 million of everyethnic extraction known to the human race. The singular thing about India is that it can only be spoken of inthe plural. Instead, the Brazilian state was taken control of by its bureaucraticclass. "The Transformation of Interest Politicsin India." Pacific Affairs. Newer residentialdevelopments are like fortresses, with walls, gates and guards to keep thepoor out, and transportation into the offices of the city and other areaswhere the urban upper classes make their living is done by helicopter.CONCLUSIONS As was said at the outset, scarce resources, extensive poverty andinequality, and a relatively weak position in the international economicsystem, shapes the politics and government of all less-developed states. This class stratification has gotten to the point in urban Brazilwhere the upper middle and ruling classes do not even venture into thestreets of the major cities, let alone into the favelas. Western dictionaries define "secularism" as the absence of religion,but Indian secularism means a profusion of religions, none of which isprivileged by the state. 68, No. In Brazil, the economically-progressive south has its hillsidefavelas of people who live entirely outside the contemporary economy, andthe government makes virtually no effort to find any way of creatingopportunity for them; in the northeast, the largely-rural countryside isruled as it was when Brazil was an empire in the nineteenth century, withthe only change being the increased exploitation of the Amazon rain forest,which in the long run does not create conditions for real economicdevelopment in the country.THE STATE OF INDIA The idea of India is not based on language, not on geography, not onethnicity and not on religion. While the population is 51%illiterate, India has educated the world's second-largest pool of trainedscientists and engineers who write more original computer software than anyother country, yet four out of fiveIndians still barely scratch a living as peasant farmers in villages wherethere is no good supply of safe water and frequently no electricity (Dutt,1998, p. Winter, Vol. "Claims of Political Tradition," in Wiarda,Howard (1992). As state bureaucrats, workers, and private providers to the stateenterprises formed an alliance to prevent privatization, the currentadministration has mobilized politicians and electoral support for thatprocess. A state so largewas bound to crowd out the economic interests of at least some of Brazil'sbusiness class. Another factor which has distinguished advanced societieswith greater economic development is the inclusion of women in the greatereconomic and social life of the society. In both Brazil and India, extensive poverty and inequality, whichfind their roots in the traditional societies that formed the countries - aEuropean colonialist society in the case of Brazil and a religious-basedsociety in the case of India - with ruling groups which are unable forvarious reasons to see the long-term interests of the society require anopening of opportunity for the majority of the population, results in bothcountries having parallel societies. Girls are not as well-educated as boys and the system devalues their participation. Many observers have beenastonished by India's survival as a pluralist society (Dutt, 1998, p. 414). Roett, Riordan (1992). Patriarchalism does not contain the inherent logic necessary for, oris supportive of, the development of a strong state. 412). Manyfamilies, especially among the scheduled castes, have no land at all, andboth adults and children must sell their labor to the larger farmers, withno hope of changing their economic circumstances (Sharma, 1999, p. Everything exists in countless variants.There is no single standard, no fixed stereotype, no one way. 165). However, the military elite needed the traditional rural elite tomaintain effective control of the country, particularly in the face oftrade unionism in both the rural and urban working classes. The social groups with which Hindus identifymost strongly are their jatis, or castes. According to generally accepted beliefs associated withreincarnation, or rebirth after death, the caste into which one is borndepends on one's karma--that is, one's accumulated good and bad deeds inprevious existences. "Identities and the Indian State." Third WorldQuarterly. Its very existence challenged the notion that Braziliansociety could develop an active civil society, i.e., composed of groups notdirected by or economically dependent upon the state. Political authority isspread horizontally rather than vertically among "patriarchs." Thisdescribes the politics that developed in northeast Brazil and other partsof rural Brazil, where agrarian elites dominated politically throughalliances with each other, the state governors, and municipal mayors(Morse, 1992, p. In India, the basis of this situation is the Hindu caste system. When countries are unable to find solutions to persistenteconomic problems, it's usually a symptom of an underlying politicalproblem. 89). Theconceptualization as well as the practice of an active civil societyseparate from the state is based in a liberal tradition that for the mostpart has not been part of the dominant Brazilian political tradition(Roett, 1999, p. Eleven percent of the population are Muslim. (1995). The result is unique. Most villagers are farmers. Political liberalization involves the self-creation of a civilsociety that, for political purposes, is composed of associations freelyformed and joined by individuals with self-determined similar intereststhat can and do influence the rule-making and implementation process of thestate. Thetwo top castes constitute something less than fifteen percent of the totalpopulation, yet they have access to the best the society has to offer, withthe result that they control the overwhelming majority of the country'swealth, while the lowest caste, the "untouchables," constitutes theoverwhelming majority of the population and yet has virtually no access toany of the traditional ladders - education and job opportunity - that wouldbring them out of their poverty; many of the untouchables live outside themodern economy in conditions little changed since the time before thearrival of the British imperialists. Boulder: Westview Press. Through the period of "developmentalism" of the 1946 Republic andinto the military period, the Brazilian state become a bureaucratic entityresponsible for product and employment as well as the administration ofsocial programs such as health care and social security. The Brahmin constitute less than ten percent of the population; theyand the Yadav - the second-ranking caste - together account for onlyfifteen percent of the population. 4, Pgs. Regardless of one's talents, abilities or desires, inIndia the accident of birth controls the opportunity an individual can haveto make their way in the economic life of the country. Key to explaining the significance of the current politicalsituation in Brazil are the political concepts of "patrimonialism" and"patriarchalism," since these two philosophies underlie the politicalculture (Roett, 1992, p. In part,this distinguishes the two regions of the country in that southern Brazilis the more economically developed, with large cities and an industrialeconomy, while northeastern Brazil is more rural and traditional in itsoutlook. Such a traditional system cutsfifty percent of the possible talented contributors; while upper-casteIndian women do participate in the professions and business and politics,they constitute only a small minority of the total population and even aminority of the women in their castes. 8 No. All advanced countries have some form of more or less meritocraticadvancement for individuals within the society, under which a poor personcan - by the fruit of their efforts - rise to the upper ranks of society;while such advancement may be the exception rather than the rule, theopportunity does exist and the fact of that opportunity colors the waypeople in such a society conceive of themselves. 3; p. Although Islam, unlikeHinduism, stresses the equality of people, the institution of caste is sostrong in the subcontinent that it has affected the communities professingIslam and most other faiths. Such a structure is incompatible with liberal politics as well asbeing a major impediment to privatization - or to use the Portuguese word,"desestatização," which speaks directly to the idea of the state's undoing. 411-434. Politically, the rise of the Hindu nationalist BJP party has comefrom an appeal to the people with the least opportunity of changing theircircumstances, who feel the most threatened by the modernity that has beencreated. 3, Pgs. This is againan example of how a traditional society does not maximize the opportunityfor its major resource for renewal, growth and development - namely itshuman resource. This wasadopted by the Brazilian bourgeoisie as the way to jumpstart economicdevelopment in the country in the years after the Second World War. In reviewing the political cultures of Brazil and India, it wouldappear that the issue of scarce resources as regards these states is moreinvolved with the inability to get at and distribute the resources thatexist in these countries. (1999). This is in both cases due to the extensivepoverty and inequality that exist in these two countries. Thus, most Indian Muslims intermarry withingraded, castelike groups, many of which have traditional occupations. 417). There are many Indias. 34). 529-551. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.