Brazil

In this report, I’m going to develop the competitive advantage of Brazil with Michael Porter’s theory. 1. Factor Conditions: Brazil has a great number of natural resources, especially at Amazon Planitia and the south of Brazil. There has fertile soil and enough facilities. In Brazil, labors don’t cost too much, it’s good for a country to prosper in its agriculture, industry and tertiary sector. The skills and average education level of people in Brazil is not so good but not so bad.

There are many people with skills and good education in some big cities in Brazil, but the conditions in those small cities are not so good. There is a gap between big cities and small cities. 2. Demand Conditions: Brazil has a large market in its large land. People in big cities like St. Paulo and Rio de Janeiro would prefer sophisticated products, but the degree of consumer sophistication may not be so high in small cities. 3. Suppliers: The major industry of Brazil is agriculture.

Brazil is also good in automobile industry, iron and steel industry, petrochemical industry, computer industry, aviation industry and durable consumer goods manufacture. The supporting companies of these industries are easy to be located in the same area. Brazil used to need a lot of oil to be imported, but the percentage of the oil needed to be imported has reduced from 70% to 33%. That is what the government wants. 4. The firm’s strategy and structure as well as rivalry among competitors: Brazil is the most industrial developed country in Latin America.

Brazil also has various mature manufactures. It has already gotten plenty of investment from America. Now in Brazil, some privatization issues are faced by department of insurance. The economy of Brazil is growing and there are strong competitions between businesses. Conclusion: Brazil does have some competitive advantage. It bases on the well development of some main cities like St. Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. But if Brazil want to get more competitive advantage, the government must solve the problem of the imbalance between big cities and small cities.

Thatiana Salinas

Deforestation is a longer-term change of the forest to several other sorts of ecosystems, for illustration agricultural or residential land. Sometimes, on the other manus, the name is used as an indicant to some state of affairss in which woods are concerned, for case by distinct crop, even if another forest accordingly regenerates in its topographic point. A assortment of human activities consequences in net losingss of forest country and accordingly contributes to some of the causes of deforestation. One of the primary grounds for deforestation can be the construct of new agricultural land and an untenable harvest home of trees.

Today, Brazil rain woods, and the 1000000s of animals that live within them, are in danger. Earths largest rain wood is found on the Amazon River in South America. It is 5.2 square kilometres in size. Taking up merely 6 to 7 per centum of the planet ‘s land surface. It is home to more than half of the universe ‘s animate being and works species. Scientists believe that several species become nonextant every twenty-four hours. Extinction is taking topographic point because the rain woods are being destroyed. About one and a half square stat mis of Amazon rain forest, is destroyed every hr. Although, one of the most of import planetary environmental issues today is the deforestation in Brazils rain forests ; Trees are being cut down at increasingly higher and higher rates. If this is non stopped many critical side effects could ensue.

During the past 40 old ages, about 20 per centum of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down. Since early European colonisation began in the Amazon more than 450 old ages ago, less trees were cut down in that whole clip than the past 40 old ages. Countless others suffer uncertainness and fright, as their lives are being threatened by those who want to gain from the larceny of land and lumber.

Deforestation in Amazonia has proceeded with a sequence of assorted forces in different epochs. An epoch known as “The Amazon Rubber Boom” lasted from 1880 during the creative activity of the pneumatic tyre to the start of the commercial production of gum elastic from plantations in 1914 in Southeast Asia. Much of the agricultural land was discarded to inferior forest when the gum elastic roar collapsed.

The expression of altered or ruined countries in Amazonia is straight connected to the patterned advance of human business. Human engagement in the wood is centuries-old ; they would do usage of the trees for wood or the woods non-wood merchandises, or for the public presentation of conventional slash-and-burn agribusiness and barbarous cattle-raising.

A good portion of business began in the early 1940s, by the creative activity of the “Superintendence of the Plan for the Economic Valorization of Amazonia or SPVEA.” The major achievement was the building of the Belem-Brasilia main road in the sixtiess, which in add-on, started the pattern of disforesting near the roads for the constitution of small towns and colonies. Quickly, extra roads were constructed with revenue enhancement clauses, such as the Trans-Amazonia Highway, were formed for small-scale agribusiness and concentrated cattle-raising in those colonies. Finally, by the mid-1970s the decentralized rural-model had failed, a program of large-scale undertakings was implemented as an option with a significant add-on of financess toward largely the extraction of wood, cattle-raising, energy-manufacturing enterprises and the excavation of ore.

As a consequence, the most of import development undertakings such as “Polamazonia” and “Grande Carajas” reciprocally came to be with the gap of the Belem-Brasilia main road. These undertakings contributed to the deforestation of the Amazon. This signifier of advancement based on large-scale undertakings that are still in action such as the alleged “axes of regional development” , “Avanca Brazil” and “Brazil em Acao” , besides related to the gap and pavement of roadways, by a highly controversial environmental impact vs. benefit rate.

The societal factors are infinite and hard to understand. We all have heard plenty information and concerns about salvaging the Brazilian rain forest, but few of us, outside the scientific group of people in fact understand why a group of trees in South America are of import to us. Fewer still recognize the societal, and finally economic, costs that will roll up now and when the rain forest of Amazonia is wiped from the face of the Earth.

One of the primary grounds of deforestation in Brazil ‘s Amazon is the harvest home of its timber, but there are several other grounds for the same issue. Commercial lumbermans devastate monolithic countries of the forest to reap the trees they want. Not merely are the trees torn down but their lianas and vines are torn down with them every bit good, that are connected to other trees. As these are lacerate down, these lianas and vine signifier immense canopies above the forest floor come down with them every bit good. As the short pantss of these trees are removed it is believed that they cause extra harm to anything in their way as they are heedlessly pulled throughout the rain forest. The extra weight of the big machinery besides compact ‘s the soft dirt of the Amazon with their big piece of lands, doing it about impossible to reconstruct itself to its natural province.

A major menace to Brazil ‘s biodiversity is commercial agribusiness as the agriculture of soya beans and raising cowss are among some of the most terrible instances of deforestation in the Amazon.

Indefensible subsistence agriculture is besides believed to endanger the Amazon. At one point in clip, many colonists who migrated to Brazil were encouraged to settle in the part of the Amazon. As they began farming they continued to farm utilizing the procedures they learned from where they were from alternatively of accommodating the manner they would farm. Unfortunately the manner they farmed the land which was suited for other dirts and climes, they were non equal for the Amazon country. Resulting in migrators being forced to relocate go oning to do what is believed as a rhythm of devastation, because the land productiveness in the Amazon normally declines aggressively after approximately three to four old ages.

In the wood, excavation is besides a subscriber due to the big equipment that is known to interrupt life in the country, which besides forces the native folks to populate elsewhere and pollutes the air. As an illustration, hydroelectric dikes have been built in Brazil because its authorities had feared of an energy deficit. Due to this fear several big countries of the Amazon were leveled to construct the energy bring forthing dikes. The edifice of these dikes developed concerns of eroding around the country. The adjacent animate beings and folks to the dikes were forced to travel. An eruption of several H2O borne diseases due to the dikes caused taint in the country.

During a 3 twelvemonth survey in Sao Paulo, Brazil, referenced as the “The Greenpeace study – Butchering the Amazon” is a elaborate expression into the states cattle industry, the state ‘s chief supply of CO2 emanations every bit good as the largest individual driving beginning of deforestation on record anywhere in the universe. Deforestation is considered so unsafe due to the C dioxide that is produced by all states and is turned into O in the forest photosynthesis. The survey exposed the Brazilian authorities ‘s engagement in bankrolling deforestation of the Amazon, every bit good as bring outing many of the top name shoe trade names need for leather – such as Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Timberland, may hold caused cattle ranchers to illicitly and unjustly slaughter animate beings in the Amazon.

Besides mentioned in the study “Slaughtering the Amazon” , the trailing of leather, beef, and other related cowss merchandises that are manufactured by spreads that are besides involved in condemnable and illegal deforestation of the Amazon as they supply these merchandises to processing workss, distributors, and in conclusion the consumer populace. This study besides uncovers the demand to stop deforestation in the Amazon for its cattle population and the critical demand of holding people, industry, and authoritiess jointly cooperate to set up a cosmopolitan solution that protects our tropical woods to assist command the result of alterations to our clime better known as Global Warming.

Brazil ‘s rain wood is known to hold the 4th largest emmittence of nursery gasses in the universe which is mostly in portion of deforestation-related emanations. Rain woods are critical to making a balance to the universe ‘s clime due to the fact that they can hive away such a monolithic supply of C. In our Earths forest there is about 150 per centum more C stored than there is in the Earth ‘s ambiance. It is likely that in the Brazil rain forest, it is believed to hive away someplace about 80 to 120 billion dozenss of C. It is besides believed that if the Amazon were to no longer be, due to deforestation, it would let go of someplace in the country of 50 times the one-year nursery gas emanations that is produced in United States. If we want to besides forestall black alteration in clime, we need to continue our universe ‘s rain forests. Deforestation of our tropical rain woods can be responsible for up to 20 per centum of the universe ‘s nursery gas emanations, bring forthing more than all the autos, trains, planes, trucks, and ships in the combined in the universe today combined. This is precisely why organisations as Greenpeace are buttonholing for a Zero Deforestation in the Amazon. Greenpeace is besides buttonholing for world-wide solutions to forestalling deforestation every bit good as clime alteration.

The rain forest is one of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems in the universe. Very few ecosystem biomes that were in being during the clip of the dinosaurs still exist today, but scientists say that the rain forests is one of them. This big country of clip has allowed animate beings and workss to germinate into an astonishing array of vegetations and zoologies of every colour, form, size, texture, and familial sequence.

25 per centum of prescription drugs used in the United States came from workss in the rain forest. Because the huge bulk of the Amazon rain forest has non been catalogued, the exact figure of species in the Amazon rain forest is unknown. The World Bank estimates that. 10 per centum of all the universe ‘s species live in the Brazilian Amazon and most of them are found merely in that country.

Despite the attempts of our authoritiess and many environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, the devastation of the Brazils rain wood has continued and has all but slowed it down for old ages. There are many grounds that salvaging the Amazon is immensely of import for many grounds. First, in the United States entirely about 25 per centum of the pharmaceuticals come from the workss in the Amazon. The Amazon rain wood besides plays a major function in the forms of our conditions… .globally. Last but non least, the Amazon rain wood is the place for 1000s of different sorts of workss, mammals, and birds. Destroying the Amazon means destructing the different signifiers of life that inhabit it. The legion menaces to the Amazon are can include commercial logging, urban growing, and international corporations. In the recent old ages, some advancement has been made in the battle to salvage the Amazon rain wood. In April 1998, a new enterprise established a protected country of 25 million hectares ( 62 million estates ) , with programs to increase this protected country in the hereafter.

Brazil is a land of extraordinary beauty and uncomparable biological diverseness. Due to this ground, deforestation in the Amazon is peculiarly distressing. As the losingss to our environment and the debasement of the rain forests have avoided acquiring to the point of ruin, the on-going disappearing of wild lands and loss of species is dismaying.

Biodiversity is what makes life on Earth habitable for all signifiers of life. By extinguishing hotbeds of biodiversity, such as the Amazon rain forest, we are non merely destructing a portion of the universe but besides a portion of our ego. Biodiversity can reconstruct itself to its natural province after deforestation Michigans, until this happens ; the go oning loss of accomplished species will do the Earth a rather crowded, but lonely topographic point.

History has shown that to reconstruct the biodiversity to the point it was prior to extinction happening it has been believed to take every bit much as five million old ages. Our actions today can make up one’s mind if Earth will be biologically corrupted for the following 500 trillion or more worlds that will populate on the Earth during that future period of clip.

In 2008 Brazil made an proclamation that it was traveling to do an attempt to cut down deforestation in the Amazon by up to 50 per centum in the following 10 old ages, this has led them to be opposed to forest beginnings, doing the statement that it allows states higher in wealth to non pay emanations cuts

One of the jobs is how to measure up a wood ‘s present and future stock in C. Whether or non these credits, known as C credits, would be interchangeable with credits from other countries such as a power reproduction works, poses another inquiry. An easier solution would be to hold states receive a payment based on the size of the woods that exist in their ain land. If these states were to go on damaging woods, they would be denied entree to these payments.

Another important obstruction would be the inquiry is the distribution of the money received from the credits earned by the forest states. Even though who has the right to the land is frequently disputed, merely because the autochthonal people would frequently hold no legal paperss. One of the concerns are that if local occupants do non profit from this plan, that they will be less willing to take part in the saving their woods.

Brazil has already started an option to countervail the harm to its woods: Protection of the Amazon is an international fund. Through 2015 Norway has pledged more than 1 billion dollars to this fund. Norway has agreed to go on to donate more money every twelvemonth, but under the lone status that Brazil can go on to demo deforestation has reduced in from the old twelvemonth. As a consequence destitute households in Brazil can use can have assistance to help them in the Restoration and protection of the woods they own in an sum of upward to 1,500 dollars per twelvemonth. Brazil ‘s Government reported that as of June 2009 it was on gait to hold the lowest rate of deforestation in 20 old ages.

The events that are doing deforestation are go oning while you are reading these words and equal the devastation of Earth natural catastrophes, such as, “global ice ages, planetal hits, atmospheric toxic condition, and fluctuations in solar radiation.” The ground is that these events that result in deforestation are being caused by worlds and our determinations. We are the last line of defence every bit good as the best hope for life as we know it on our planet.

The world that Brazil ‘s rain forest is vanishing is incontestible. Whether it is traveling in fast or decelerate velocity does non count at this point. We, as a humanity society need to help and protect the rain forests non merely because of their beauty, but for the ground that how of import it is for our planet this balance with nature. As I mentioned before, the job does non impact merely Brazil, it is a large issue whose effects will impact each populating thing on this Earth. Except if we take action right now, because tomorrow can be excessively late.

Plants Cited

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Butler, Rhett A. Mongabay – Amazon cowss ranching histories for half of Brazil ‘s CO2 emanations. 12 December 2009. 22 December 2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //news.mongabay.com/2009/1211-brazil_ranching.html & gt ; .

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Vieira, ICG. Brazilian Journal of Biology. 30 November 2008. 13 November 2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scielo.br/scielo.php? script=sci_arttext & amp ; pid=S1519-69842008000500004 & A ; lng=e & A ; nrm=iso & A ; tlng=e & gt ; .

Wallace, Scott. National Geographic. January 2007. 19 December 2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/last-of-amazon.html & gt ; .

Butler, Rhett A. “Diversities of Image – Rainforest Biodiversity.” Mongabay.com / A Topographic point Out of Time: Tropical Rain forests and the Perils They Face. 9 January 2006. hypertext transfer protocol: //rainforests.mongabay.com/0305.htm.

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O’Connor, Geoffrey. Amazon Jornal. New York: Dutton, 1997.

Siy, Alexandra. The Brazilian Rain Forest. New York: Dillon, 1992.

Echeverria, Monica. Falling Amazon deforestation rates create chance for other damaged woods. 23 November 2009. 13 December 2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2009/WWFPresitem14352.html & gt ; .

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Lindsey, Rebecca. Earth Observatory: How Fire is transforming the Amazon. 8 June 2004. 16 December 2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/AmazonFire/ & gt ; .

Carnegie Institution. “Breakthrough in Monitoring Tropical Deforestation Announced in Copenhagen.” ScienceDaily 11 December 2009. 17 December 2009 & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.sciencedaily.comA­ /releases/2009/12/091210101359.htm & gt ; .

Privatization and Advertising in Public Space The fight to take over the world has begun. This fight is between big corporate companies and their race to take over the most public space and plaster it with their advertisements or just simply control it. In this paper I will examine a variety of opinions on how they have invaded public space and if this invasion is benefiting the public or not. In some cases when big companies come take over in a public location it can be positive.

Shea Stadium, although it was not exactly public, was greatly improved when Citigroup bought it and rebuilt the park. It improved the viewing experience at the Mets games and Citigroup gets publicity because people associate the park with them. Many people say that this sort of privatization by a big company can have numerous positive effects for people who use the space. Boston’s South Station has also been privatized in recent years. “The MBTA entered into a ground lease with Beacon South Station Associates, a wholly owned entity of Beacon Properties Corporation, on January 28, 1988”.

The MBTA still uses the station for the trains and buses but the company that leases it can set its own rules for within the space and has the right to sell advertising space within the station. Although commuters can still use the space for travel purposes the space is no longer public. During Occupy Boston the protesters peacefully assembled in South Station when the weather became colder but were asked to leave by police because there were not allowed to congregate there per rules of the company leasing the space.

According so Una Spencer, an activist and protester during the occupy movement, “everywhere we are encountering “public” spaces which we are told are under control of private companies”. She also mentions that’s our taxes are being used to police these areas that are owned by private companies. Spenser is “seeing is a chipping away of our civil rights from many directions” and our tax dollars are paying the police who keep us from practicing these rights.

David Morris, co-founder and vice president of Institute for Local Self-Reliance, brings forward the idea that companies should “compete on an equal footing, and where those with the most money do not necessarily speak in the loudest voice. ” Sometimes companies with the most money are able to get their name out more that a smaller company through advertising. By having ads plastered around a city, a consumer is more likely to choose that company’s product than a smaller company. He believes that by seeing ads for specific companies stifles our ability to choose freely between different things.

Morris believes in having public spaces where people within a community can congregate that is free of commercialism where people can share ideas. In Sao Paulo, Brazil people are in agreement with ideas similar to Morris’s and laws are being put into place to remove advertising. Larry Rohter, American journalist, covered the decision in Sao Paulo, Brazil to remove all advertising from the city. Sao Paulo is South America’s largest and most prosperous city and there has been much controversy over the law.

Rohter quotes Brazilian columnist Roberto Pompeu de Toledo saying the law “is a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash. ” One controversy over this law is that people who work for companies creating advertising may lose jobs. Big companies who’s advertisements will be taken down are claiming “consumers will be less informed in their purchasing decisions and even that streets will be less safe at night with the loss of illumination from signs. Not only would the law ban billboards, but it would also ban ads on buses, blimps, and plains, and restrict the size of signs that stores would be allowed to have. Rohter reported one women in Sao Paulo saying “the truth is that there are so many banners, billboards, placards, signs, and posters all over the place that they’ve lost their impact. ” The mayor or Sao Paulo talks about bringing advertising back in the future, but with many restrictions and limitations. The city will become “an outdoor metropolis with no outdoor advertising. The Internet is another place that has become a common ground for advertising. Facebook used to be a free online community created by a group of college kids. Initially Facebook was supposed to be free of advertisements and that set it apart from other social networking sites. Now, not only does Facebook have advertisements, the advertisements are tailor made to each user based on that person’s likes and activities posted on their profile. On my Facebook is see ads for snowboard websites because I have the posted as one of my activities.

Facebook says it needs to have ads because it keeps Facebook free for users. They say it’s also beneficial for advertisers because the right group of people will see their ads. The Internet is just another place where companies are fighting to broadcast to more customers. Along with the Internet, companies also have influence in restaurants, a place where we may not have even suspected it. Have you ever been to a restaurant and when you ordered a coke and the waitress asks, “is Pepsi ok? This is because restaurants have deals with soda companies and they “receive additional benefits when they decide to be exclusive. ” By having restaurants that are exclusive the soda company theoretically has won that restaurant over and all the customers in that restaurant. It’s like a war to see which soda companies can have the most restaurants exclusively sell their soda. After careful consideration of all these opinions I cannot say I have come to a final conclusion on advertising in public space. I can see how in some cases advertising and privatization have gone overboard.

Losing our ability to congregate in South Station seems a little absurd to me because our tax dollars are paying to enforce laws that are keeping us out of a once public space. However, what would a place like Time Square in New York City be without its huge glowing billboards and signs? And in Sao Paulo they are outlawing blimps as a part of the anti-billboard law, and I think of Boston’s Hood blimp that I can see on the skyline from my dorm room window. Is it really such an obstruction to public space? I don’t think so. And it also doesn’t affect what milk I choose to drink because I still am not a big fan of hood milk.

In my opinion the best solution would be to haves stricter laws about advertising and privatization. I think Time Square would lose all its magic if the ads were to be taken off the buildings but in places like schools advertising should really be obsolete. As for privatization, I think if a public space is going to be privatized then public dollars should not be used in that space in any way. In South Station the Transit Police should not be enforcing rules put in place by a private organization when it is tax dollars paying the transit police, not the company.

I think it’s a pretty fine line and it is the responsibility of government officials to get the balance between public space, advertising, and privatization right. Bibliography “Advertising on Facebook. ” Facebook. 2 Oct 2012. https://www. facebook. com/about/ads/ Morris, David. “Curbing the Commercialization of Public Space. ” Institute for Local Self-Reliance. 15 Jan 2009. 2 Oct 2012. http://www. ilsr. org/curbing-commercialization-public-space/ Rohter, Larry. “Streets are Paved with Neon’s Glare, and City Calls a Halt. ” New York Times. 2 Dec 2006. 2 Oct 2012. ://www. nytimes. com/2006/12/12/world/Americas/12paulo. html? pagewanted=print&_r=0 Spenser, Una. “Occupy Boston: the Privatizing of Public Spaces. ” Daily Kos. 30 Oct 2011. 2 Oct 2012. http://www. dailykos. com/story/2011/10/30/1031512/-Occupy-Boston-the-privatizing-of-public-spaces “Why Aren’t Coke and Pepsi Sold Together at Restaurants? ” Xatal. 12 Mar 2009. 2 Oct 2012. http://xatal. com/miscellaneous/why-arent-coke-and-pepsi-sold-together-at-restaurants/ ——————————————– [ 1 ].

Una Spenser. “Occupy Boston: the Privatizing of Public Spaces. ” Daily Kos. 30 Oct 2011. 2 Oct 2012. http://www. dailykos. com/story/2011/10/30/1031512/-Occupy-Boston-the-privatizing-of-public-spaces [ 2 ]. Una Spenser. “Occupy Boston: the Privatizing of Public Spaces. ” Daily Kos. 30 Oct 2011. 2 Oct 2012. http://www. dailykos. com/story/2011/10/30/1031512/-Occupy-Boston-the-privatizing-of-public-spaces [ 3 ]. Ibid [ 4 ]. David Morris. “Curbing the Commercialization of Public Space. ” Institute for Local Self-Reliance. 15 Jan 2009. 2 Oct 2012.

Paraguay’s economy has constantly been improving over the years despite some set-backs they must face. Since they are a land-locked country, they do not have as many resources as most of its surrounding countries. They must rely mostly on agriculture for their main exports. As for Paraguay’s government and political conditions, they now have a president elected for a 5-year term. There are many different political parties, and the type of government Paraguay runs under is constitutional republic. Unlike Paraguay’s surrounding countries, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, it is land-locked therefore giving them fewer resources than their neighbors.

With a predominantly agricultural economy, Paraguay is most dependent on these products. Conflict theory can be applied in a very large scale, to the country of Paraguay as a whole. Paraguay’s resources are much scarcer then others and they must compete and work hard for what they do have. The larger countries with the ocean as a resource have more power; therefore Paraguay will do what they must to get what they need from other countries. This provides the country with a difficult struggle trying to balance out their economy. However, their economy has been improving.

There is a large amount of underemployment and unemployment in the economy. Nearly 35% of Paraguay’s population is unemployed. Those who do work, work mostly in agricultural jobs since that is Paraguay’s main export. The country has vast hydroelectric resources, including the world’s second-largest hydroelectric generation facility built and operated jointly with Brazil. One large resource they lack that many others do not is petroleum resources. The economy is dependent on exports of cattle, soybeans, timber, cotton, grains, and sugar; electricity generation.

Paraguay also re-exports products made elsewhere to Brazil and Argentina. Paraguay is a major illegal producer of marijuana and most or the entire product goes to Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Paraguay’s gross domestic product rose from 12. 8 billion to 16. 1 billion dollars, which was a 26% increase. Also, the foreign exchange reserves rose 33% to 3. 2 billion. Although Paraguay struggles with their range and certain aspects of their economy, it has constantly been improving over time. Paraguay’s government is highly centralized, which was changed by the 1992 constitution, which provides for division of powers. The president, who is popularly elected for a 5-year term, then appoints a cabinet. Paraguay has a bicameral Congress which consists of an 80-member Chamber of Deputies and a 45-member Senate, elected with the president through a comparative representation system. The Deputies are elected by department and senators are elected nationwide. Paraguay’s government also follows the three branches of government. The president alone comprises the Executive branch. Legislative is made up of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Lastly, the Judicial branch belongs to the Supreme Court of Justice.

The A governor elected by a popular vote heads each of Paraguay’s 17 departments. Paraguay has some limits with its economy, however has improved drastically and will continue to do so. Looking at the large increase in the GDP, Paraguay’s overall economic status has been bringing in more money, which will only help improve the country’s economy. They have a strong market for agriculture which brings in most of their revenue. As for their government, it could be somewhat comparable to the United States. Their president has a longer, 5 year term, and there are lower braches and houses in government that help run the country.

Describe how and why the fertility rate in Brazil is changing Brazil, along with Russia, India and China (known collectively as the BRIC countries) is industrialising rapidly and going through dramatic demographic change. Its rate of growth has far exceeded that of current MEDCs, experiencing in 25 years the kind of change that would be expected in 100 years. The changes range from the economy, the industry and agriculture to the population and trends associated with it.

As of 2011 the fertility rate in Brazil is a mere 1. 83, far lower than the other BRIC countries. For example the fertility rate of India is currently 2. 62. Brazil’s story is abnormal as its fertility rate is below the replacement rate (2. 1), especially when considering that much of the working population is still involved in agriculture and industry. The reasons for the sharp decline in fertility are similar to those associated with development, albeit Brazil has experienced these over a much shorter period of time.

Education has improved drastically in the past 50 years in brazil; state-funded education is now compulsory for children aged 6-14 with most children continuing their studies beyond this. By the 1980s education reached a level of equality for boys and girls, but perhaps surprisingly females on average continued their studies for 1. 3 years longer than males (as of 2000). This shows that women are much more career driven than they used to be in the 1960s, when women were a small part of the total workforce.

As of 2000 this has completely turned on its head, with women making up 54% of the working population. In the past if a woman did have a job it tended to be low-responsibility with mediocre career prospects and pay, but now many women occupy important roles in society and earn large salaries. With women now working more they have less desire to start a family. This means that they put off marriage until a lot later in life, meaning that when they do settle down they have less time to have children.

Television has played a surprisingly large role in this change, and has a large influence on the lives of many Brazilians. ‘Novelas’ (soap operas) are extremely popular and have altered the way many people live. The people in these novelas always have small families (3-4 people) and the children are usually well stocked with the latest gadgets such as mobile phones. It is assumed that many Brazilians aspire to live this kind of life and many will take note that this is partly down to small families. The female characters are often particularly strong-willed, successful business omen who focus on their career over their love life. President Dilma Rousseff reinforces this statement and has one child, a daughter, and has proved that women can lead extremely successful lives in Brazil. President Rousseff, along with other women’s rights campaigners, helped take down the problem of ‘machismo’ in Brazil. An example of their protection of women is separate ‘women only’ carriages on night trains to prevent rape. Advertisements on tv and bill boards promoting contraception and family planning are also omnipresent.

The incredibly high accessibility to contraception, abortions and family planning services is an incredibly significant reason for changing fertility rates in Brazil. It is surprising considering the country’s catholic beliefs which rejects all forms of contraception and birth-prevention. As a result of this abortions are still only allowed in the case of rape or threat to the mother. Despite this illegal abortions are commonplace and over-the-counter drugs that initiate termination are easy to come by. Despite being strictly illegal little is done to stop this.

Whilst abortion does remain a sensitive subject (as it does in most countries) contraception is freely available. In fact a 2011 survey showed that 85% of Brazilians were against amendments to the abortion law. Many doctor’s surgeries go so far as to give out condoms for free especially in cities and favelas where fertility is at its highest. Urbanisation in Brazil has been very rapid due to the increased industry. Many live in favelas, and much of the rest of the urban population lives in cheap high-rise apartments. These homes are small by design and having a family of more than 4 could lead to lack of space.

The favelas are so common in Brazil that a drop in fertility should be a huge relief to many. Rochina, a favela next to Rio de Janeiro, has a population of somewhere between 150,000 and 300,000 although this is difficult to accurately measure. Small cars are popular, and shops sell food in serving sizes suited for 4 people. This appears to show a shift towards products being suited to small families. As families get smaller, parents have more money to spend on each child, so gadgets and expensive toys are becoming more popular, with their advertisement on television increasing too.

In the 1800s the death of a child was common so families were large to ensure that at least some survived, but nowadays this is less likely and Brazilian families are now starting to illustrate this change. The value of a child is significantly higher and families often don’t recover from the loss of an offspring. Parents are spending more on their children not only because they can now afford to, but also because they want to give the few children that they have the best shot at success. Economic and industrial development of Brazil has increased the standard of living as a whole.

Since 2000, life expectancy has jumped from 54 to 72, and infant mortality rates have nearly halved from 38 to 20/1000 live births. Sanitation improving enormously has helped, and people who move in to cities now often find clean, fresh water and sanitation facilities (e. g. clean toilets and sinks). Even favelas are improving in this case, with communal development projects becoming increasingly common. Healthcare has improved dramatically too (as shown by the shockingly sharp decline in infant mortality) and even the poor can access healthcare as basic care is free.

Brazil can be considered an anomaly; however there does appear to be a growing trend in rapid development in the LEDW. Falling fertility rates has reduced the pressure on healthcare and education allowing more money to be spent per person equalling a better overall experience and service. Female empowerment is very important too, in both the economic output of the nation and the fall in fertility rates. However Brazil must be wary of the potential pitfalls of this rapid growth – e. g. an elderly population.

At the beginning of the twentieth century underdeveloped countries began to look for the ways to diminish their dependency on agricultural exports and to bring on an industrial revolution. The situation which evoked this need was critical. The problem was that the underdeveloped countries developed mainly the policies of supporting primary commodity exports. Transportation policy was used in the infrastructure for delivering the export crop to the harbour.

The research institutions specialized in agriculture worked only on improving crops for export, for example, sugar cane, coffee, cotton, etc. while crops for domestic consumption, for instance, beans or manioc corn, potatoes, left with little or even without expenditure. As a result some of the underdeveloped countries had to follow the policy of import substitution to induce industrialization. Import substitution industrialization will be the goal of study of this paper. This economic policy will be investigated in the frames of an economic term with the necessary characteristics and also in a wider meaning as the experience of the countries of East Asia and Latin America.

In the process of research different points of view, both pro and contra, will be cited in order to shed the light on positive and negative aspects and cover the field broadly. In the conclusion of the paper the main findings will be summed up. The term of import substitution can be defined as an economic process and as a policy strategy. As a process import substitution relates to the situation “where regions (more precisely, existing or new economic activities within regions) take up the production of goods or services which formerly were imported, but, for whatever reasons, now can be viably produced within the region (e.g. as a result of population increases leading to increases in demand or as a result of productivity increases resulting in greater competitiveness. ”(Economic Geography Glossary, 1999)

Import substitution industrialization (ISI) as the economic strategy means encouraging the development of domestic industry by limiting manufactured goods import. The need of ISI implementation arouses from the belief that there is a potential comparative advantage in some of the industries of developing countries, but these industries are too weak yet to compete with foreign well-established ones.

Thus, in order to allow infant industries to establish themselves and to realize their potential, and consequently to be able to compete internationally, governments should support the initial period of their development. The protection of government implies temporary measures such as using tariffs or import quotas to start industrialization in the country. As a policy strategy import substitution can be used to achieve the following goals:

• to utilize the capacities which are underused;
• to fight unemployment in the regions;
• to protect infant industries.

The policy of import substitution industrialization, according to the definition provided by the encyclopaedia, is “a trade and economic policy based on the premise that a developing country should attempt to substitute products which it imports, mostly finished goods, with locally produced substitutes. ”(Wikipedia, 2005) The theory of import substitution has much common with the theory of mercantilism. Both the theories promote minimal imports and high exports as the means of inducing the growth of national wealth.

In order to implement the policy of import substitution industrialization, the following three main tenets must be pursued:

1. protective barriers to trade, which can be set up in the form of tariffs. Tariffs or custom duties are applied to the goods which are imported and in this way they artificially protect domestic industries from competition with foreign companies;
2. a particular industrial policy, which orchestrates and subsidizes production of the substitutes;
3. a monetary policy, which will keep the domestic currency overvalued.

Monetary policy is implemented by setting reserve requirements and changing some interest rates directly or indirectly. The chief tools of monetary policy are operations in open market. In open market money circulates through the selling and buying of deferent foreign currencies credit instruments, or commodities. Such sales or purchases create a certain base currency which leaves or enters market circulation. Usually open market operations are aimed at achieving a specific short term interest rate target.

However, monetary policy may also target a certain “exchange rate relative to some foreign currency or else relative to gold. ” (Wikipedia, 2005) Equally important is to note that import substitution as economic protectionalizm can have negative outcomes. Stutz pointed out that “This form of economic protectionism helped some countries industrialize in the past but involves economic risks. ” (Stutz and Souza, 1998) The risks of import substitution meant by Stutz are potential inefficiencies and higher prices.

Successful implementation of this policy as a rule needs massive expenditure on infrastructure. Additionally, import substitution is accompanied by the establishment of state firms in the areas of industry which are thought to be too risky or too large for the private sector (or example, steel, aircraft) or estimated to be too important to be owned by foreign firms (or instance, oil). The policy of import substitution industrialization was argued by the advocates of absolute free trade theory.

Generally, free trade becomes possible when the flow of services and goods between countries is not taxed. In particular, the economists who supported free trade policy stated that economic strategy would become successful only under the following conditions:

1. international trade in services must be without trade barriers, or tariffs;
2. international trade of goods must not be free from any possible tariffs (namely taxes on imports) or trade barriers (for example, quotas on import);
3. the free movement of international labor;
4. the free movement of international capital;
5. the absence of any economic protectionalizm, implemented by trade-distorting policies (for instance, subsidies, regulations taxes, or laws), which gives an advantage to domestic firms, factors of production, and households over foreign ones.

Thus, it becomes obvious that free trade proponents advocated the policy which totally contradicted the fundamental tenets of import substitution industrialization. On the other hand, free trade proponents suggested that a foreign subsidy should be considered as another of comparative advantage and consequently domestic barriers should not be imposed on the purchase of goods produced overseas.

Free trade economists pointed out that unlimited imports will be beneficial for domestic consumers which overweighs the loss of domestic producers. Thus, the lower prices of foreign subsidies can be considered as net positive. Therefore, the domestic society where any import restriction is applied becomes “a whole worse off than it would be with unlimited imports. ” (Wikipedia, 2005) Anyway, the viewpoints of the both theories – import substitution industrialization and absolute free trade – were checked in the process of their implementation and in real life experience.

In the period from 1930 to 1940 the policy of import substitution industrialization was adopted in many underdeveloped countries of Latin America. The driving force which precipitated the acceptance of import substitution idea was the Great Depression which took place in 1930s. According to article Concern with Policy-relevance in the Latin American School of Economics authored by Bianchi, “Import substitution was a necessary condition for peripheral growth, in association with structural reforms in the economy.

The focus should be placed on the strenghtening of the domestic market, which was seen as the crucial element of an inward-looking model of development. ” (Bianchi A. M. , 2003) Later on, in the 1950s Raul Prebisch, the prominent Argentine economist, expressed his belief that the only way to succeed for developing countries was to build forward linkages domestically and to create industries which would work on primary products already produced by the countries themselves. The policy of tariffs would help the domestic industry to prosper.

By implementing the policy of import substitution industrialization in the period from 1950 to 1970 a number of Latin America countries, in particular Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, attempted to reach positive results and to increase their national wealth. The success of the policy in these countries was based on either high living standards or large populations. However, poorer and smaller countries, for example, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, were not successful in adopting import substitution policy.

Also it is notable that the countries which succeeded in import substitution industrialization managed to change the structure of their governments. Thus neo-colonialism collapsed and was replaced by democratic way of governing. Nationalization turned banks and utilities into public property and returned to nation some of the companies previously owned by foreigners. A case of implementation of import substitution industrialization can be examined with the help of the example of Brazil.

Brazil was the country which carried the policy of import substitution industrialization later than other underdeveloped countries. The economists in Brazil carefully analyzed its effects and were planning the industrial development of the country while the other countries started import substitution mainly by accident. It is important to note that Brazil initially had all the chances for success in the policy of import substitution, since its population goes up to 170 million, which makes Brazil the fifth largest country in the world.

Also Brazil is the fifth largest country by its land area. And finally, Brazil is rich in forest reserves, minerals, navigable rivers agricultural land, and hydroelectric capability. The development of Brazilian economy in the period from 1950 to the 1970s confirmed the most optimistic views. Brazil with its rich resources and reserves was called “the land of the future”. In 1950 Brazil attempted to establish the largest industry of motor vehicle having practically no sufficient basis. Thirty years later aircraft of Brazil were working on commuter airlines on the United States.

Brazilian shoes spread everywhere. Moreover, Brazil opened up the richest iron mine in the world and Brazilians found out the capital city on the place where previously had been a roadless jungle and built the network of roads going deep into Amazon. When the oil prices rose and began threatening the development of Brazil economy, Brazilians launched huge hydroelectric projects to operate the growing industries of the “Golden Triangle”, which included Sao Paulo Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte and required the new automobiles to run on rum instead of gasoline.

At the beginning of the 1980s even pessimists agreed that Brazil was “the country of future”, however added “and always will be”. The growth of Brazil stopped, when it was almost close to ripening. The modern cities in Brazil coexist together with miserable shanty-towns surrounded with open sewers. The roads are shared by modern vehicles and hand carts. The wages of Brazilian executives are the highest in the world, but at the same time average workers hardly reach subsistence level. Some economists call Brazil “a Switzerland within an India.

” Other economists consider that the case of Brazil brightly illustrates economic growth without economic development. Economist Celso Furtado characterized the state of Brazilian economy in the following way: “The Brazilian economy constitutes a very interesting example of how far a country can go in the process of industrialization without abandoning its main features of underdevelopment: great disparity in productivity between urban and rural areas, a large majority of the population living at a physiological subsistence level, increasing masses of unemployed people in the urban zones, etc.

” (Development policies, Catching Up, Sec 2, Chap 14) By the 1950s the industrial development by means of import substitution had been already a planned process in Brazil. New industries were protected from the foreign competition with the help of a number of methods. Basic industries (for example, steel, electrical power, petroleum reining) became either fully owned by state or received direct subsidies. Law of Similars aimed at putting high tariffs (sometimes tariffs went up to 300%) on imported goods as soon as any domestic firm somewhere in Brazil started manufacturing something ‘similar’.

The industries considered high priority always could be credited under favorable terms by a national development bank. For some period of time, the government even set multiple exchange rates in order to lower the cost of imported capital equipment while the price of imported finished goods was kept expensive. One of the growing Brazilian industries in the mid of twentieth century was motor vehicles. The government hoped that foreign financing would help to expand Brazilian firms which were already producing motor parts, bus bodies, truck and so on and soon would turn them into real vehicle manufacturers.

But this approach had to be changed for the government of Brazil faced the reluctance of American government to extend loans and the disapproval of the firms from Europe and the USA who owned a critical technology. The world famous giants – Fiat General Motors, Mercedes Volkswagen, and Ford – were threatened to lose their markets in Brazil if they did not manufacture vehicles within the country. It is important to note that modern manufacturing, in particular the production of appliances, motor vehicles, TVs and so on is a complex process that requires substantial knowledge and skill.

Final assembly became possible in Brazil since it was the last stage of production and required the least skill. So, launching modern industries Brazil could start with final assembly and gradually came to more complicated “backwards”, which included more difficult procedures. For example, Volkswagen could start importing complete parts, such as engines, wheels etc. and assemble them in Sao Paulo plant. The tariffs allowed Volkswagen to sell 1960 30% Brazilian Beetle for twice what Europeans would pay even if the quality was not that high. Eventually, most of the parts became produced in Brazil and the quality of assembly improved.

Gradually, the competition from Brazilian Fiats, Fords, and Chevrolets pushed the price down. In this way, Brazilian motor vehicle industry became more and more efficient and even in the 1970s Brazil exported subassemblies and parts to America and to the European countries. By 1980 Brazil started exporting entire vehicles. When import substitution industrialization was implemented in Latin America, the drawbacks of the policy soon revealed themselves. In Brazil as well as in other Latin America countries import substitution model led to foreign ownership in all the sectors in industry except those occupied by state enterprise.

When the interests of foreign firms were threatened by Brazilian taxes, environmental or labor legislation, American, German, Italian, British Japanese or French owners were quick to call on their state departments. In particular, the Department of the United States defined one of its key objects as establishing favorable “business climate”. This meant undermining Brazilian government. Thus, in 1964 some Brazilian generals, being encouraged by American officials, made an attempt to overthrow constitutional government of their country.

Another drawback of import substitution industrialization revealed in the fact that this policy led to huge foreign debts. It was not accidental, that Brazil and Mexico ran into debts in order to cover the expenses of their infrastructure development. The development of infrastructure needs a large number of hard currency imports. If infrastructure grows and increases exports together with hard currency earnings, a country can borrow in dollars. Then, under such condition, the country has to earn dollars in order to make the interest payments.

But import substitution requires borrowing in dollars for the purpose of economic development of the domestic production that will not necessarily expand exports. By the end of the seventies the countries of Latin America faced the problem: Where to go next? And the next logical step was to export the goods which had been already produced efficiently. By the middle of the eighties Brazil became the largest exporter of shoes and coffee, among ten major exports to America, six were manufactured projects. Nevertheless, the expansion of manufactured goods made Brazilian economy vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs.

Moreover, in the 1980s Brazil as well as other underdeveloped countries of Latin America did not manage to pursue the next layer of import substitution ( in particular, microchips, computers, capital equipment), although they attempted to create open markets for their manufactured consumer goods. Unlike the nations of Latin America, the majority of East Asian nations rejected the policy of import substitution industrialization. Due to this, as many economists think, East Asia had its superior performance in the seventies and the eighties of the twentieth century.

Generally speaking, the Asian growth had started before World War II in Japan. The process of Asian growth included three groups of countries whose economic “miracle” began at different times:

1. Japan (after the Second World War);
2. The “four tigers”: Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore (the sixties of the twentieth century);
3. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China (from the 1970s to the 1980s)

In fact, by rejecting import substitution industrialization Asian nations managed to avoid some negative results of this policy. First, their economies were not dragged by inefficient industries.

Second, East Asia did not have to implement policies benefiting industrial workers at the expense of those working on the farms. This was crucial for Asian countries because farmers made up the majority of their population. In addition, in order to diminish the cost of industrialization, the cost of food needed to be kept artificially low. And also, East Asia attempted to prevent the appearance of rent seeking behaviours, which resulted from the usage of the licensing schemes for import substitution strategy and which usually increased inefficiency of economics.

High tariffs on manufactured goods, which were imposed by many countries in order to create their manufacturing bases, forced multinational companies to assemble or produce them locally. For example, manufacturers of motor industry exported vehicles for local assembly. Their vehicles were delivered ‘completely knocked down’ and the local assembly resulted in poorer quality and higher expenditures in comparison with those imported already built up. Moreover, the local assembly of identical products only duplicated resources and reduced economies of scale, which became increasingly inefficient for manufacturers.

On the whole, at the beginning of 1980s the policy of import substitution industrialization began to fail both in Latin America and in those Asian countries where the policy was adopted. Generally, it happened because the governments involved in the policy started to overspend reserves in order to keep the stability of currency. The governments in Latin America defaulted on their debts and had to turn to the help of the International Monetary Fund. Another process which contributed to the failure of import substitution was globalization.

However, some economists think that the collapse of the policy of import substitution industrialization “should not necessarily be taken as an endorsement of globalization. ” (Wikipedia, 2005) Such point of view was supported by the fact that some countries of East Asia also used high tariff barriers while rejecting the rest of the strategy of import substitution. This mixed policy was focused on investment and subsidies on the industries which would produce goods for export. As a result, these Asian countries managed to create competitive industries.

However, irrespective of all their achievements, the policies described above also proved to be inefficient and later led to many problems during Asian financial crisis. The closing period of import substitution industrialization was in 1989 when the Washington Consensus as a set of policies designed to promote economic growth in the countries of Latin America was presented by John Williamson. The Washington Consensus included reforms which continued the policy of import substitution industrialization offering a modernized version of its tenets.

In particular, the Washington Consensus proposed the following:

1. the discipline of fiscal policy;
2. tax reform. It flattened tax curve: the tax rates on high tax brackets were lowered and the tax rates on the low tax brackets were raised. Also it suggested lowering the marginal tax rate;
3. Competitive exchange rates;
4. Trade liberalization by means of low and uniform tariffs which would replace quantitative restrictions;
5. Reduced limitation for foreign direct investment;
6. Privatization of state enterprises;
7. Deregulation, which implies “abolition of regulations that impede entry or restrict competition, except for those justified on safety, environmental and consumer protection grounds, and prudential oversight of financial institutions” (Wikipedia, 2005)
8. Property rights must be legally secured;
9. Public spending should be redirected toward the investment of health, education, and infrastructure;
10. “Interest rates that are market determined and positive (but moderate) in real terms. ” (Wikipedia, 2005) In the nineties the Washington consensus was being disputed.

The critics of the reforms argued that they would lead vulnerable countries to crisis instead of helping to overcome it. Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky claimed that the neoliberal policies of the Washington consensus would lead to the exploitation of labor market of an underdeveloped economy by a more developed one. (Wikipedia, 2005) Privatization of state industries, deregulation, and tax reform were seen by the opponents as the reforms which would ensure the development of the layer of local monied elite who would pursue local interests and try to maintain local status quo.

Jorge Taiana, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Argentina, also disapproved the Washington consensus saying that such policies never had a real consensus and nowadays “a good number of governments of the hemisphere are reviewing the assumptions with which they applied those policies in the 1990s,” adding that governments are working on a development model which would ensure productive employment and guarantee the generation of real wealth. (Wikipedia, 2005)

Another economist Duncan Kennedy in the article for The Boston Review stated that the Washington Consensus completely opposed the initial tenets of import substitution industrialization and more favoured American political interests: “In the form promoted by the United States, ISI was as hostile to free-market economics as to Communism. The overarching idea of the Washington Consensus was to wipe out every aspect of ISI: the Washington Consensus is both that free markets are good and that ISI [Import substitution industrialization] was bad.

Developing countries were to develop through integration into the world commodity and capital markets, with policies of deregulated private enterprise, foreign investment, and open economic borders. ” (Kennedy D. 2003) All in all, taking into consideration the mistakes of the previous experience and the criticism of the economists, the developmental policy of import substitution industrialization has never been returned since the time of the Washington Consensus. Thus, in the paper import substitution industrialization as a process and as a policy was investigated.

It was found out that import substitution pursues three main goals: utilization of underused capacities, reducing unemployment and infant industries protection. The implementation of the policy of import substitution industrialization is based on three tenets: particular monetary and industrial policies, and protective trade barriers. However, it turned out that success and efficiency of import substitution industrialization was doubted by the proponents of absolute free market.

Potential risks of import substitution were also visible while careful theoretical analysis and pointed out by economists. The underdeveloped countries of Latin America and East Asia implemented the policy of import substitution industrialization. It occurred that the potential risks and the negative aspects found out by the proponents of absolute free market constituted the drawbacks of the policy and finally became the chief factors of its failure.

However, the major part of East Asian countries rejected the policy and experienced economic growth. The example of Brazil demonstrated that the policy of import substitution industrialization can stimulate economic growth for some period of time, but its drawbacks (first of all high expenditures and inefficiencies) pose real obstacles for continuous and strong economic development.