Brazil Levels Up

Goodbye country of the future, hello country of a limitless present -- Brazil's developmental state powers up:

Rousseff wins Brazil's presidency

Those of us who follow the politics of the world semi-periphery have long noted the interesting fact that Brazil's 21st-century political clock seems to run thirty to thirty-six months behind Russia's. Putin's ascent in 1999 was the rough equivalent of Lula's ascent in 2002, and Russia's 2005 national projects anticipated Brazil's post-2008 infrastructure boom. Just as 2008 was a pivotal moment for Russia, when Putin handed off the baton to the young but extremely capable Medvedev -- one of the smartest executive decisions Putin ever made, because the time had indeed come to pass the baton on to the next generation -- Brazil's 2010 election is witnessing a similar transition, from the era of laying the foundations of the developmental state, to its qualitative expansion.

The battles ahead will be much less glamorous, but are no less important: expanding the Bolsa Familia into a genuine welfare state; building up Brazil's sovereign wealth and deploying its excess earnings into infrastructure, housing, and education; turning Brazil's already impressive renewable energy sector into a global player; and leveraging Brazil's world-class media traditions into digital media industries.

Diagram for a Transnational Play

Autumnal afternoon on Wall Street. Alien hovercraft lands, gaggle of nattily-dressed lizards with briefcases and polycarbon-suited nanobears with digipads disembark. They politely knock on the glass panes of Goldman Sachs' office.
*Knock* *knock.*
Loudspeaker: “Who's there?”
Chorus of lizards/nanobears: “The BRICs.”
Security: “The who?”
Chorus: “Brazil, Russia, India, China.”
Loudspeaker: “Ah, I'm afraid you'll have to make an appointment –”
Chorus: interrupting: “We're taking our world-system back.”
Loudspeaker: “Taking... ?”
Chorus: “The world-system.”
Frozen pause.
Voice of Lloyd Blankfein: “Ladies and gentleman... ah... most unexpected meeting...” Nervous cough: “...we seem to have misplaced the bill of sale.”
Chorus: “We brought the duplicate.” A nanobear holds up a nanofiber document.
Voice of Lloyd Blankfein: brightly: “Ah. Well, that's that. Care for some tea? Coffee? We have this wonderful CDO tranche –”
Chorus: “Thank you for your time.” Exit chorus into hovercraft, which flies off.