Revista da ESPM

ABSTRACTS english R E V I S T A D A E S P M – março / abril de 2011 140 Brazil in the new international order: are we ready to occupy our position? LUIZ FELIPE LAMPREIA PAGE 26 As the expression BRIC was created, Brazil has received additional soft power and a visibility it has never before achieved. However the role of Bric in the international scenery should not receive much emphasis, because its members have different histories and interests that will lead to very widespread common denominators. Brazil has never been in such a high position in the scale of world prestige and influence. It will occupy more and more position based on its assets: territory, natural resources, an economy always more modern. However it shall not compete in the foreseeable future with the great powers in military terms. Our priorities must be social, economical and political, never the construction of a bellicose power, not justified by foreign threats. Strengthening the “B” of Brazil in the BRICs MARCOS TROYJO PAGE 32 The BRICs are a “concept-being-built”. They act in an interdependent and conflicting world. If they aim to have more influence, they need more than geographical dimensions and similar statistics. The amplification of common forums and agendas is necessary. They need to know what they want for their countries, their elites; what they want from the world and to the world.To examine projects of power, prosperity and prestige. China wants to be rich and hence powerful – its prosperity project is for a merchant- nation. India wants to be powerful in order to have prestige. Its differential is the cost-benefit of its labor in textiles, web and call centers and IT. Russia acts as if it were still a superpower. Its future depends on its governance, transparency and utilization of its large number of scientists for technologies directed to the markets. Brazil needs a “business plan”. The new position of the Country will come from the destination we give to the resources from the discovery of the pré-sal, which have to be transferred to the economy of innovation. If the investment in R&D goes up to 2% of the GNP, and we internationalize the brand “Brasil”, our Country will be one of the five most dynamic nations of the 21st century. BRICs ou RICs MÁRIO MARCONINI PAGE 38 “BRICs” refer to a projection of the future of four countries, ordered by their initials, Brazil, Russia, India and China. In Brazil, we worry if we will be able to accompany the speed of the others. We think of a BRIC without “B” because we still have doubts about our capacities, and we have plenty of evidence of how we can miss the history train relatively easily. However, to be BRIC is not to be perfect, and certainly our “partners of initials” are not. Their challenges are at least as big as ours. Between vulnerabilities and potentialities, we are not so bad in the picture. It is enough for us to do what we know how to – between micro and macro- reforms – for us to lead instead of being led. The eternal dilemma of the Brazilian quasi-modernity CARLOS FREDERICO LUCIO PAGE 44 The analysis of the insertion of Brazil in the list of economically emergent nations places our country before a secular dilemma not yet resolved: a structural and structuring contradiction (called “hybridism” by DaMatta) between the Archaic and the Modern. Starting from a brief characterization of the philosophic concept of Modernity and its conceptual effects, specially the triad of the contemporaneous societies (State, Market and Civil Society – that is, the political, economical and social plans), the text seeks to raise some aspects of this contradiction, in the Brazilian case, through a central thesis: this triad has a systemic articulation in such a way that conquering the Modernity in the economic field (as demanded) will not have sustainability if it does not happen simultaneously in the Political and Social plans. BRICs in numbers SÉRGIO PIO BERNARDES PAGE 52 BRIC is formed by the initials of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Its countries have similarities, but have also discrepancies. Sometimes, the indicators show that “less”is “more”, and from another view point, that “more” is “less”. Such unbalances reinforce Ricardo’s – a classic economist – argument that primacy in one of the indicators does not confer any country self-sufficiency in all sectors. In other words, being big does not mean being richer, and having relevancy in one of the indicators does not confer each country primacy in comparison to another. The BRICs must strengthen to obtain the same status of the “center”, for thus they may avoid becoming the “neo-peripheries” of the XXI century. A necessary reform ORLANDO ASSUNÇÃO FERNANDES PAGE 64 Today, Brazil and the other countries of BRICs are ascending stars. However, notwithstanding the advances of the last years, Brazil still has much to do to occupy a salient position in the world economy. And among the several challenges facing us, there is the making of a wide tax reform. The complex system of tax collection, the superposition of taxes, and the concentration of indirect taxes make up an important bottleneck in our economy. This article puts in evidence, starting from the so callled Laffer Curve, that any tax reform proposal, more than an act to increase the State tax collection, can and must be a tool that permits to reduce the social inequality, as well as to promote the economic growth, and these objectives, besides not excluding, may, contrary to the common assumption, be reached by reduction of the tax load.