After a historical revision of the Brazilian foreign debt renegotiation procedures from 1983 to 1987, this article discusses five controversial technical points: the spread's calculus and restructuring method, internal relending of the restructured amortizations, foreign court's jurisdiction, IMF monitoring and debt equity conversion
Several talks & two long conversations with Calvet de Magalhaes, concentrating on relations between Portugal & the Holy See, are at the origin of this brief essay of oral history. Ambassador Calvet talks at length about Salazar & Marcelo Caetano & also his role on the renegotiation of the Concordat between Portugal & the Vatican in 1975. The article concludes with a brief reflection on the possibilities offered by the method of oral history to all the students of International Relations. Adapted from the source document.
The European project has enjoyed a substantive support from both elite and masses in Portugal. Since the country joined the ECC, in 1986, the main political parties have been strong supporters of Europe. In recent years, however, political and economic crises have undermined the support for the European project. In this paper we produce a preliminary analysis of the competition dimensions in the 2014 European elections. We empirically analyze the position of the five most important Portuguese political parties towards European integration, the Euro, debt renegotiation, Eurobonds, and changes in pensions in a context that fosters contestation of European integration and its outputs. Adapted from the source document.
The paper contrasts the government accountability in the financing of K-12 education in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. It describes the countries' specificities in two periods with distinct government political lines: the 1990s, with the adoption of policies with a neoliberal matrix, and the period from 2000 to 2014, with the enactment of progressist policies for expansion of public expense in the three Latin American States. The topics presented in the comparative analysis represent the priorities of the state action regarding education, such as the right to it, compulsory and free education, public resources aimed to education, accountability between spheres and instances of government, and public expense. Each topic was analyzed in view of the situations of maintenance, redefinition, or partial redefinition concerning the two historical periods. The most usual situation in these countries was the redefinition of compulsory education, the change for higher in the references for expense in education, as well as renegotiations in the distribution of accountability between national and subnational governments in Argentina and Brazil.
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) ; Pós-graduação em Relações Internacionais (UNESP - UNICAMP - PUC-SP) - FFC ; In 2008 Paraguay was undergoing an unprecedent political scene composition, with the arrival of the former bishop, Fernando Lugo, to the republic presidency, breaking with more than six decades of the Colorado Party monopoly. Nevertheless, the long process of democratic transition initiated in 1989 showed the permanence of remnants that limits the democracy in the Guarani country, exemplified by Lugo's destitution in 2012. The Paraguayan foreign policy presents close relation with the domestic policy dynamics, such that the relations with Brazil, one of the main partners of the bilateral Paraguayan relations, ends up being influenced by the internal conflicts of the next door country. Moreover, these bilateral relations showed gradual approach, potentiates in continuum after the construction of Itaipu, which generated visceral linkages between the two countries. However, at the same time that Itaipu was a motive for approach, it was also configured as disagreement element contained in the history of such relations. In the wake of this process, the Brazilian chancellery has always sought to comply with the Paraguayan claims, aiming to ensure the Brazilian interests in the regional surrounding. Particularly, in the case of Itaipu, there were many agreements. However, the negotiations in 2009 that culminated in the alteration of annex C that referred to the financial bases of the Treaty, triplicating the value for the energy disposal paid for the selling of the exceeding part of the Paraguayan side, has a singularity: the marriage between the general line of Brazilian foreign policy of Lula's government and the model of regional insertion supported in the idea of solidarity, with interests of keeping Fernando Lugo in power, within the political domestic shocks in Paraguay. That's because the campaign promises of the former bishop had strong connections with Brazil, especially, regarding the renegotiation of the Itaipu Treaty, seen as.
Brazil grew 2.4 percent per year on average in the last 25 years-somewhat less than Latin America, a good deal less than the world, far less than the emerging countries of Asia in the same period, and indeed far less than Brazil itself in previous decades. If anything stands out favorably in recent Brazilian experience, it is not growth but stabilization and the successful opening of the economy. The purpose of this paper is more modest. It is limited to setting out the authors' particular view of recent efforts to consolidate democracy in Brazil while controlling inflation and resuming economic growth. At the same time the paper presents, as objectively as possible, some thoughts on the limits but also the relevance of action by political leaders to set a course and circumvent obstacles to that process. Here and there, the paper refers to the experiences of other Latin American countries, especially Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, not to offer a full fledged comparative analysis but merely to note contrasts and similarities that may shed light on the peculiarities of the Brazilian case and suggest themes for a more wide-ranging exchange of views.
