Читать книгу The Political Economy of the BRICS Countries - Группа авторов - Страница 51

In this chapter, we have focused on a particular aspect of inequality, namely inequality between socially identifiable groups, which is believed to have implications for the socio-political dynamics of a country. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brazil was seen as a case of ‘un-aimed opulence’, the consequence of which was accentuating inequality in income and wealth. Since 1988 when Brazil made the transition to a regime of democratic governance, a number of radical pro-poor measures have been undertaken, which have had visible impacts on the overall inequality as well as inequality between the racial groups. In India, by contrast, overall inequality has increased in the past two decades, and recent evidence suggests that the degree of inequality in the space of income and wealth is no less in India than that in China and the Latin American high inequality countries. Brazil’s transition from ‘un-aimed opulence’ to a more inclusive approach based on active social policies can be a lesson for India which is clearly faltering on the task of making the growth process inclusive.

There are some similarities among the three countries — India, China, and Brazil — in their policies over the last 15 years, notably in the importance attached to macroeconomic stability, especially bringing inflation under control. But there are some big differences too, such as in the role played by policies directly aimed at redistributing incomes. When one looks more closely at their histories and policy regimes, Brazil and India seem to have more in common with each other than with China, particularly when we consider the more recent phase of constitutional democracy in Brazil. However, at the risk of sounding cliché, one can say that each of these countries has something to teach the others. And other developing countries that have been less successful against reducing inequality and deprivation can learn from both the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches taken by the BRICS countries.