Brazil’s Giant Problem
Corruption is just a symptom of Brazil’s deeper issue: a vast state apparatus that has tried to be the country’s engine of economic growth
When construction began in 1956 on Brazil’s new capital, everything about it pointed to the country’s ambitions as a rising global power. Its architect Oscar Niemeyer designed curving, futuristic government palaces, embodying hopes for a utopian modernity. Brasília rose in just 41 months, laid out in the shape of an airplane, a seeming reflection of the nation’s impatience to soar.
But the sparkling new capital was a monument to Brazil’s past. For all its modernist appeal, it was one more expression of the country’s long and troubled attachment to the concept of a giant paternalistic state, responsible for managing the affairs of the entire society, from its biggest companies to its poorest citizens.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazils-giant-problem-1461359723
But the sparkling new capital was a monument to Brazil’s past. For all its modernist appeal, it was one more expression of the country’s long and troubled attachment to the concept of a giant paternalistic state, responsible for managing the affairs of the entire society, from its biggest companies to its poorest citizens.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/brazils-giant-problem-1461359723