Why Is Brazil's Industrial Technology Development Slow?——A Comparative Study with South Korea
After the"miracle"of high economic growth in the mid-1970s,Brazil's catching-up process came to an abrupt end and the country diverged from South Korea,which was at roughly the same level of development by the end of the Second World War.The many similarities between these two countries in roughly the same historical period provide us with an opportunity to explain their developmental differences through comparative studies.Since it usually takes a long time for latecomers to catch up,this study focuses on the role of time horizons in industrial technological upgrading and proposes that the relationship between domestic political elites affects a country's time horizons.Brazil's military dictatorship was characterised by a high degree of elite fragmentation,and the risk of losing power put pressure on ruling elites to trade economic performance for regime legitimacy and political support.The ruling elites of Brazil found it difficult to develop a long-term orientation,as a result,they implemented various short-sighted economic policies rather than focusing on upgrading industrial technology.Instead of embarking on an endogenous path of technological progress,Brazil fell into the dilemma of dependent development.In contrast,the cohesive relations between political elite in South Korea enabled Park Chung Hee administration to develop a long-term development orientation.As a result,it successfully implemented several long-term initiatives that led to a rapid increase in its capacity to innovate in the field of industrial technology,making it the next strong country after Japan in East Asia in terms of science and technology.
BrazilSouth Koreaindustrial technology upgradingconflict among political elitestime horizons
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