Diogo R. Coutinho

Linking Promises to Policies: Law and Development in an Unequal Brazil

The 1988 Brazilian Constitution contains a wide variety of social and economic rights and expressly embraces development as a fundamental goal. For the results to be effective, however, constitutional provisions of this type require permanent implementation and articulation of public policies that, in turn, are intensely mediated by the law. Assuming that the legal dimension of social policies ultimately matters for development, the article seeks to identify and discuss the distributive effects caused by some Brazilian welfare institutions and their legal arrangements. After describing the regressive outcomes produced by the tax and pensions systems and arguing that such effects reinforce Brazilians historically rooted deep inequality, the article discusses Programa Bolsa Família, a conditional cash transfer in Brazil, and presents the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on law and development (the LANDS project).

Law and the new developmental state : the Brazilian experience in Latin American context

1. Law, state, and the new developmentalism: an introduction David M. Trubek 2. New state activism in Brazil and the challenge for law David M. Trubek, Diogo R. Coutinho and Mario G. Schapiro Part I. New Industrial Policies: Global Insertion, Productive Transformation, Investment Strategies, and Flexible Law: 3. Understanding neo-developmentalism in Latin America: new industrial policies in Brazil and Colombia Shunko Rojas 4. Rediscovering the developmental path? Development bank, law, and innovation financing in the Brazilian economy Mario Shapiro Part II. Trade Law: Carving out Development Policy Space within the WTO Regime: 5. Carving out policy autonomy for developing countries in the World Trade Organization: the experience of Brazil and Mexico Alvaro Santos 6. Developmental responses to the international trade legal game: cases of intellectual property and export credit law reforms in Brazil Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin Part III. Social Policy and Equity: Two Approaches to the Relationship between Social Policy, Law, and Development Strategy: 7. Decentralization and coordination in social law and policy: the Bolsa familia program Diogo R. Coutinho 8. Social policy and the new development state: the case of Colombia Helena Alviar Garcia.

Problems in the regulatory policy of the drug market

OBJECTIVE Analyze the implementation of drug price regulation policy by the Drug Market Regulation Chamber. METHODS This is an interview-based study, which was undertaken in 2012, using semi-structured questionnaires with social actors from the pharmaceutical market, the pharmaceuticals industry, consumers and the regulatory agency. In addition, drug prices were compiled based on surveys conducted in the state of Sao Paulo, at the point of sale, between February 2009 and May 2012. RESULTS The mean drug prices charged at the point of sale (pharmacies) were well below the maximum price to the consumer, compared with many drugs sold in Brazil. Between 2009 and 2012, 44 of the 129 prices, corresponding to 99 drugs listed in the database of compiled prices, showed a variation of more than 20.0% in the mean prices at the point of sale and the maximum price to the consumer. In addition, many laboratories have refused to apply the price adequacy coefficient in their sales to government agencies. CONCLUSIONS The regulation implemented by the pharmaceutical market regulator was unable to significantly control prices of marketed drugs, without succeeding to push them to levels lower than those determined by the pharmaceutical industry and failing, therefore, in its objective to promote pharmaceutical support for the public. It is necessary reconstruct the regulatory law to allow market prices to be reduced by the regulator as well as institutional strengthen this government body.

The dilemmas of the developmental state: democracy and economic development in Brazil

Abstract Is it possible to reconcile one of the institutional strategies to promote development, known in the literature as “the developmental state”, with contemporary democratic systems of government? If so, what are the challenges, trade-offs and potential gains that such an effort may entail? The vast literature on “the developmental state” claims that it is more likely to succeed under autocratic regimes. While a “democratic developmental state” seems possible in theory, there is very little empirical evidence to show how it would work in practice. This article tries to contribute to this debate by analyzing the case of Brazil, a country that transitioned from a military dictatorship to a democratic regime in the late 1980s, and has been moving towards increasing state interventionism since 2002. While the policies implemented by the “New Developmental State” in Brazil have been explored in the academic literature, their democratic dimensions remain unchartered. There has not been a detailed analysis about how the autocratic features that characterized the developmental states in Latin America from the 1950s to the end of the 1980s (i. e. political exclusion of the majority of groups, and control of economic policies by an elite) have played out in its renewed version. Understanding the interactions between the New Developmental State and the democratic system not only allows for a better understanding of the Brazilian case, but it also sheds light on one of the most important theoretical questions raised by the development literature: is a democratic developmental state possible? Based on the Brazilian case study, we argue that it is not hard to reconcile “the developmental state” with a thin conception of democracy, i. e. with free and fair elections. In contrast, the picture is more complex if the question is whether it is possible to reconcile developmental policies with a thicker conception of democracy that includes demands for transparency, protection of minority groups, a system of checks and balances, and due process. To develop this argument, this article is divided in three parts. In the first part, we provide an overview of the literature, outlining the concept of developmental state, and the tensions that the developmental state policies may create in a democratic setting. In the second part, we focus on the Brazilian case (the “new developmental state”), exploring how these tensions played out in three concrete settings: industrial policy, infrastructure sectors, and social policies. In the third part, we identify some of the research implications of the challenges identified in the Brazilian case, especially for future law and development scholarship.

Regulação de indústrias de rede: entre flexibilidade e estabilidade

1Regulation of network industries: between flexibility and stability. This paper explores the problems of an unstable regulatory regime in network industries and addresses the tension between the necessary flexibility in the long-term regulatory commitment and the need for institutional stability. A draft statute that substantively changes the initial terms under which fixed telecommunications services have been transferred to private companies — currently under discussion in the Brazilian Congress — is presented as an example of that tension. Some alternative proposals to tackle with universal service challenges — the underlying problem behind the mentioned draft statute — are presented in the end.

Law and the New Developmental State: Notes on Contributors

1. Law, state, and the new developmentalism: an introduction David M. Trubek 2. New state activism in Brazil and the challenge for law David M. Trubek, Diogo R. Coutinho and Mario G. Schapiro Part I. New Industrial Policies: Global Insertion, Productive Transformation, Investment Strategies, and Flexible Law: 3. Understanding neo-developmentalism in Latin America: new industrial policies in Brazil and Colombia Shunko Rojas 4. Rediscovering the developmental path? Development bank, law, and innovation financing in the Brazilian economy Mario Shapiro Part II. Trade Law: Carving out Development Policy Space within the WTO Regime: 5. Carving out policy autonomy for developing countries in the World Trade Organization: the experience of Brazil and Mexico Alvaro Santos 6. Developmental responses to the international trade legal game: cases of intellectual property and export credit law reforms in Brazil Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin Part III. Social Policy and Equity: Two Approaches to the Relationship between Social Policy, Law, and Development Strategy: 7. Decentralization and coordination in social law and policy: the Bolsa familia program Diogo R. Coutinho 8. Social policy and the new development state: the case of Colombia Helena Alviar Garcia.

Law and the New Developmental State: New Industrial Policies: Global Insertion, Productive Transformation, Investment Strategies, and Flexible Law

1. Law, state, and the new developmentalism: an introduction David M. Trubek 2. New state activism in Brazil and the challenge for law David M. Trubek, Diogo R. Coutinho and Mario G. Schapiro Part I. New Industrial Policies: Global Insertion, Productive Transformation, Investment Strategies, and Flexible Law: 3. Understanding neo-developmentalism in Latin America: new industrial policies in Brazil and Colombia Shunko Rojas 4. Rediscovering the developmental path? Development bank, law, and innovation financing in the Brazilian economy Mario Shapiro Part II. Trade Law: Carving out Development Policy Space within the WTO Regime: 5. Carving out policy autonomy for developing countries in the World Trade Organization: the experience of Brazil and Mexico Alvaro Santos 6. Developmental responses to the international trade legal game: cases of intellectual property and export credit law reforms in Brazil Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin Part III. Social Policy and Equity: Two Approaches to the Relationship between Social Policy, Law, and Development Strategy: 7. Decentralization and coordination in social law and policy: the Bolsa familia program Diogo R. Coutinho 8. Social policy and the new development state: the case of Colombia Helena Alviar Garcia.

Law and the New Developmental State: Contents

1. Law, state, and the new developmentalism: an introduction David M. Trubek 2. New state activism in Brazil and the challenge for law David M. Trubek, Diogo R. Coutinho and Mario G. Schapiro Part I. New Industrial Policies: Global Insertion, Productive Transformation, Investment Strategies, and Flexible Law: 3. Understanding neo-developmentalism in Latin America: new industrial policies in Brazil and Colombia Shunko Rojas 4. Rediscovering the developmental path? Development bank, law, and innovation financing in the Brazilian economy Mario Shapiro Part II. Trade Law: Carving out Development Policy Space within the WTO Regime: 5. Carving out policy autonomy for developing countries in the World Trade Organization: the experience of Brazil and Mexico Alvaro Santos 6. Developmental responses to the international trade legal game: cases of intellectual property and export credit law reforms in Brazil Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin Part III. Social Policy and Equity: Two Approaches to the Relationship between Social Policy, Law, and Development Strategy: 7. Decentralization and coordination in social law and policy: the Bolsa familia program Diogo R. Coutinho 8. Social policy and the new development state: the case of Colombia Helena Alviar Garcia.