Mauricio A. Font

The State and the Private Sector in Latin America

State and Market in Global Development State and Liberalization in Latin America Liberalization/Anti-liberalization Commodities and Rail in Globalizing Brazil Subnational Brazil Transantiago: Urban Development in Chile Conclusion: Changing States Appendix A: Tables and Graphs Appendix B: Framework Appendix C Brazil: Planning for New Infrastructure Appendix D: About Transantiago

State and Liberalization in Latin America

In Latin America, the liberalizing reforms of the late twentieth century set the stage for experimentation with new forms of state-market relations. The decades-old state-centered economic model had brought significant forms of development and industrialization, but the crisis of the eighties signaled the need for change—as large debts, high fiscal deficits, and soaring inflation were no longer able to act as stimuli to economic growth. To reform large and often inefficient state apparatuses, policymakers launched initiatives favoring destatization and liberalization, thus widening the role of the private sector and the market in the 1990s.

Commodities and Rail in Globalizing Brazil

Brazil’s boom in commodities during the last part of the twentieth century put its central plateau on a path of transformation and prominence in national development. This potential hinges on railroads and roads to move grains to ports on the Atlantic and thence to the outside world. After discussing agrarian expansion in the untamed savannahs of central Brazil, this chapter focuses on two railroad projects: a private initiative to connect the key state of Mato Grosso to the port of Santos and a federal alternative to reach ports in the north. Together with a rail bypass around the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, these projects help address key questions about public-private collaboration in infrastructure.