Brazilian Political Science Review

1-31

Authors: Lucas Toshiaki Archangelo Okado; Ednaldo Aparecido Ribeiro

Theories about political protest point to three sets of variables responsible for promoting engagement in such actions: resources, grievance and values. There is consensus on the importance of resources, but the influence of grievance and values remain inconclusive. Discontent alone is not enough to motivate protest, but in societies at intermediate levels of development, grievance could be an explanatory variable. By contrast, values would have a limited effect, given that value change in developing countries could only be incipient. In view of the new cycle of protest in the region and wishing to contribute to the debate on the subject, we aim to discover what the relationship is between these three sets of variables as regards Latin Americans’ predisposition to protest. Given that these countries find themselves at an intermediate level of economic and social development, it would seem that the primary motivation for protest is discontent, as under such circumstances the relative scarcity of resources presents little obstacle to mobilization. On the other hand, as the societies in question are not advanced industrial societies, the associated low dispersion of emancipatory values would exercise limited effect. To test these hypotheses, we looked at data from the sixth wave of the World Values Survey with reference to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. The results suggested that grievance was irrelevant as an explanatory factor. Participation in protests in the region is determined by the mobilization of resources and values.

1-37

Authors: André Luiz Coelho Farias de Souza; Clayton M. Cunha Filho; Vinicius Santos

The aim of this paper is to assess the changes in the foreign policy of Bolivia and Ecuador during the administrations of Evo Morales (2006-2019) and Rafael Correa (2007-2017), taking into account the interaction between domestic and international factors in both countries. Our working hypothesis argues that the reorientation of the foreign policy of these countries was possible due to a connection between alterations observed in the domestic and international spheres starting in the middle of the 2000s. In the internal sphere, the greater political stability resulting from the restructuring of the party system; in the foreign policy environment, an international system more open to the progressive field, allowing a change in the orientation of Bolivian and Ecuadorian foreign policy, based on that moment on the diversification of partnerships with an anti-United States bias.

1-24

Authors: Mauro Oliveira Pires

The aim of the text is to discuss the occupation of the old and new agricultural frontiers in the ‘Cerrado’, highlighting the influence of official policies which, guided by a model of agricultural expansion intensive in capital, technology, and the use of natural resources, directed economic exploitation to ever more distant areas. It looks at the region called Matopiba, as a continuation of the movement of the exploitation of frontiers still covered in native vegetation. It shows that as well as having the general characteristics of the model of agricultural expansion adopted in other areas of the ‘Cerrado’, agriculture in this new frontier had the particularity of being connected to the global phenomenon of rising foreign ownership of land (‘land grabbing’), due to the increased presence of transnational companies and investment funds in the acquisition of areas, fruit of the movement resulting from the financialization of environmental assets (land, water, and forests). Finally, it deals with the implications of deforestation in the ‘Cerrado’, highlights governmental initiatives aimed at confronting it, as well as the political weight of Brazilian agribusiness, which has reduced the margin of action of environmental policies in the biome. It is concluded that the ‘Cerrado’, since it does not have the social appeal and protected status of forest biomes, seems to form a territory of sacrifice