Skip to content
Home/ Brazil: What Everyone Needs to Know(r)
Brazil: What Everyone Needs to Know(r)

Brazil: What Everyone Needs to Know(r)

by Roett, Riordan
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780190224530 Oxford University Press, USA

Brazil is one of the most important but puzzling countries in the world. A nation of 200 million people, it has vast natural resource reserves, rich cultural traditions, a middle class undergoing explosive growth, and social welfare policies that are models for much of the world ('la bolsa familia, ' which provides a guaranteed income to poor families). And, after decades of authoritarian rule, it is a stable democracy. Yet it is beset by problems that no other advanced economy suffers from: staggeringly high crime rates, sky-high inequality levels, and endemic political corruption. Emblematic of these two sides of Brazil is the selection of Rio as site of both the next Summer Olympics and the next World Cup. While the choice of Rio for these events points to Brazil's expanding presence on the world stage, so far the construction and planning for the events have been disastrous, threatening to deeply embarrass the nation.

In Brazil: What Everyone Needs to Know(R), Riordan Roett, an eminent scholar of Brazil and Latin America, will provide a rich overview of Brazil, covering Brazilian society, politics, culture, and the economy. The book begins with a series of chapters on Brazilian history, beginning with the pre-colonial period and moving on, in succession, to the long era of Portuguese rule, the birth of independent Brazil, the emergence of modern Brazil in the 1930s, the era of the dictators, and - finally - to the democratic regime that came into being in the 1980s. Throughout the book, Roett will focus sharply on the fault lines -- racial, economic, political, and cultural - that have plagued Brazil from its beginnings to this day. As the 2016 World Cup and Summer Olympics approach, interest in Brazil is sure to rise. Roett's synthesis will provide interested readers with an accessible, authoritative overview of this troubled yet fascinating giant.

About the author

Product details

BrandOxford University Press, USA
Pub dateAug 1, 2016
ISBN-100190224533
ISBN-139780190224530
Pages256
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions8.2 × 5.4 × 0.7 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-04-11 05:34
$12.05 $16.95 28% off
You save $4.90 · list price $16.95
In stock — ships in 24 hours with free tracking
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Developing & Emerging Countries
See all
Capital: The Eruption of Delhi
Dasgupta, Rana
$12.78
Inside the Islamic Republic: Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran
Inside the Islamic Republic: Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran
$43.09
Mexico: What Everyone Needs to Know(r)
Camp, Roderic Ai
$12.05
Information Infrastructures in India: The Long View
Ninan Thomas, Pradip
$115.52
Pockets of Effectiveness and the Politics of State-Building and Development in Africa
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-BC-ND 4.0 International License. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. <p/>Why do certain parts of the state in Africa work so effectively despite operating in difficult governance contexts? How do 'pockets of bureaucratic effectiveness' emerge and become sustained over time? And what does this tell us about the prospects for state-building and development in Africa? <p/>Repeated economic and social crises have demanded that development thinkers and policy actors have had to engage with the critical role that states play in delivering development. <em>Pockets of Effectiveness and the Politics of State-building and Development in Africa</em> shows that politics is the driving factor that shapes how well state agencies perform their roles. It deploys a new conceptual framework - the power domains approach - to explore the shifting fortunes of key state agencies in five countries - Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia - over the past three decades. Our original research reveals when, how and why political rulers decide to build effective state agencies and enable them to deliver certain forms of economic development - often through forming strategic coalitions with senior bureaucrats and with international support - and also when this support falters and gives way to a politics of survival. Comparative analysis identifies two potential trajectories towards state-building in Africa, each shaped by different configurations of social and political power. The book critiques the role that international development agencies have played in (mis)shaping the state in Africa and suggests a new strategic agenda for building the state capacities required to deliver sustained development at the current juncture. The book closes with critical commentaries from two leading scholars in the field, to help place our work in context and establish the next steps for research and strategy in this increasingly important area of development theory and practice.
$131.97
Digital Platform Regulation: Exemplars, Approaches, and Solutions
Ninan Thomas, Pradip
$121.00