Strengthening the State from Within: Bureaucracy and State Capacity in Brazil and South Africa

• In Event: Multi-Level Governance

Abstract

Despite the social and economic differences, countries in Africa and Latin American regions share various similarities, including a history of colonization, an abundance of resources, state formation, and inequality. This article focuses on inequality trajectories in both regions at the state capacity level. Using a within-state perspective (Bersch et al, 2017), the article analyzes two cases of high state capacity in areas that most Latin American and African governments do not target: technology and natural science. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Brazil and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation in South Africa represent islands of excellence within deeply unequal states in two different regions of the world. Both governments funded space and nuclear programs and some of their universities have the best programs in fields such as medicine and engineering at the regional level. Therefore, both cases go against the priorities of the current status quo at the level of both states and the level of both regions. To explain that, the article develops and documents three power sources of institutional strengthening and enforcement within both states: 1) selective states through their bureaucracies, 2) social mobilization hand in hand with the attempts at policy feedback and, 3) the concentration of business power interested in science and technology. The analysis shows how variation within states increases the challenges in implementing policies and accentuates differences despite the changes.

Author

• Skarlet Olivera, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú