The Affect of Bureaucratic Authoritarianism

In Brazil the military dictatorship (Bureaucratic Authoritarianism) for all its ills was able to uplift large portions of society and start the shift of Brazil from an exporting agricultural economy into an industrializing consumer economy. It did this by nationalizing and funding country wide programs aimed at modernizing the economy (Petrobras, public education, and massive infrastructure projects to name a few). Primarily using borrowed money from the US, The new anti-communist regime could deliberate internally as to which portions of the economy would be stimulated. Central to the decision making process was the military, which was split into two major camps. The first one being hardliners which wanted to bolster the military budget/control of society and the second being those which were part of the military but, sought to liberalize/delegate/co-opt development projects. With this backdrop in mind, this proposal asks how then did the Authoritarian Bureaucratic regime in Brazil affect pension distribution for those who worked during the era? And what long term social economic effects did the distribution cause? Who got left out?

Theory

Our theory is that those in public office, contracted by the state, and/or part of the military were given generous pension as a reward for participation, while those which were not directly included as part of the state bureaucracy were often left out as a result of having no representation within the closed circuit authoritarian bureaucratic decision making process. This is because every economic decision in the country at the time was being made by a very small subset of the demographic population. Those which were already part of the military (white, european, elites) came into power with their own culture which had developed internally. This meant that their vision of development was not based on material fact but on idealistic assumptions that disproportionately advantaged those already in power. They wanted to help the poor but, also cement their own status as future leaders. The idea was that since the military saw themselves as the saviors of Brazilian society from the downfall to communism they were the last bastion of defense so they must continue to remain in power lest the country fall to the ignorant masses. In this way the pension systems were created to reward those that played within the rules of the military paradigm. The generous military backed pensions created life long supporters and multi generational wealth (clientelism) that would continue to propagate the bureaucratic authoritarian interests which were inherently european, white, and elite beyond the years of the regime itself. Following this logic, since the power was concentrated and not representative of the people but, instead of differing internal military preferences it led to the pension system implicitly leaving out large portions of society as they were not represented in the interests of the small group of people in power.

Hypothesis

This paper expects that during the Bureaucratic era those which worked for the government or with the government received disproportionately generous pensions compared to those who did not have an affiliation with the state in regards to their employment.

Methodology

This research design would rest on a quantitative research method. We would use archival government data to compare the pension benefits of workers who worked for/with the military government vs. those which worked in the private sector or were informal/agricultural workers. Data would have to be gathered from the private sector to see if private pension systems at the time were able to deliver pensions at comprable rates to the government funded pensions. We would control for: age, employment length, industry sector, and salary. Controlling for these factors will help us compare similar groups pensions with the primary difference being the participation in the bureaucratic/military system for employment.

We will also track which industries/groups that were being considered at the time when developing pension policy. In this way we can identify what interest groups were being represented throughout the course of the military regime. It can give us an idea of the priorities of the actors in power when it came to distributing long term government pensions.

Readings/ Literature

At the core of the argument here is the role of clientelism and pension systems with, Chapter 6 Old-age pensions: The Architecture of Expenditure as the cornerstone article that I am pulling from and reacting to. The authors of the above article are asking: Why are there divergent sending patterns in pension spending in Italy vs the Netherlands? Through this question arose the curiosity of how Brazil would be classified in the context of the categorizes of a fragmented or universal pension system. And if we could classify Brazil as more fragmented or universal would we see the same trends as in the Netherlands and Italy? Yet, The pension system in Brazil during the authoritarian bureaucratic regime seemed to be a mixture of both. The system was universal in the sense that those that worked within the bureaucratic system were guaranteed standardized pensions within a well defined system based on contribution and/or military rank. It was fragmented as it did not include those outside the said bureaucratic authoritarian system. Certain industries blessed to be considered important are hypothesized to have received generous benefits at the cost of those which were not. In this way the cost of the pension system was predictable but, opposite to the Netherlands distributed unequally like in Italy.

Implications and contributions

The implications of this proposal are that the affects of the pension system set up in Brazil during the military regime could still be felt in the modern economy. If the pensions systems related to the authoritarian regime can be shown to have been substantially more generous and long lasting we could start to trace its affects to the stratification of Brazilian society today. The pension system essentially turning into a vehicle not for redistribution but, for further distribution to the already rich. Exploring the differences between the government funded pensions and the non- governmentally funded pensions could shine a light on how the authoritarian bureaucratic regime transferred wealth unequally, further dividing society along deeper age old lines of haves and have nots. The proposal could also be further generalize-able in the sense that large military run governments could show a pattern of this behavior in other places in the world. Where they disproportionately set high pensions for themselves and their allies to maintain economic power far beyond the lifetime of the actual regime or service. It could help explain the lag we see from countries like Brazil which experienced some sort of bureaucratic military rule and are now struggling to uplift the lowest portion of society partially because of the heavy economic burden/ bottle-necking due to economic policies of the past regime. Once these pension systems can be dismantled or reach their terminal end, then it would be interesting to see if there is any economic uptick such as a broadening of the middle class.

Conclusion

We ask how did the Authoritarian Bureaucratic regime in Brazil affect pension distribution for those who worked during the era? We hypothesize/theorize that those who worked within the Bureaucratic Authoritarian sphere of influence were given generous pension as a reward for participation, while those which were not directly included were left out as a result of having no representation within the closed circuit authoritarian bureaucratic decision making process which only included a small subset of interests.

The above is based on the reading mentioned above and observations that were made through various trips to Brazil visiting many different family members. Those which served in the military or worked with the military were always retired with pensions that afforded comfortable lives for them, their wives, and children. That is in stark contrast to all those I met which had not.

Diving into the pension system may lead a broader understanding of the long term effects of the bureaucratic authoritarian era in Brazil and of the current role that the military plays in Brazilian social-economic life.