Foreign Policy and Policy Diffusion in Lula da Silva’s Brazil (2003-2010)

Faria, Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de

doi:10.1590/S0102-8529.20224401e20200091

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DOSSIER: POLICY TRANSFER AND SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION • Contexto int. 44 (1) • Jan/Apr 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-8529.20224401e20200091 copy

Foreign Policy and Policy Diffusion in Lula da Silva’s Brazil (2003-2010)

Política Externa e Difusão de Políticas Públicas no Brasil de Lula da Silva (2003-2010)

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

The article argues that international policy diffusion should also be understood as one of the many foreign policy instruments, and that it is a rather versatile one, as it can be coupled to most or perhaps all traditional foreign policy instruments: political, economic, cultural, and military. It also proposes that the exportation of Brazilian policy innovations may be regarded as the backbone of Lula da Silva’s foreign policy (2003-2010), as it was central to: (a) the manufacturing of a renewed international identity for the country; (b) the promotion of post-liberal regionalism in Latin America; (c) the defence of new or expanded roles for international organizations, which was a central priority for Brazilian foreign policy in that period; (d) the revitalisation of the South-South coalition; (e) the presidential diplomacy; and (f) the promotion of systematic bilateral cooperation with Latin American and African countries.

Keywords
international policy diffusion; Brazilian foreign policy

	Policy Transfer	Policy Diffusion
*Definition*	“Policy transfer, emulation and lesson drawing all refer to the process by which knowledge about how policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political setting (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political setting”. (Dolowitz and Marsh, 2000Dolowitz, D. 2000. ‘Introduction.’ Governance, 13 (1): 1-4., 5)	“The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of social system. It is a special type of communication in that the messages are concerned with new ideas”. (Rogers, 1995Rogers, E. M. 1995. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press., 5)
*Dominance*	Among political scientists and analysts of public policy and public management	Among sociologists, but increasingly utilized by political scientists
*Methodological Orientation*	Case studies and Comparative Analysis	Quantitative
*Major terms and concepts*	Policy learning, lesson drawing, Bayesian learning	Contagion, bandwagoning, herding, isomorphism
*Major assumption*	The process of change is political in the sense that policy learning is filtered by political institutions	The process of change occurs in social networks
*Mechanisms of policy change*	Varies between coercive and voluntary; e.g., emulation, elite network, harmonization through international regime and penetration by external actors and interests	Isomorphism, culture, international norms, best-practices
*Outcomes*	Bias towards convergence	Strong bias towards convergence

Instruments of Foreign Policy		Hypothetical examples of PD instrumentalization
1- Political Instruments	a) Diplomacy	Presidential diplomacy may include the promise to share social policy expertise
	b) International alliances	The broadening of a coalition may be achieved through development cooperation that encompasses policy transfer
	c) International organizations	To guarantee the support for the creation of an IO, the hegemon may be willing to transfer to the future members some of their national institutions or successful policies
	d) International regimes	The sharing of expertise in a given policy domain may be the very reason why regimes are created or expanded
2- Economic Instruments	a) Foreign aid	The transference of expertise in several policy domains is a frequent component of foreign aid
	b) Economic and trade policies	The establishment of trade agreements usually implies the national adoption of certain policies and/or institutions
	c) Economic sanctions	Economic sanctions may be alleviated or suspended provided that a certain policy is adopted by the target country
3- Cultural Instruments	a) National identity	Self-understanding of a country as a promoter of world peace may involve the exportation of national institutions and policies
	b) Nation branding	The promotion of the international image of a country as a leading representative of third world nations may include the diffusion of domestic development or social policies
	c) Soft power	South-South cooperation, which is usually understood as a form of soft power and frequently involves policy transfer, may be promoted to guarantee broader support for a country’s claim in an international organization
4- Military Instruments	a) Persuasion (military pressure or threat)	Military pressure or threat may be employed to promote policy change in the target country
4- Military Instruments	b) Plain force (war)	War has eventually proven to be an efficient way to promote both regime and policy change by the enemy

Few conflicts with the many South American neighbours, due to, among others, the early resolution of border disputes
Establishment of an important, albeit segmented, normative and institutional infrastructure to promote regional cooperation
Strong and insulated diplomatic bureaucracy, whose cohesion and hierarchy reinforce Itamaraty’s resources in the foreign policymaking process
Diplomatic tradition acclaimed both domestically and internationally, and a history of precocious and active participation in the building of international institutions
Main foreign policy principles and objectives clearly defined by the current Federal Constitution (1988)
Diplomacy as the main instrument of Brazilian foreign policy
A national agenda that is scarcely internationalized; political parties only marginally interested in international affairs
Inward-looking society and state; economy relatively insulated from international influxes
A repertoire of various models of international insertion, experienced throughout the 20th century, dispersed in a continuum whose poles are ‘ideological Americanism’ and ‘militant globalism’

Insulated policymaking processes, only eventually visible or permeable to civil society
Centrality of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) not only in foreign policy implementation but also frequently in its formulation
Changing patterns of presidential commitment to foreign policy formulation and management
Federal Legislative scantily empowered and traditionally uninterested in foreign policy
Until the turn of the century, foreign policy had not been an important issue for most Brazilian political parties
After many decades of insulation, the national business agenda and interests have become increasingly internationalized
Little social mobilization and demand concerning foreign policy

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[1] Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de Faria is a Senior Associate Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC Minas), Brazil. He holds a PhD in Political Science (IUPERJ) and was Rio Branco Professor at the University of Oxford; a visiting scholar at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex; and at Umeå Universitet, Sweden.