The transformation of state-business relations in an emerging economy: The case of Brazilian agribusiness
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Purpose: – The aim of this paper is to revisit the Brazilian case in an effort to shed light on how state-business relations have been transformed in the contemporary era of globalization. Brazil has long been considered the archetype of “dependent development”, having served as the inspiration for the classic theory of the relationship between states and capital in the semi-peripheral states of the developing world. Since the theory of dependent development was initially formulated in the 1970s, however, both the Brazilian political economy and the global context in which it is situated have changed dramatically. Design/methodology/approach: – The analysis draws on 15 months of field research conducted in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Beijing, New Delhi and Washington, as well as at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, involving 157 interviews with senior government officials, trade negotiators and representatives of industry and non-governmental organizations, ethnographic observation and extensive documentary research. Findings: – The author shows how the emergence of a highly competitive export-oriented agribusiness sector in Brazil has prompted the expansion and internationalization of domestic capital, leading to the emergence of an independent, private sector lobby with considerable influence on the Brazilian state. Driven by the rise of Brazilian agribusiness, the state and capital have allied together to aggressively pursue the expansion of markets for Brazilian exports, specifically through dispute settlement and negotiations at the WTO. Originality/value: – These findings challenge conventional understandings of state-business relations in emerging economies such as Brazil.
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Such cattle-driven frontierization in the Amazon has many causes, including the increasing role of agribusiness in the country's economy and policy-making since the 2000s.
“Such a cattle-driven frontierization in the Amazon has many causes, including (a) the increasing role of agribusiness in the country's economy and policy-making since the 2000s (Hopewell, 2014;Kroger, 2017;Sondergaard, 2018), (b) the concomitant growth of agribusiness' discursive power in Brazilian society, disseminating a”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Hopewell, 2014
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The Globalization of Agribusiness and Developing World Food Systems
Wilkinson, J. (2009) · Monthly Review · doi:10.14452/mr-061-04-2009-08_4 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
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Bastos Lima, M. G., & López, J. (2026) · World Development · doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107532
- Authors
- Hopewell, K.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Hopewell, Kristen
- ORCID
- Hopewell, Kristen
- Venue
- critical perspectives on international business
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2014-09-30
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 291-309
- ISSN
- 1742-2043 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2035949753
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 7.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Critical Perspectives on International Business (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Brazilian History and Foreign Policy
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › World Systems and Global Transformations
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
- Keywords
- state-business relations, dependent development, emerging markets, Brazilian agribusiness, WTO dispute settlement, trade negotiations, globalization, semi-periphery, Brazil
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