New developmentalist experiments in Brazil and Egypt - a comparative study

The paper investigates the state-led development experiments in Brazil and Egypt, and highlights their merits and shortcomings in the light of most recent difficulties in both countries. Using institutional and political economy approach we compare the new Brazilian development-oriented approach to its Egyptian counterpart, and also look at their results, while trying to explain the main differences between the two cases. The way how Brazil has achieved pro-poor and inclusive growth since the Millennium offers some useful lessons, but in the light of most recent events it also provides a cautionary tale for other emerging and developing countries. At the same time the lack of pro-poor stance and neglect of inclusivity helps to explain political (and economic) turmoil of recent years in Egypt. More recently both countries have turned towards a more market- (business-) oriented approach, however with different background. After 2014 the Sisi government in Egypt seemed to turn back the time and strengthened its commitment to the state-led developmentalist approach while relying mainly on old Nasserist practices and institutional ties. This Sisinomics might have been however short-lived, as the new IMF agreement (November 2016) and its prescriptions signal a new economic policy turn. In Brazil after the rather implicit neoliberal turn during the hasty economic policy (mis-)management of the Rousseff government, in 2016 the new Temer government has much more explicitly committed itself to market-oriented reforms, and with this to the aim of significantly cutting back the role of state in economy.