The Brazilian StateThe Brazilian State: Debate and Agenda

Edited by Mauricio A. Font and Laura Randall; with the assistance of Janaina Saad (Lexington Books, 2011)
Part of the Bildner Western Hemisphere Studies Series, The Brazilian State: Debate and Agenda is a collection of sixteen essays from the conference “The Brazilian State: Paths and Prospects of Dirigisme and Liberalization,” held at the Graduate Center in November 2009. Collectively, the papers discuss state reform, institutional development, policy effectiveness, and economic dynamics in Brazil since the 1930s. Part I dwells on actors, contexts, institutions, and ideas; Part II deepens the examination of social and cultural policy; Part III shifts the focus to Brazil’s financial sector, the global financial crisis of 2008, and capital market dynamics; and Part IV looks at the country’s changing global relations.


 

Coffee and Transformation in São Paulo, BrazilCoffee and Transformation in São Paulo, Brazil

Mauricio A. Font (Lexington Books, 2010)
The state of São Paulo has been the leader of Brazilian modernization, development, and industrialization since the latter part of the nineteenth century. Coffee and Transformation in São Paulo, Brazil advances a distinctive interpretation of this phenomenon. Large and entrepreneurial coffee landlords opened the frontier west of the state capital, and made up the world’s largest coffee producer. But foreign settlers made a major contribution to the last phase of frontier expansion in western São Paulo. They were an integral part of the dense networks of towns emerging in this region. This volume pays close attention to the political and economic implications of São Paulo’s great transformation and segmentation, including their links to internal conflict, the Brazilian Revolution of 1930, and regionalism.


 

Café e PolíticaCafé e Política: Ação da Elite Cafeeiran a Política Paulista 1920-1930

Mauricio A. Font and Elba Barzelatto
(University of São Paulo, 1988, Rev. 2010)
This volume presents the methods and data of a research project on the collective action of São Paulo’s coffee elite. Directed by Mauricio Font and with the collaboration of Elba Barzelatto, this work is a systematic database that covers an important period, the 1920s, a time of change and rapid economic transformation in the state of São Paulo and the end of the Old Republic. Some of the findings and conclusions to this work are found in Prof. Font’s 2010 publication, Coffee and Transformation in São Paulo, Brazil. This volume is written in Portugese.

 


 

Reforming BrazilReforming Brazil

Mauricio A. Font and Anthony Peter Spanakos, eds.
(Lexington Books, 2004)
A thought-provoking examination of important issues facing Brazil today, from privatization and agrarian reform to entrepreneurial programs and hemispheric integration. Written by 11 Brazilianist scholars from a range of disciplines and intellectual traditions, the book offers compelling new insights for international policymakers, economists and scholars of Brazil. This volume is part of the Bildner Western Hemisphere Book Series.

 

 


 

Transforming BrazilTransforming Brazil: A Reform Era in Perspective

Mauricio A. Font
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2003)
Explores the complex web of policies, ideas, institutions, social forces, and political actors behind recent Brazilian reforms. By placing them in a broader analytical framework, it sets the backdrop for a better understanding of the character, timing, and sequence of the reform process. The focus is on the complex reform efforts during the post-1985 democratization era.

 

 


 

Charting a New CourseCharting a New Course: The Politics of Globalization and Social Transformation

Mauricio A. Font, ed.
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2001)
Contains 26 essays written by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil’s President and world-class social scientist, at different stages of his impressive and influential intellectual trajectory.

 

 

 


 

Coffee, Contention, and ChangeCoffee, Contention, and Change: In the Making of Modern Brazil

Mauricio A. Font
(Basil Blackwell, 1990)
This book aims to confront traditional theories of economic development which emphasize the role of export elites in directing political and social changes within the nation. Looking specifically at the export (coffee) elites of Sao Paulo, Brazil during the critical period around the 1919 revolution, Font documents important intra-elite conflicts. Font aims to demonstrate how an alternative agrarian economy of small and medium landholders challenged the supposed hegemony of large landholders during this period. He draws from this picture broader implications about export economies and their diverse effects on host countries.