Internal and External Issue of Brazil
Introduction
The dynamics of the world politics are changing with the passage of time. The nations are experiencing a changing paradigm shift in its internal and external problems. The governments are trying their best to develop different kinds of policies compatible with the needs of the modern era. The living standards of the people are getting affected due to perilous economic issues. Consequently, it is becoming hard to compete even if the government is providing basic necessities for their masses. The analysts have started questioning the credibility of the important government institutions which are directly or indirectly involved in the policy making for their respected governments regarding foreign issues. I made a sincere effort in order to know the viewpoint of any official in Brazilian Embassy, but the call was not attended (Contact Number: 917-777-7777). The author left the recorded message twice but none of the official contacted. Hence, to analyze the internal and external problems of a nation, this paper identify and discuss the situation of Brazil based on available literature.
Internal Issues of Brazil
Brazil is considered as one of those democracies who creates a large impact on the regional and global issues such as human right violation, political instability, economic crisis and so forth.
The country is facing challenges in the context of human rights violations on a continuous basis, and this is why international responses are increasing over the human right problems. The country is facing many human rights problems such as torture, extrajudicial killings, overcrowding in the prisons and most importantly undeclared immunities are given to the abuses carried out in the military regimes during the period of 1964 to 1985. The government is portraying a different point of view on these abuses, and the analysts reported that the authorities are delaying the process of justice related to the military regimes. In a civilized world, delay in the provision of justice is considered as justice denied. This shows that the government intentions towards creating a more civilized nation is not up to the required level. On another hand, the violent gangs and frequently reported abuses by the police are drastically destroying the way of living in the urban cities. The state governments of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have implemented some reforms in order to improve the capability of police in controlling law and order. Contrarily, despite these efforts, the police behavior remained consistent towards the misreporting and extra-judicial killings. The human right violations of the police can even be observed in protests during the FIFA world cup festival in the year 2014 and authorities have used all means of power to stop the protestors from using their democratic right (Human Rights Watch).
Economic challenges
Brazil is going through a phase of the perilous economic regime. Ordoñez reported that in 2010, the economy was growing at a rate of 7.5 percent, but the circumstances have changed a lot. In 2015, the country was getting affected by 9.56% inflation rate along with a fiscal deficit. The unemployment is increasing, and experts have an opinion that this trend will further increase in the future. It has been forecasted that the country may face further economic degradation in 2016, and the GDP can be decreased by 2%. The currency is facing devaluation, and the stock market index has also fallen by 21% (Ordoñez). The domestic economy of the country is significantly affected by the commodity prices of the China, and it is prognosticated that the imports will drastically decrease in the upcoming years. The domestic prices of the commodities have also increased, and the living standard of the people is continuously decreasing with the passage of time.
Political instability
The political system of the country is greatly affected by the incapability of the president Dilma Rousseff. The President couldn't be able to bring economic reforms in the country which have resulted in a decrease of its popularity. The other factors which are creating instability in the political scenario are corruptions of government officials, Worker Party politics, Congress misleading attitude towards the legislation and most importantly inefficiency of government in running the coalition. The scandal of Petrobras has destroyed the credibility of the government and political system. The country has faced a long military regime, and the democratic culture is still weak, so it is imperative for the President to act more carefully while dealing with the matters of governance. The President rating has fallen to 16%, and it is being forecasted that it will further decrease in upcoming months (Sennes). The country has experienced the largest protest of the Brazilian history when in the last March; more than 2 million protestors were on the streets of the cities and rural areas. The protestor envisioned that government should bring political and economic reforms in order to stabilize the situation otherwise the conditions will further get worse in 2016.
External Issues
Brazil is also experiencing many global external issues such as failure in foreign policy, the issue of migration and so forth.
Failures in foreign policy
The nation is facing significant issues related to the continuous failure of its foreign policy. The foreign policy includes different types of investment opportunities in the Latin America but due to the Petrobras scandal, circumstances have changed a lot. The contract of $1 billion was financed by a Brazilian bank to invest in the port of Mariel. Instead of giving an edge in the foreign policy, all of this has resulted in scandals (Wesberry). The other sign of weakness in foreign policy can be observed in the relationship with the US government despite the visit of the President to the USA in 2015. The Brazilian government couldn’t able to achieve objectives related to the foreign aid and strong diplomatic support in Latin America (Barnes). Barnes opined that the reason for the failures of foreign policy is directly interlinked with the domestic issues. The president needs to understand that government credibility depends upon its social and economic reforms. If the government couldn't be able to bring these reforms, then it is better to leave the government for the greater interest of the nation.
Migration
A new behavior of migration is observed in Latin America. The people are trying their best to get into Brazil from last few decades especially the skilled labor is looking for opportunities. According to Gogolak and Danticat, the government is facing two types of challenges related to immigration, first is how to deal with the illegal immigrants and second is how to give work permits to highly skilled labor. In recent years, the government has faced a lot of problems related to illegal immigrants, and they have even started affecting the economic prosperity of the country. The illegal immigrants are mostly from Haiti. Subsequently, strategic measures should be implemented to prevent this trend especially strong mitigation strategy is required related to the border security (Gogolak and Danticat).
Conclusion
In short, every country in the world is facing different kinds of internal and external problems, but the only way to minimize its effect is based on political stability. If the political structure of the government is strong and democratic culture exists in the society, then it becomes easy to implement different kinds of social reforms according to the objectives. The economic reforms and effective foreign policy are essential in order to compete and to bring prosperity in the general public.
Work Cited
Barnes, Taylor. "Why Brazil Won’T Take Dilma’S U.S. Bait". Foreign Policy. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.< http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/03/why-brazil-wont-take-dilma-rousseffs-u-s-bait/>
Gogolak, Emily, and Edwidge Danticat. "Haitian Migrants Turn Toward Brazil - The New Yorker". The New Yorker. N.p., 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.< http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/haitian-migrants-turn-toward-brazil>
Human Rights Watch. "World Report 2015: Brazil". N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016. < https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/brazil>
Ordoñez, Silvana. "Brazil Has 2 Kinds Of Problems, And Both Are Bad". CNBC. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.< http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/21/brazil-has-2-kinds-of-problems-and-theyre-both-bad.html
Sennes, Ricardo. "Brazil's Political Crisis and the Dilma Factor". The Huffington Post. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.< http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ricardo-sennes/brazils-political-crisis-_b_7057320.html>
Wesberry, Jim. "Brazilâ’s Foreign Policy Failures". Anti-Corruption Digest. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.< http://anticorruptiondigest.com/anti-corruption-news/2016/01/11/brazils-foreign-policy-failures/#axzz40JuftLIb>
