In the Third World, the Oil Crisis has emphasized the vulnerability of certain large oil-importing countries, engaged in an extensive process of industrialization. The author asks whether Brazil's response to this new challenge will emerge from a tradition of direct State involvement in Energy (exemplified by PETROBRAS), or an original strategy based on the private sector. Both the personal commitment of General Geisel to enhance the national bourgeoisie, and the general context of the mid-Seventies, favour the latter. As the locally-owned sugar-producing oligopoly promotes an alcohol program to replace gasoline, the State is seeking a loose formula--an Alliance of the agro-energetic sector with the multinational automobile industry and PETROBRAS. Its success would be based on the performance of each actor. / Given a tradition of susceptibility of the Brazilian State to internal lobbying, and the choice in favour of indirect involvement in the program, it is not surprising that controls remained largely ineffective. Further structural limitations--an archaic agriculture resulting in low productivity of land, a lack of private funding, and technological deficiencies (caused by inadequate R & D activities)--induced the failure of the program in its original conception. However, the national bourgeoisie's fear of foreign control lead the military to veto the possible alternative of further internationalization of the alcohol sector. It remains to be seen, in the light of the weakening position of Brazil in the world economy, if such a stance can be maintained in the long term.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.76731 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Duquette, Michel, 1947- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Political Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000194613, proquestno: AAINK66577, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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