5 - Brazil

Summary

Although authorities have taken measures since the mid-2000s to contain tax burden growth, Brazil remains far more heavily taxed than Chile or Mexico. This chapter explains why. Contemporary analyses emphasize the 1998 constitution, which created major new social spending commitments. While raising a legitimate point, this argument suffers from important limitations, including the fact that Brazil was already Latin America’s most heavily taxed country even before 1988. This chapter argues that Brazil’s heavy taxation must be understood in terms of how historical events have shaped the influence of statist and anti-statist actors. In Chile and Mexico, threats to property turned economic elites against the state. In Brazil, in contrast, elites have faced no comparable threat. As a result, they have not come to view state expansion as particularly alarming and have not organized intensively to thwart it. Authorities have thus felt relatively free to increase taxes. In addition, Brazil’s state-led development path has provided more fertile ground for labor to expand and wield influence. The origins and evolution of the 1988 constitution must be understood within this broader context.