A privatização das águas no contexto da contrarreforma do estado brasileiro
The article brings forward the so-called water reform in Brazil, as it was proposed by the federal government. It highlights its social, economic and environmental dimensions. Such a proposal intends to change the ways of controlling the access to water, in view of its privatization, as water is a natural resource that integrates every process of production, besides the fact that it is essential to preserve life. Because of that, the water reform is considered one of the actions of the counter-reform of the Brazilian state, according to the dominant interests in search of getting over the present crisis of capital.
Investimento direto estrangeiro e o desempenho das exportações brasileiras
Brazil, in the 1990s, assumed a remarkable position as a host of foreign direct investment. It is worth mentioning that the service sector received the highest proportion of foreign investment. This market seeking strategy was responsible for the growth of the Brazilian imports. The results are confirmed by the performance of foreign enterprises into different groups of activities. Those enterprises with majority of foreign capital have increased their imports the most from 1995 to 2000. Therefore, during the 1995-2000 period, this study does not support the view that foreign investment has directly improved the performance of the Brazilian exporting sector.
The Product Cycle Hypothesis in a New International Environment
The last decade has produced a flowering of hypotheses that purport to explain the international trade and direct investment activities of firms in terms of the socalled product cycle. My purpxjse in this paper is to suggest that the power of such hj'potheses has been changing. Two reasons account for that change: one, an increase in the geographical reach of many of the enterprises that are involved in the introduction of new products, a consequence of their having established many overseas subsidiaries; the other, a change in the national markets of the advanced industrialized countries, which has reduced some of the differences that had previously existed between such markets.