Beyond “Best Practices”: A Historical-Sociological Critique of Privatization, Decentralization, and Anti-Corruption Discourse in 1990s Brazil

Abstract

In the post-Cold War 1990s, a homogenizing package of neoliberal reforms—centered on privatization, deregulation, and fiscal austerity—was globally promoted as a universal blueprint for modernization and clean governance. This article critically examines how, in Brazil, this globally promoted agenda was selectively adapted and instrumentalized in ways that, far from delivering on its promises of modernization and clean governance, enabled new forms of high-level corruption and state capture. Through a historical-sociological analysis of policy documents, media narratives, and institutional actions, it shows how these reform templates were appropriated by domestic elites, in interaction with transnational governance pressures, through opaque bidding processes, dubious asset valuations, permissive financing, and fragile regulatory design. Far from reducing corruption, these arrangements facilitated new forms of elite capture and the transfer of public assets to concentrated financial coalitions. The Brazilian case shows that imported “best practices” functioned less as neutral remedies than as politically situated instruments of market-oriented restructuring. The article therefore argues for anti-corruption approaches that are historically grounded and attentive to the political and institutional contexts in which reform agendas are advanced.