Difusão de políticas agrárias no nordeste brasileiro: uma análise do modelo de reforma agrária assistida de mercado

Abstract

The land tenure issue in Brazil is considered a historical problem due to the concentration of land in the country in the hands restricted groups - the state, church, individuals, or companies. Since the mid-20th century, agrarian reform models have become contested objects in the struggle for land access. Because of this, laws, norms, and resolutions articulate programs and policies aimed at promoting agrarian reform in the country. Since the 1990s, two programs have comprised the Brazilian agrarian policy: conventional agrarian reform through the expropriation of unproductive lands carried out by INCRA and the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform, which provides financial support for land to landless or small-landholding farmers. Both programs are under the responsibility of the federal government, with the latter being executed at the time by the Ministry of Agrarian Development. The land access model through the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform (RAAM) was conceived by the World Bank and instituted in Brazil in 1997. It was introduced with the institutional discourse of reducing conflicts and rural poverty within a political and ideological context influenced by global references to new ideas. This context led the government under Fernando Henrique Cardoso to contemplate alternatives to traditional, costly state public policy models. This policy is characterized by financing for the voluntary purchase and sale of land between private parties, without the need for expropriation. In other words, it is a logic influenced by the capitalist market for development processes, especially in countries of the so-called Third World. The object of study in this thesis is the diffusion process of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform policy in the northeastern states. The aim is to understand this process through the theoretical framework of public policy diffusion, focusing on the approach of policy diffusion mechanisms. It highlights the elements that contributed to the adoption of this model in Brazil and its diffusion in the Northeast region. Therefore, the research aims to analyze the diffusion process of the MarketAssisted Agrarian Reform policy in subnational governments of the Northeastern Region as its general objective. The guiding question of this research is: How did the subnational governments in the Northeast implement the market-based agrarian reform model? In other words, what mechanisms were employed in the diffusion process of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform model within the subnational governments of the Northeastern Region? To achieve the objectives, semi-structured interviews were conducted with researchers in the field, administrators of the current land financing program, Terra Brasil, in the northeastern states, and individuals associated with various social movements advocating for land rights (Comissão Pastoral da Terra - CPT, Confederação dos Trabalhadores da Agricultura - CONTAG, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST). Additionally, a documentary analysis of bulletins released by the Indicators Panel of the former Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) was conducted to characterize the programs that operationalized this land access model in Brazil, along with documents from the World Bank related to the policy. The research identified the mechanisms of learning, emulation, and coercion in the diffusion of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform (RAAM). It was observed that the model was adopted as a pilot project operationalized by the Government of Ceará state in 1996, within the scope of the Rural Poverty Combat Program (PCPR) São José, with the inclusion of a land-related component called Solidary Agrarian Reform. It began its diffusion in the Brazilian Northeast due to the region's highest concentration of poverty in the country and its favorable environment for adoption. Notably, the Rural Poverty Combat Projects were being implemented in the northeastern states, utilizing the physical, institutional, and personnel structure of this policy. From 1997 onward, the Brazilian Government entered into a technical and financial cooperation agreement with the World Bank within the context of a global neoliberal framework. This aligned with Fernando Henrique Cardoso's political project to combat rural poverty and introduced agrarian reform into the agenda of the Community Solidarity Program (PCS), thereby disseminating the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform to the Bahia, Maranhão, and Pernambuco states. Additionally, land financing was expanded in Ceará through the implementation of the Land Certificate Program (PCT). In 1998, amid a debate on the New Rural World proposal, the Land Revolving Fund, known as Banco da Terra (Land Bank), was established. This incorporation brought the Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, Sergipe, and Piauí states into the ambit of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform. This model implementation was the result of political coordination by administrators of subnational governments, whose role was crucial for executing the model in conjunction with the central government. This implementation received financial, technical, and intellectual support from the World Bank.