The Electricity Policy Debate in Brazil’s Economic Epistemic Community: the 1945-1964 Period

Abstract

This article scrutinizes the evolution of Brazilian thought on electricity policy from 1945 to 1964, focusing on the topics of planning of electricity supply expansion, the FDI vs. state ownership conundrum, and the relationship between electricity supply growth and inflation. The economic debate comprised two main concurring camps during this period, one monetarist/orthodox and another developmentalist/structuralist. This bipartisan division was also present in the electricity policy debate. It is argued that while there was some degree of convergence between the two camps regarding the issue of planning, in the other two core topics of the debate, divergence was the tonic. However, despite the marked division in the economic epistemic community regarding electricity policy, political and economic conditions favored policy experimentation with a pragmatic policy stance that combined features from states and markets- which combined ideas from both camps-, even after the 1964 coup, when the debate had been mostly neutralized.