State Capture and Elite Resistance to the Sustainable Development Goals in Paraguay

Abstract

This article examines Paraguay’s lack of progress in meeting the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the conceptual framework of state capture. It argues that the current model of economic development, based primarily on soya and meat production, is unsustainable in economic, social, and environmental terms and almost exclusively serves the interests of a small elite. The example of three interrelated SDGs is used to show how elites have used state capture to defend this model and block the structural reforms required to attain Paraguay’s SDGs. Conceptually, it argues that i) the incorporation of state capture, currently absent from analysis of SDGs, is fundamental to understanding the relationship between agricultural elites and sustainable development; and ii) that a broader definition of state capture, to include legal as well as illegal methods, is needed to understand the reality of its operational mechanism and the extent of its impact.