Diffusion of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform in subnational governments

an analysis of policy mechanisms

Abstract

The Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform was established in Brazil in 1997 by the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002), in alliance with the World Bank. Its primary objective was to reduce conflicts and alleviate rural poverty. The Northeast region was chosen for the initial implementation of the policy due to its higher concentration of poverty. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the process of diffusion of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform in Brazilian subnational governments, particularly in the Northeast region, with an emphasis on the mechanisms that influenced state governments to adopt the model. A qualitative approach was employed, using document analysis with a focus on the mechanisms of Policy Diffusion Theory, namely learning, political competition, emulation, and coercion (SHIPAN and VOLDEN, 2008). The results indicate that in the Northeast region, the diffusion process of the Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform model was marked by the mechanisms of learning and emulation.