Mapping the Inflections in the Policies of the Brazilian National Economic and Social Development Bank during the 1990s and 2000s within Social Spaces and Networks

Abstract

During the 1990s and the 2000s, large inflections in the policies conducted by the Brazilian National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) took place. Administrations went back and forth between a neoliberal perspective that recommended privatization and reduction of the state interference in the economy (1990-2002 and 2016-2017), and a model in which planning and governmental investment were welcomed (1993 and 2003-2016). Following an introduction into the Bank’s history, its policies will be described, emphasizing the large shifts in discourses and policies, resulting from the changes in government and consequently in the profile of board members of the Bank. In a next step, the institution is reconstructed as a social space and a social network using data on trajectories of and ties between presidents and directors of the Bank. The combination of these different analytical instruments allows to verify if the cleavages observed in each representation are similar, and thus to evaluate if the relative positions of the administrations are modified when considering not only the social properties of agents but also their interactions. In the conclusion, comments are made on the possibilities offered by each method and on the complementarity of the two relational perspectives.