The Sino-Brazilian Principles in a Latin American and BRICS Context: The Case for Comparative Public Budgeting Legal Research

Abstract

The United States prevailed in the last century by asserting the Americas as its stronghold and projecting hard, soft, and smart power worldwide. If China is to become a superpower in the twenty-first century, what kind of principles will it stand for? In this essay, a piece of the puzzle is put in place by the Sino-Brazilian Principles, a synthesis of Brazil‘s and China‘s core bilateral values, distilled from their legal systems and government-to-government agreements of the last forty years. After engaging in Africa, China has presented itself as a commercial alternative to the United States in Latin America. The way Brazil and China deal with one another is set to form a precedent for other CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) nations, influence the success or failure of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), and affect the balance of power in the Americas and Asia.

This premise leads to the second part of the paper, focused on the Brazilian and Chinese legal frameworks for budget systems. On the one hand, analyzing a country‘s budget is an established way to foresee the goals and needs of its government, on the other, little has been written about the budget systems of emerging economies from a comparative law perspective. In 2015, two emerging giants are poised to start anew financially: Brazil, with the Pluriannual Plan 2016-2019, and China, with the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan 2016-2020. In spite of all the inspired guessing about South-South partnerships, the future of the developing world is not in the stars; it is in the budget.

Keywords: Development, China, Brazil, Sino-Brazilian, CELAC, BRICS, Latin America, Budget, Comparative Law, International Relations