The Interplay of Domestic and Foreign Political Contraints on the Informatics Policy of Brazil

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the poitical dimension of policies for technological development designed and implemented by developing countries. Here, I present some of my research findings on the interplay of internatoinal and domestic political constraints on technology policies based on the analysis of the Brazilian information technology policy [Bastos 1991, 1992]. The meshing of domestic and foreign political constraints on the ability of a developing country's government to design and implement a policy for the development of domestic capability in high technology is made clearer in the analysis of an international trade conflict arising from such a technology policy. This introduction sets out the issues and prsents the structure of the paper.