lare bankruptcy.
In Brazil, economic stabilization plans have been developed by governments, with one eye on the foreign lenders, and one eye on the domestic political situation. Brazil began a brinksmanship game with international lenders, by refusing in 1987 to continue to pay on the principal of its external debt, although keeping up interest payments. Brazil did not really feel that they had much to fear, because, as they pointed out, they were receiving hardly any new money anyway ("Living with the Strains," 1987).
Brazil, in contrast to most developing countries, has relatively little need for imports, and exports account for less than 10 percent of the country's GDP (International Monetary Fund, 1990). Brazil, therefore, is often tempted to rebel against the external imposition of economic restraints, because most Brazilians, including politicians at the national level, think that the country can get away with it.
Rampant urbanization is a problem in Brazil. Sao Paulo, the country's largest city, with a population in excess of 15 million persons, is expected by 2000 to have a population which will exceed 25 million persons, which will represent 14 percent of Brazil's projected total population (The World Bank, 1986). One of the solutions to the urbanization problem which is being pursued by Brazil is the opening up of the country's hinterlands, which, unfortunately, included parts of the Amazonian rain forest.
While Sao Paulo in particular, as well as some of the other Brazilian cities, are generally well off, distressing numbers of people are required to live in the favelas, or shantytowns, which have developed on the outskirts of the country's major urban areas. The people who live in the favelas moved from the countryside without promise of a good job, but with hope that they will be able to participate in an improving economy. Their numbers are usually more than a city can accommodate. Through the deve...