The search for a critical juncture in the Brazilian regulation of foreign land ownership

Since the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, Brazil has experienced series of liberal reforms. A policy that has been in the making for a decade and that has now gained momentum is the deregulation of foreign land ownership. This paper looks at whether these transformations are circumstantial or they constitute a critical juncture, potentially changing the path of institutions for years to come. On this search, this work analyses how two ideas — liberalism and national developmentalism — were constructed in Brazil and the impact they had in the country's institutions since independence. In search of a critical juncture, the research provides a more nuanced view of well-known interest groups, disaggregating allies and finding incentives for cooperation across groups that are normally rivals.