Science and technology policy in transition: new challenges for Cardoso's legacy

摘要

Brazil has a well-developed scientific and technological capabilitiy within industrialising countries. However, this capability has not been translated into social development. The new Brazilian Worker's Party government considers it urgent to develop an S&T agenda oriented to the country's social development. I argue that the new government faces two types of difficulties in pursuing this goal:. First, the new government's science and technology policies oppose, to a certain extent, the ideological foundations and the institutional structure of the S&T enterprise inherited from former President F.H. Cardoso's administration. Second, the Worker's Party's nationalistic development goals including building technological autonomy, have to confront the strong presence of foreign capital in hi-tech sectors and an accelerated increase in technological dependency during the last ten years.