Developing Countries

Brazil:
Political situation:
Despite having endured centuries of political unrest and discrimination, even slavery,
Brazil now enjoys the political rule of a democratic government. This type of rulership
means that those in power are elected by the residents of the country, who will vote in
formal elections for one of a number of different parties. This gives each individual that
is of a voting age an equal opportunity to affect his or her own country.

At present, voting is compulsory for all Brazilian residents that are literate and between
the ages of 18 and 69 years. Anyone that is 16, 17 or over 69 years of age, or is illiterate
can choose to vote, but is not under obligation to do so. The government of Brazil is
divided into the 1) executive branch, 2) legislative branch and 3) judicial branch. There
are 27 states and more than 5 500 individual municipalities, each of which is run by a
mayor.

Executive Branch
The president is elected via ballot votes and he or she will hold executive power. The
presidents term is four years.
Economic situation:
Brazils limited experiment with market-oriented reforms has been uneven and even
derailed in some areas. The states presence in such sectors as energy, financial services,
and electricity remains extensive. The legacy of decades of central planning, state
meddling in economic activity continues even where it has demonstrably failed, and the
weak rule of law further undermines economic progress.

Economic Freedom Snapshot

2016 Economic Freedom Score: 56.5 (down 0.1 point)

Economic Freedom Status: Mostly Unfree

Global Ranking: 122nd

Regional Ranking: 21st in the South and Central America/Caribbean Region

Notable Successes: Trade Freedom

Concerns: Corruption, Management of Public Finance, and Regulatory

Efficiency

Overall Score Change Since 2012: 1.4

The onerous regulatory environment hinders needed economic transformation and
undercuts realization of the economys full potential. Growing public debt and higher
debt service costs have kept fiscal pressure high, and burdensome taxes further crowd
out private-sector growth.

Social Situation:
Brazilian Social Issues
Brazil is a beautiful country; rich in cultures, colours, flavours, languages and customs.
But, as with any country in the world, Brazil has its fair share of social issues, which its
people and government no doubt work hard to resolve. These issues include:

Poverty
The richest 10% of people in Brazil have access to over 40% of the countrys income.
On the other hand, the poorest 10% receive about 1% of the income. This paints a grim
picture for those with little or no financial stability, and visitors to the country will likely
attest to the fact that the poverty is visible and tangible, even to onlookers. The stark
contrast between the rich and the poor is made even clearer by the fact that these ones
live alongside one another. The slums in the metropolitan, known as favelas, are
common, while the remote areas upcountry are also clearly financially strained. There
are several programmes and community initiatives in place to assist the hungry and the
homeless, as well as to ensure that children from all areas of the communities have
access to education because, although the education itself is free, there are many factors
affecting whether or not children can actually access and attend these schools.

Crime
Although all major cities and countries in the world experience some form of crime,
Brazil is particularly susceptible to this major social issue. The most common forms of
crime in this country include mugging, robbing, kidnapping and gang violence. In
addition to the crime within the community, there is also a problem within the law
enforcement divisions, with corruption and violence being inflicted by the police
themselves. This discourages the community to report incidents of violence, as they have
little fear of or respect for the police. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice created the
National Public Security Force to handle major emergencies and crises instead of the
local police force.

Lack of Education
Brazil children have access to free public education at all levels. Education at a Primary
level is compulsory, and most of the Primary schools are maintained by the
municipalities or the states that they occupy. This means that wealthier cities or states
have better schools than their poorer counterparts, and the children suffer because of a
lack of adequate amenities and resources. This, in turn, means that poorer children
receive a lower level of education.

Many children do not attend school because of malnutrition, as this makes them unable
to develop intellectually and to adjust to the social environment of a school. Child
 labour amongst poorer children is also an enormous problem, despite its being
technically illegal to employ a child less than 16 years of age.

Poor families generally prefer for their children to start working as soon as possible, so
that they may bring in an income. This has resulted in labourers as young as 10 years
old, missing school in a desperate attempt to earn money. The high examination failure
rate is another factor that influences non-attendance at schools, despite their being free.

Media Situation:

Media ownership is highly concentrated. Domestic conglomerates such as Globo,

Brazil's most-successful broadcaster, dominate the market and run TV and radio
networks, newspapers and pay-TV operations.

Brazilian-made dramas and soaps - known as telenovelas - are aired around the world.
Game shows and reality TV attract huge audiences.

The constitution guarantees a free press and there is vigorous debate in the media about
politics and social issues.

However, politicians and powerful business owners have used defamation laws to stifle
critical reporting, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The CPJ says that in 2015 Brazil was the deadliest country in the Americas for
journalists.

By 2016, 139 million Brazilians were online (Internetlivestats.com). Brazilians are

among the world's top users of social media; Facebook is the leading social network.

Internet access is not generally restricted. However, the judiciary has grown
"increasingly aggressive" in its attempts to regulate content, says Freedom House

Romania:

Economic Situation:

Recovering from the severe shock of the recent global financial crisis, Romania
continues to place a high priority on restoring fiscal sustainability and improving
competitiveness by easing and rationalizing the regulatory burden. Modest economic
growth has resumed, and the government has made progress in reducing the public debt
and budget deficit. The pace of privatization and restructuring of state-owned
enterprises has slowed, yielding mixed results.

Economic Freedom Snapshot

2016 Economic Freedom Score: 65.6 (down 1 point)

Economic Freedom Status: Moderately Free

 Global Ranking: 61st

Regional Ranking: 29th in Europe

Notable Successes: Trade Freedom and Monetary Freedom

Concerns: Rule of Law and Labor Freedom

Overall Score Change Since 2012: +1.2

Lingering institutional shortcomings make it difficult to enhance respect for the rule of
law. High levels of corruption exacerbated by a relatively inefficient judicial system
weaken the prospects for dynamic long-term development.

Political Situation:

The recent political crisis is one which has brought Romania to the attention of
international media.

Starting with the death of young police officer, Bogdan Cosmin Gigina, who lost his life
while leading the official convoy of then Minister of Interior, Gabriel Oprea, the people
of Romania have been getting increasingly anxious with regard to the ruling political
class of their country.

Then, on Friday, October 30th, tragedy struck a club in Romania's capital city of
Bucharest when a fire broke out, leaving almost 200 people injured and around 27 dead.
The number of deaths rose after the fire. Currently around 45 people have died and 35
out of the 100 which had been hospitalized are now fighting for their lives.

The scale of the tragedy and the underlying acts of corruption which apparently fuel
such terrible dangers in the Romanian system have enraged the population and have
sparked week long protests in the country's capital and other cities around Romania, as
well as in several other countries where Romanian expats live.

The largest protest numbered around 70 000 people (1), and, even though the populace
is still bringing its discontent to the streets, numbers are not as great as they were in the
initial three days. However, apparently another demonstration is programmed for
December 1st, Romania's national day.

During this time of turmoil, Victor Ponta, the person who occupied the function of
Prime Minister when the disaster took place, resigned in order to honor citizens'
demands for him to do so. As a result of his resignation, the entire Romanian
Government was removed, including then Minister of Interior, Gabriel Oprea.

The interim Premier is now Sorin Cimpeanu.

Klaus Iohannis, the president of Romania, is currently consulting with the country's
political parties so that they may find a solution to the issue of designating a new head of
Government.

The tumultuousness of the situation has not yet subsided and it is not likely that it will
any time soon, unless major changes occur in the way things are being handled.

Economical and political stability are at stake and it is therefore recommended that the
country find a way to end this particular problematic period in its existence.

Media Situation:

Romania has one of the most dynamic media markets in southeastern Europe. A
handful of conglomerates dominates the industry.

TV is the medium of choice, with commercial stations Pro TV and Antena 1 being the
leading outlets. TVR is the public broadcaster.

There is a competitive pay TV sector, via cable and satellite. Romania is yet to complete
the switch to digital terrestrial TV (DTT).

There are more than 100 private radios. Public Radio Romania operates national,
regional and local stations.

US-based Freedom House says the private media sector is dominated by influential
businessmen who have their own political agendas.

Around 11 million Romanians were online by July 2014 (InternetLiveStats.com). Many

users access the web via mobile phones. The most popular social network is Facebook.

Freedom of expression and its corollary, media freedom, have long been considered two
of the main gains of democracy in Romania, after the fall of Communism. The first
years after 1989 were "growth years" for both media and political sectors in Romania.
In 1993, Romania joined the Council of Europe and signed the association agreement
with EU, while in 1995 applied officially for EU membership. The legislative
harmonization started and many progresses were made during those years. In January
2007, Romania became a full-fledged EU member, which eased the compliance pressure
on the authorities.

For many years, media were largely seen as the real opposition in the country and both
the members of the public and politicians turned to the media to either complain or
explain. The relationship between the media and politics had its ups and downs: honey
moon feelings, harassment, economic and political pressures, co-habitation,
aggressions and abuses on both sides. Still, the media have remained one of the most
trusted institutions in Romania, with a trust quota of around 60 per cent, down from the
70 per cent some years ago (Eurobarometer, 2004; 2011). The Konrad-Adenauer-
Stiftung has also conducted a study on the trust in Romanian media recently, which was
presented in Bucharest, in cooperation with the Center for Independent Journalism.

The Romanian media market has grown organically, with too little care for strategic
development, goals to be reached and benefits to be counted. The number of the media
outlets stays in the thousands today, composing a just apparently diverse media
landscape. There are 649 active radio licences and 643 TV licences (terrestrial
transmission satellite cable), out of which 45 news stations, 13 music stations, 15 sports-
oriented ones.

The market is dominated by a couple of big media holdings, some with foreign
investment, that operate with various degrees of economic success. In addition to them,
there is a constellation of small companies; mostly unprofessionally run, banking on
their close relationship with political or economic interests groups. The model of media-
owner-cum-businessman-cum-politician was quite an epitome for the Romanian media
in the early 2000s, especially in the local media, and it is still quite frequent.

The circulation figures are decreasing, with tabloids and sports newspapers selling the
most. The biggest quality newspapers barely reach 20,000 copies sold, which is virtually
insignificant for a population of 20 million.

The TV is the prevalent medium in Romania, the most recent Eurobarometer putting at
97 percent the proportion of the Romanian using TV as their main source for
information. The digital switch-off is set-up for June 17, 2015, but little has been done in
order to secure a smooth transition to the digital transmission. Although Romania was
the first European country to transpose the Audio-Visual Service Directive (designed to
secure the digital switch-over process), in 2006, the first multiplexes were allocated only
in 2014, to the state-controlled Radiocom.

Internet penetration stays at 46,2 per cent of the households, but there is a significant
disparity between urban and rural areas (twice as much urban households than rural).
On the other hand, Romania has one of the fastest broadband Internet in the world,
ranking sixth after South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel and Japan (Akamai, Q1
2014, by average peak connection speed). The country also does well in broadband
connectivity.

The easy access to technology stimulated the blooming of a variety of online products,
from portals to online publications to blogs. Some of these were born as a result of the
political or editorial pressures the journalists had to face in the newsrooms; others from
the publics frustration with the highly tabloidized and partisan content provided by the
traditional media. The social media are also very popular. For example, Facebook
penetration in Romania is at 35,78 percent of the country's population (74,67 percent of
the total of Internet users) and rapidly growing, according to facebrands.com.
The media market has been strongly affected by both the economic crisis and the
changes in the media consumption patterns triggered by the increasing Internet
penetration. The traditional business models proved no longer valid and were not able
to secure a healthy profit. Most media companies in Romania are operating with losses.
Survival strategies of the media companies included downsizing, closing down print
editions, and affiliation with national networks. In some cases, securing positive
coverage to state authorities was seen as a survival solution, in the hope of accessing
state advertising. The state/public advertising is an important source of revenue for the
media, with the EU being the main advertising client (via the EU-funded projects), with
contracts amounting to 20-25 percent of the whole advertising market.

The visible political instrumentalisation of the media overlapped with the negative
effects of the economic crisis that hit Romania starting with 2009. These combined
factors stimulated a "dumbing down"syndrome, characterized by an ever-lower quality
of the media content. In its turn, this process led to an erosion of the social status of the
profession and of the credibility of the media as democratic, public interest agents.
Despite this erosion, the media are still perceived as the main information and influence
tool, hence the ever stronger strive to own and control them.

Social Situation:

Poverty affects all categories of society and is closely tied to level of employment, quality
of employment and salary level. Since 1996, people able to work have been moving from
the status of employee to inactivity or unpaid work, resulting in insecure income and
risk of poverty. Young people aged between 15 and 24 are one of the categories hardest
hit, with employment falling from 37% in 1996 to 33% in 2000 and 24% in 2012.
Source: Eurostat data, adapted by the author. The categories most at risk of poverty are
employed people other than employees and unemployed people. The risk of poverty for
these categories is around 70%, and even higher for unemployed people. The economic
crisis and falling living standards, particularly in rural areas, have led to increasing
rates of early school leaving in both rural and urban areas, particularly in secondary
and vocational education but also in post-secondary education. Looking at data
accumulated between 2007 and 2012, drop-out rates for primary and secondary school
(10-14 years old) education rose by around 9%, rates for secondary school (14-18 years
old) rose by around 19% and rates for post-secondary education rose by around 28%.
Year by year, there has been an increase in early school leaving, rising sharply to 18.4%
in 2010. However, in 2013 early school leaving fell slightly to 17.3%. There is insufficient
evidence to suggest that 2010 was a turning point. Inadequate education has as strong
an effect on unemployment as lack of experience. For some sectors and some jobs,
experience is more valuable than education, while the opposite applies in other sectors.
Poorly educated people are more likely to be unemployed, and in the long term this will
increase the duration of unemployment in this group. The situation in rural areas is
dramatic: in 2013 around 28% of young people dropped out of school, which will affect
their ability to join the labour market. Lack of experience will be exacerbated by lack of
proper education, and these two factors will substantially reduce the likelihood of young
people in rural areas finding decent jobs. Generally speaking, a series of preliminary
measures have been undertaken in Romania with regard to specific aspects of
employment policy, but as yet there is no consistent comprehensive approach or any
move to integrate education and employment policies. Under the Europe 2020 strategy,
more vigorous steps will need to be taken to improve the employment prospects of
vulnerable groups (such as young people, older workers and Roma people) by raising
education and qualification levels both for people currently in work and for future
workers, by means of a system of incentives for work and to curb undeclared work. 0,0
10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 41,8 41,1 40,8 41,2 42,4 43,6
54,7 51,7 50,4 49,1 49,1 53,9 % Alte persoane inactive aflate in risc de saracie UE 27
Romania The economic and social situation in Romania 8 Crucial to the structural
changes which will take place in the labour market in future is the shrinking
productivity gap between economic sectors, which will automatically mitigate labour
market dysfunctions. The phenomenon of an ageing population has appeared sooner in
Romania than its level of economic development would have suggested. The main factor
in this process after 1990 was external migration, as the majority of people leaving the
country were active, in both economic and demographic terms. This had a strong
impact on birth rates and natural population growth. The decrease in the active
population over the last decade has undermined the ratio of people in work to people of
working age. Falling employment rates of labour resources brought about by falling
activity rates, along with the increased rate of retired people, has led to an increase in
the economic dependency of the general population.