7º Encontro Nacional da Associação Brasileira de Ciência Política – ABCP 4 a 7 de Agosto de 2010 – Recife – PE Área Temática: Relações Internacionais Against the Tide: Democratization and Foreign Policy in Brazil Rogério de Souza Farias 1 Haroldo Ramanzini Júnior 2 1. Introduction In Brazil, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Itamaraty is considered the most important actor in defining the country’s foreign policy. Some authors point to how its professional corps succeeded to insulate the management of Brazilian foreign relations from outside influences until it was defied from forces of society and other governmental organizations in the last decades. We will demonstrate that, in the particular issue area of multilateral trade negotiations, the historical record when contrasted with the current situation does not support the contention that Itamaraty diminished its grip over the decision making machinery. In our view, Itamaraty was not the central instance in the decision making process in the past and it is today. In this sense, democratization of the political regime did not lead necessarily to democratization of the decision making process. Actually, qualification of government officials, the redistribution of competences in the Brazilian State and the institutional choices that were made led to a relatively closing on the decision making process of Brazilian foreign policy in the field of multilateral trade negotiations. Still, the literature does not agree with that. It is widespread three sets of explanations for the way the opposite tendency occurred. The first one is based on how transitions from dictatorship to democracy affected state accountability and decision making processes. In Latin American, broad upheaval in the 1980s and early 1990s, served as a catalyst for studies addressing the matter (Muñoz e Tulchin, 1984; Lijphart e Waisman, 1996). Particularly in Brazil, it is usually noted, following the ideas of the 1 PhD Candidate Institute of International Relations - University of Brasília, Especialista em Políticas Públicas e Gestão Governamental. Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão. rofarias@gmail.com 2 PhD Candidate Department of Political Science - University of São Paulo (USP), Researcher at the Center for Studies of Contemporary Culture (CEDEC). hramanzinijunior@usp.br ; haroldo@cedec.org.br