The Brazilian state has several distinctive attributes. For example, in the economic realm, it takes a relatively large share of the economy's gross national product in tax revenue, compared to other states in Latin America. The state also plays a comparatively active role in the provision of credit to firms and individuals, with the state-owned Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico (Brazilian Development Bank, BNDES) especially prominent in this regard. Since 2002, when Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party, PT) candidate Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva won the presidency, these heterodox features of the state have become more pronounced. The government has crafted an industrial policy, taxed speculative capital, introduced national content legislation and attempted to promote science, technology and innovation. For both historical and more contemporary reasons, therefore, and especially as Brazil has become more influential as an international actor, the attempt to describe, classify and analyse the Brazilian state has become an increasingly important enterprise.

This book contributes to that effort. Its editors, Mauricio Font and Laura Randall, are, respectively, the director and a member of the Advisory Council of the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies in the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. (Bildner researcher Janaina Saad helped in the editing of the volume.) The volume is the result of a conference organised by the Brazil Project at the Bildner Center, one of the most important initiatives for the study of Brazil in North America, in November 2009.

Perhaps because of its origins as a series of conference papers, the book casts a very broad net. It is organised into four sections. Part I, focusing on approaches, actors and dynamics, contains an introduction by Mauricio Font and chapters on Brazilian state formation; political reform; relations between the bureaucracy, parties and interest groups; civil society discourses and practices in Porto Alegre; and new directions in public policy. Part II, on social and cultural dimensions of the state, covers pension reform; feminism, the state and gender equality; and nation-state consolidation and cultural patrimony. State responses to the financial crisis are the subject of part III, which includes chapters on Brazil's financial sector and anti-money-laundering legislation. Finally, part IV surveys the Brazilian state's changing global role, including its promotion of South American political and economic integration and its relationships with the United States and Europe.

As the description above suggests, the book prioritises inclusiveness and eclecticism. It does not dig deeply into a few, highly specific research questions, but it does touch upon a number of important issues. Mauricio Font's introduction, for example, highlights the debate about the state's role in the economy, focusing on the tensions between dirigisme and liberalism. This is a discussion that is very relevant to contemporary conflicts over policy in the current government of President Dilma Rousseff (2011–). Glauco Arbix and Scott Martin, for their part, analyse whether a new development model is taking shape in Brazil. They argue that it is, and that it is very different from both neoliberal and dirigiste developmental models of the past. They see the emergence of a new, hybrid type of Brazilian state that transcends some of the dichotomies discussed by Font. It is a state ‘which takes on an enabling position of moderate, pro-market intervention via competiveness policy and a much stronger role in providing social services and benefits that is increasingly linked to fostering market inclusion for the previously underserved and excluded and not simply transferring income in targeted fashion to the poor’ (p. 82).

One of the most interesting chapters in the book is Lia Zanotta Machado's analysis of the policies of the Lula administration (2003–10) in the area of women's rights and gender equality. Machado argues that the partial professionalisation and state incorporation of the feminist movement have ‘increased the possibilities of achievements’ when it comes to policy in these areas. At the same time, many state institutions such as the judiciary, religious organisations such as the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, and public opinion remain conservative when it comes to ‘sexual and reproductive rights and women's rights for a life without violence’ (p. 217). This is a tension that has not necessarily been resolved by the election of Brazil's first female president.

Thomas Trebat extends the scope of the book by examining Brazilian foreign policy and the extent to which the Brazilian state represents an alternative, in matters of global governance, to what he calls the ‘transatlantic community’ (the United States and European Union). He argues that ‘Brazil's peaceful rise in global affairs makes it an attractive partner in global initiatives’ rather than a threat or a rival, and that Brazil can be ‘a bridge to the global South’ for the United States and European Union (p. 339). In their chapter, Christine Gustafson and Leslie Armijo argue that energy integration in South America is a key component of Brazilian foreign policy and that this vision is more likely to prevail than competing visions promoted by the United States, on the one hand, and Venezuela, on the other.

In these and many other chapters, the book explores a number of interesting issues related to the Brazilian state. It also creates a springboard for posing other, as-yet unanswered questions. For example, what are the historical foundations of what has become, arguably, the highest-capacity state in Latin America? To what extent is the contemporary Brazilian state the product of authoritarian initiatives, such as the Estado Novo of 1937–45 and the military dictatorship of 1964–85? Is the Brazilian state largely the creation of structural forces operating over long periods of time, or have the actions of specific individuals, groups and organisations been decisive, at least in certain moments, in its formation? And finally, what will the Brazilian state become? Could it be, for example, a force for increasing multilateralism and the progressive reform of global governance on the international level? And can it maintain, in its domestic trajectory, the progressive agenda of poverty reduction, increasing economic equality, and social and political inclusion? While the present volume offers fascinating glimpses into possible answers to such questions, only future work will push forward our understanding of these issues.