State and nations- What are the most important characteristic of a state?

Basic information and data

Brazil has 207.7 million people – the equivalent of the entire population of South Africa and a
quarter of the Brazilian population – living in poverty. That is, even if the minimum wage is 227
euros per month, 52 million people live with an average income below 92 euros. The classification
used and that of the World Bank to verify the amount of people in the Latin American countries that
live in these conditions. In extreme poverty the monthly household income per capita of 13.4
million people is 33 euros. The data are included in the Synthesis of Social Indicators 2017,
published by IBGE in January 2018. Poverty mainly affects children and adolescents, black and
brown men and women, and families formed by women with children without husbands. The 52
million Brazilians living in poverty live in families formed, on average, by 5 people. 42% of
children aged 0 to 14 in Brazil live in poverty, as do 33% of black and brown men and 34% of
women of the same colour, while only 15% of white men and women. These families also live in
substandard housing and have less access to property. Only 40% of people living in poverty have
simultaneous access to garbage collection, sewage treatment and water supply, while for the total
population this group reaches 62%.

Capital: Brasilia
Official Language: Portuguese
Government: Presidential Federal Republic
Population: 207,7 millions (5th largest population in the world)
Flag: Brazil’s flag is a deep green banner with a yellow diamond enclosing a night-blue as a sky.
The sky has 27 white stars, one for each state and federal district. A banner across the sky reads
“Ordem e Progresso” that means order and progress.
Coin: Real

Political system

System of government: Presidentialism

Head of government and state: Michel Temmer
Executive branch: President, 30 ministers, governs the people and manage public interests
Legislative branch: congress, sets rules, national congress, 513 deputies, 81 senators and president
needs legislative approval for any action
Judicial branch: supreme court, ensures that laws are enforced, federal supreme courtwith 11 judges
and there is a court for each specific subject
Independent body of the federal ministry: supervises all other powers, attorney generalof the
republic, an impeachment request needs legislative branch approval

Social issues

Institutions: Institutions are beyond important. Broadly speaking, rich countries have good
institutions and poor ones have very very bad ones. The correlation between poverty and corruption
is direct. The richest countries in the world are quite simply invariably also the least corrupt ones.
And the most corrupt countries are also poorest. When countries are corrupt, they can't collect
enough taxes to get the good institutions they would need to escape the poverty trap They are vital
to the growth of a nation and, of course, rich countries have good institutions, while the poor do not.
In addition, there is a direct correlation between poverty and corruption, and the richest countries in
the world are invariably also the least corrupt - unlike the poorest.
Culture: that is, what goes on in the mind of the population, what are their perspectives and their
beliefs. And interestingly, one statistic that stands out is with respect to religion. If there is a
generalization we can make about religiosity and poverty, then the more believing a population is,
the less likely it is to be rich.

Geography: just take a look at the list of the world's poorest countries and locate them on a map to
realize that the vast majority are in the tropics. For the location of a country influences the
development of its agriculture and agricultural technologies, and the ability to raise domesticated
animals and herds. In addition, the population living in these regions is also more vulnerable to a
wide variety of diseases - and every poor country in the world is affected by at least five of the
tropics' diseases simultaneously. Other aspects associated with locating a country are its
connectivity with the rest of the world, and the way its natural resources are exploited.

High Inequality

With regard to the distribution of income in the country, the Social Indicators Synthesis 2017
proved that Brazil is a country with high income inequality, even when compared to other Latin
American nations, where inequality is more pronounced. According to the study, in 2017 the
unemployment rates of the black or the brown population were higher than those of the white
population at all levels of education. In the incomplete or incomplete middle school category, for
example, the unemployment rate of black or brown workers was 18.1%, far higher than the
percentage of whites: 12.1%.

Education: The study data indicate that, the less schooling, the earlier the young person enters the
job market. The survey reveals that 39.6% of workers have entered the job market up to 14 years.
For the analysts, "the age at which the worker began to work is a factor that is strongly related to the
characteristics of their insertion in the labor market, as it influences both their educational trajectory
- since early entry into the market can inhibit their schooling - as well as higher income ". While it
shows that 39.6% of workers entered the market up to 14 years of age, the survey also indicates that
this percentage increases for the group of workers who only had incomplete elementary education,
reaching 62.1% of the total, while for those with a complete upper level, the percentage drops to
19.6%. Still on early work, the IBGE notes that in 2016, the majority of Brazilian workers (60.4%)
started working 15 years old or older. Among workers aged 60 years or older there was a high
concentration among those who started working until they were 14 years old (59%). The analysis by
age group shows the existence of a transition in relation to the age that began to work, with older
workers entering the labor market earlier, which can be noticed because 17.5% of workers aged 60
or more of age began to work with up to nine years of age, proportion who was of 2.9% among
young people of 16 to 29 years. IBGE points out that black and brown workers also enter the labour
market earlier when compared to whites, "a characteristic that helps explain their greater
participation in informal jobs." Among women, the participation of women who started working 15
years old or older (67.5%) was higher than that of men (55%). For the institute's technicians, this
later insertion of women into the labor market may be related "both to the fact that they have more
schooling than men, as to maternity and the burden of domestic care and chores."
 References

• BARROS, R. CAMARGO, José Márcio. (1993), "In search of the determinants of the level of
social welfare in Latin America". Research and Economic Planning
• BARROS, Ricardo Paes. HENRIQUES, Ricardo. (1999), Magnitude and structure of poverty in
the Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, IPEA, mimeo.
• COHN, Amélia. (1995), Social policies and poverty in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, IPEA
• KAGEYAMA, A., HOFFMANN, R. (2006) Poverty in Brazil: a multidimensional perspective.
Unicamp, SP.
• WORLD BANK (2015) Poverty and inequality data. Retrieved from:
http://www.citethisforme.com/topic-ideas/economics/World%20Bank-37797652 [Accessed 5
May. 2018].
• G1. (13 April, 2018) What explains the increase in extreme poverty in Brazil? Retrieved from:
https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/o-que-explica-o-aumento-da-pobreza-extrema-no-
brasil.ghtml)