BRICS varieties of capitalism and food regime reordering: a comparative institutional analysis

Abstract

The emergence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has sparked debates on the possibility of a ‘great transformation’ in the course of neoliberal capi talism and the global agrifood system. This paper seeks to contribute to these debates by providing a comparative institutional analysis of the BRIC(S) ‘varieties of capitalism’ in the current ‘food regime’ international reordering. Capital accumulation, social reproduction and politics are key problems of the ‘agrifood question’ in the BRIC(S) varieties of capitalism. My argumentation is that capitalist diversity stems largely from the historically embedded legacy of the agrarian question in each country, that the dynamics of the agrifood system influence their development trajectories in decisive ways, and that the BRIC(S)-driven polycentric shifts in the contemporary food regime are crucial to the destiny of global capitalism.