Brazil

            Brazil, the larges country is central and South America, gained independence from the Portuguese in 1822. The nation's population is made up of a mixture of different races, mainly the indigenous people, Portuguese and African slaves. Over two-thirds of the population identify with the Roman Catholic religion. Every four years, the country conducts elections were the people choose the president, vice-president, governors (state representatives) who are allowed to run for two consecutive terms by the constitution. Despite the dictatorship experienced in the mid 20^th century, the nation enjoyed steady growth which was further boosted by better leadership in the early 21^st century.

            Around 40% of the nations GDP is contributed by the “informal sector”, meaning a large percentage of small businesses do not pay taxes. Nonetheless,  the Brazilian stock exchange is among the largest in the world holding the 13^th position. As of 2010, its capitalization stood at the US $1300billion (Crane, Kawashima, & Kawasaki, 2016). This has been dramatically boosted by the government's encouragement of private-public partnership. However, state-owned companies still play a big role regarding major projects which has derailed the progress.