POLITICAL THEORY

The Political Construction of Brazil

Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira

Boulder, Co: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2017

2017 capa the political construction of brazil

An encompassing analysis of Brazil's society, economy and politics since the Independence. A national-dependent interpretation. Three historical cycles of the relation state-society: State and Territorial Integration Cycle (1822-1929), Nation and Development Cycle (1930-1977) and Democracy and Social Justice Cycle (1977-2010). Crisis since then.


Review by Jose de Arimateia da Cruz 

Contents: Introduction

1. Brazil: A History of Long Cycles and Short Political Pacts 
2. Colonial Constraints: Why Brazil Was Left Behind 

Part 1 The First Cycle: The State and Territorial Integration 
3.  For Reasons of State: Territorial Integration 
4.  Herding Oligarchs: Empire, Constitutionalism, and Federalism 
5. The First Republic:Prerequisite to Brazil's Capitalist Revolution 

Part 2 The Second Cycle: The Nation and Development 
6.  Igniting Capitalism: The Profitable Revolution of 1930 
7.  Imperialism and Industrialization: The 1930 National-Popular Pact 
8.  Crisis, Coup, and Democracy: Resuming Developmentalism After 1945 
9.  Coffee, Cold War, and Coup (Again): The End of the National-Popular Pact 
10.  The Crisis of the 1960s:Inflation and the Emergence of Popular Participation 
11. The Military in Power: The Authoritarian-Modernizing Pact 
12. The Logic of Domination: The Limits of Dependency Theory 
13. Neutralizing the Dutch Disease: Exporting Manufactured Goods 
14. The Military in Office: Rise and Decline in the 1970s 

Part 3: The Third Cycle: Democracy and Social Justice 
15. The Democratic-Popular Pact: The Bourgeoisie and the Working Class 
16. The Lost Decade: Stagnation and Inertial Inflation in the 1980s 
17. The Crisis of 1987: The Collapse of the Democratic-Popular Pact 
18. From Elite to Social Democracy: The 1988 Constitution 
19. Neoliberal Rule: Privatization and the 1991 Liberal-Dependent Pact 
20. Tackling High Inflation: The Real Plan 
21. Liberal Rhetoric: The Trap of Overvalued Exchange Rates and High Interest Rates 
22. Lula, Dilma, and the Alienation of the Elites 
23. The Pact that Never Was 
24. The Quasi-Stagnation Since 1981
25. Preference for Immediate Consumption and Loss of the Idea of Nation 


Part 4 Conclusion 
26. Brazil's Capitalist Revolution, Democracy . . . and Then?