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Brazil: Authoritarianism and Class Control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Peter Flynn
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Extract

One of the most striking features of recent writing on comparative politics, especially the debate on underdevelopment, is the contribution made by Latin American theorists. Living in societies so strongly characterized by a culture of dependency, they have energetically developed and refined the theory of dependency. Directly experiencing the impact of imperialism and imperialism, they have carefully scrutinized and reassessed theories of imperialist control, and have explored the mechanisms of class interest, seeking to understand how such interests are maintained and expressed through the state apparatus, in policy making, the role of the bureaucracy, the armed forces, in cultural control and in the whole fabric of internal and external power relations.

Type
Review-Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , November 1974 , pp. 315 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 See, for example, Finch, M. J. H., ‘Latin American Development: the Politics of the Economics’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 5, 2 (11. 1973), 279–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The strength of this Latin American contribution was seen very clearly in two recent conferences, the Berlin conference on ‘The Sociology of Development, and Development’ – Berlin 4–11 Nov. 1973, organized by CEISAL, CLACSO and the German Foundation for International Development, and the Amsterdam Workshop on Dependency in Latin America – 19–21 Nov. 1973.

3 Wilbert E. Moore and Neil J. Smelser are the general editors of the series.

4 Ivan, Vallier, Catholicism, Social Control, and Modernisation in Latin America (Englewood Cliffs N.J., 1970). £1·25.Google Scholar

5 Skidmore, Thomas E., Politics in Brazil 1930–1964: An Experiment in Democracy (O.U.P., 1967). There was, of course, work of high quality before this, notably by Stein and Morse, but Skidmore's book was one of the first products of a new phase of Brazilian research.Google Scholar

6 See, for instance, the most valuable syntheses by Dulles, John W. F., Vargas of Brazil (Austin, 1967), and Unrest in Brazil, Political-Military Crises 1955–1964 (Univ. of Texas Press, 1970).Google Scholar

7 Love, Joseph L., Rio Grande do Sul and Brazilian Regionalism, 1882–1930 (Stanford U.P., 1971), 311 pp. $10·00.Google Scholar

8 Op. Cit., p. 153.Google Scholar

9 On this relation between clientelism, coercion and class control, see my paper, ‘Class, Clientelism and Coercion: Some Mechanisms of Internal Dependency and Control’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, XII, No. 2 (07 1974).Google Scholar

10 Burns, E. Bradford, Nationalism in Brazil (New York, 1968), 158 pp., and A History of Brazil (Columbia Univ. Press, 1970), 449 pp. $11·95.Google Scholar

11 The Unwritten Alliance. Rio Branco and Brazilian-American Relations (Columbia Univ. Press., 1966), 305 pp.Google Scholar

12 ibid., p. 209.

13 Nationalism, p. 129.Google Scholar

14 ibid., p. 132.

15 ibid., p. 133.

16 History of Brazil, p. 381.Google Scholar

17 idem..

18 John, Saunders (ed.), Modern Brazil. New Patterns and Development (University of Florida Press, 1971), $12·50.Google Scholar

19 ibid., vii.

20 By comparison Celso Furtado has analysed underdevelopment in terms of the appropriation of the surplus, noting that: ‘… Certainly the additional surplus may be fully appropriated, from outside, as in the typical case of the colonial economy, but it may also be partially or mainly appropriated domestically. When this was the case, the surplus remaining in the country was basically used to finance a rapid diversification in the consumption habits of the ruling classes through the import of new products. It was this particular use of the additional surplus that gave rise to the social formations that we now identify as underdeveloped countries.’ ‘Underdevelopment and Dependence: The Fundamental Connections’, an unpublished paper presented at Queen's College, Cambridge in Nov. 1973.

21 Saunders, , p. 28.Google Scholar

22 ibid., p. 153.

23 Rosenbaum, H. Jon and Tyler, W. G. (eds.), Contemporary Brazil: Issues in Economic and Political Development (Praeger, New York, 1972), $20·00.Google Scholar

24 ibid., p. 4.

25 ibid., p. 5. C/. the sub-title of Skidmore's book.

26 ibid., p. 12.

27 See below, p. 326, n. 50, p. 329 ff., and p. 330.

28 See below.

29 Rosenbaum, and Tyler, , op. cit., pp. 32 and 49.Google Scholar

30 ibid., p. 51.

31 ibid., p. 53.

32 ibid., p. 56.

33 ibid., p. 60.

34 ibid., pp. 139–66.

35 ibid., p.213.

36 Riordan, Roett (ed.), Brazil in the Sixties (Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1972), 434 pp., $15·00.Google Scholar

37 ibid., p. xiii. The definition is from Black, C. E., The Dynamics of Modernization (New York, 1966), p. 7. Roctt later says he accepts Rustow's definition of ‘modernization’ as ‘rapidly widening control over nature through closer co-operation among men. It transforms both man and society: but most of all man's mind …’, p. 7, n. 9. Neither definition is established as particularly helpful in the subsequent discussion.Google Scholar

38 ibid., p. xiv.

39 ibid., p. 4. The influence of Huntington's theories even on those whose own research, and experience, in Latin America contradict them is a source of Constant surprise.

40 ibid., p. 19.

42 ibid., p. 17.

42 ibid. p. 52.

43 ibid., p. 54.

44 For further discussion of the use of clienrelist tics as a mechanism of class control, see Flynn, P., op. cit.Google Scholar

45 Roett, , op. cit., p. 55.Google Scholar

46 ibid., p. 63.

47 ibid., p. 76.

48 ibid., p. 78.

49 ibid., p. 87.

50 ibid., p. 90. Also see Schneider, R. M., The Political System of Brazil (Columbia Univ. Press., 1975) (a book discussed below), where Schneider says that Castello Branco, a close friend of Walters, ‘ was clearly the candidate most preferred by the United Stares embassy ’, 124 n. Castello Branco's candidacy for president was strongly pushed by Lacerda, and Schneider quotes one source that during the governors' meeting to choose the new president after the coup ‘Lacerda received at least two calls from Ambassador Gordon’.Google Scholar

51 He does note, on the other hand, that: ‘Throughout the 1960s … the United States’ inclusive conception of its own security, ranging from prevention of another “Communist” bridgehead in the Hemisphere to protection of its public aid and private investment, underlay the relationship. Perceived threats to that security took precedence over Brazilian development objectives or American democratic ideals.’ ibid., p. 101.

52 ibid., p. 114.

53 Schmitter, Philippe C., Interest Conflict and Political Change in Brazil (Stanford Univ. Press, 1971), 499 pp., £7·25.Google Scholar

54 ibid., pp. 4–5.

55 For a different approach to an understanding of the relation of culture to social change, see New Left Review, 82 (12 1973).Google Scholar

56 ibid., 18.

57 Schneider, Ronald M., The Political System of Brazil: Emergence of a Modernizing Authoritarian Regime, 1964–1970 (Columbia Univ. Press, New York and London, 1975), 431 pp., £6·50.Google Scholar

58 ibid., pp. 32–3.

59 See, for example, Appendix B on biographical data on the 1964 army leaders.

60 There is also a most helpful guide to sources.

61 Alfred, Stepan, The Military in Politics. Changing Patterns in Brazil. (Princeton Univ. Press, London: O.U.P., 1971).Google Scholar

62 Joāo, Quartim, Dictatorship and Armed Struggle in Brazil (Monthly Review Press, New York and London, 1971), 250 Pp., $6·95.Google Scholar

63 ibid., p. 95.

64 ibid., p. 19.

65 ibid., p. 20.

66 ibid., p. 86.

67 idem.

68 ibid., p. 107.

69 ibid., p. 106.

70 ibid., p. 236.