Artigo



Dados vol. 25 n. 3 Rio de Janeiro 1982

O Brasil no Conselho de Estado: Imagem e Modelo

Carvalho, José Murilo de

Resumo

The ideology of the members of the second Council of State of the Brazilian Empire (1841·1889), privileged spokesmen for the political elite by virtue of their position at the top of the state apparatus, is the theme of the paper. Evidence is derived from the proceedings of Council meetings, which were presided over by the Emperor and in which opinions were freely expressed. The results disconfirm the conventional wisdom regarding the political thinking of the imperial elite. Councilmen were neither utopian thinkers, estranged from national realities and acting out ideological farces, nor the organic intellectuals of the landed elites. They sought ideas and models from abroad but always guided by the basic concern with the protection of state interests. It was precisely their excessive étatisme that made them insensitive to the social aspects of the construction of a liberal order.

Texto completo

O Brasil no Conselho de Estado: Imagem e Modelo