Article



Dados vol. 28 n. 1 Rio de Janeiro 1985

A Construção do Estado Nacional na Argentina e no Brasil (1810-1900): Esboço de uma Análise Comparativa

Trindade, Hélgio

Abstract

The author uses a comparative approach in bringing certain new explicative factors to a discussion of the differences in pace in the building of the Brazilian and Argentine States during the 19th century. The paper addresses the reasons for which the Brazilian State was constituted with relative swiftness when compared with the Argentine State, whose formation process spanned several decades. Despite historical differences between the two countries regarding the way in which national independence came about and the significance of economic and administrative variables attached to their respective colonial legacies, the author seeks to introduce new variables into the comparison of these two national cases. Departing from the variables utilized by the literature in the interpretation of State building in Latin America, the paper provides a comparative examination of some of the strategic variables which, in the author's interpretation, account for the different cadences of State building in the two countries: the profile of the ruling class and its political strategy in breaking colonial ties and organizing State pomp; the interaction between the State building process and the forms of coercive control used (the Army and civilian militias); and differences in the dynamics of the Church-State relationship.

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A Construção do Estado Nacional na Argentina e no Brasil (1810-1900): Esboço de uma Análise Comparativa