Article



Dados n. 7 Rio de Janeiro 1970

Raízes da Imaginação Política Brasileira

Santos, Wanderley Guilherme dos

Abstract

The article classifies the available literature on the Brazilian political movement of 1964 according to the crude models of causation they are based on. It is verified that the scheme representing the literature favoring the movement, as well as the opposite scheme, display the same style of analysing political conflicts, namely in an inflexible dichotomous way. To both currents the social world is so much integrated as to allow the inference of some phenomena, given the existence of another one. The existence of an industrialization process in any country, for instance, implies by itself the existence of extensive political participation, international autonomy, etc. To others, the populist style of politics supposes necessarily the existence of corruption, subversion, governmental ineficiency, etc. The A. holds that the root of style of perception is to be found in the intellectual climate prevalent in the Brazilian culture, rather than in the structure of the Brazilian society. The consideration then of the evolution of the Brazilian social and political theory supports the point, although in a preliminary way, that the dichotomous style does not exist in the Brazilian political and social literature of the past century. It begins to appear, so it seems, at the turn of the century, and finally becomes the predominant style of analysis during the thirties.

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Raízes da Imaginação Política Brasileira