State, class and the organic elite: the formation of an entrepreneurial order in Brazil 1961-1965

This thesis is about the organization for action of a power bloc of multinational and associated interests, their policy of disruption of the Brazilian regime which took place from 1961 to 1964, and their subsequent take-over of the State. The thesis does not attempt to present a historical reconstruction of the period. Rather, it aims to bring new evidence to bear on the little known activity of individuals and organizations which were crucial in shaping the period in question and its aftermath. Chapter I outlines the formation of the populist polity, since the fall of the oligarchic state in 1930. Chapter II describes the economic ascendancy gained by multinational and associated interests throughout the 1950s under the political aegis of an industrial-oligarchic populist polity. Chapter III describes the corporate-political power structure of multinational and associated interests. The chapter examines the social and political agents who over a period of ten years shaped an incipient bloc of modernizing-conservative interests. The chapter also describes the different political means and administrative channels whereby the multinational and associated bloc was able to press its interests within the populist polity. Chapter IV describes the crisis of populism brought about by the political mobilization of the working classes and the militant action of the multinational and associated interests through their own political organizations. Chapter V examines the recruitment pattern, decision-making structure and organization for action of the organic elite of the multinational and associated interests, organized in IPES/IBAD. Chapter VI describes the ideological campaign of the organic elite against the regime and the working classes, and its attempts to indoctrinate the general public and in particular the dominant classes and the military. Chapter VII examines the political campaign of the organic elite among students, the female population, the middle classes, the peasantry, the industrial working classes, and the political parties. Chapter VIII describes the political campaign of the organic elite among the military and focuses upon the civilian-military movement which brought about the downfall of Goulart. Chapter IX describes the occupation of the state's key agencies of policy-formation and decision-making by the organic elite of IPES/IBAD. The thesis attempts to demonstrate how entrepreneurs and techno-entrepreneurs representing multinational and associated interests were an active force in Brazilian politics before and after the downfall of Goulart in 1964

1964: um golpe de classe? (Sobre um livro de René Dreifuss) 1964: a class putsch? (About a book by René Dreifuss)

Republica-se aqui o comentário feito na época da sua publicação do importante livro do recentemente falecido cientista político René Armand Dreifuss sobre o papel de uma "elite orgânica" de orientação empresarial na desestabilização do regime democrático pré-1964, no sentido da criação de uma "ordem empresarial" após o "golpe de classe" de 1964 (1964: a conquista do Estado - ação política, poder e golpe de classe). Para a autora a noção de "golpe de classe" é insuficiente para dar conta da dinâmica política e econômica da época, assim como se revelaram frustrados os esforços para constituir uma "ordem empresarial", em vista do impulso estatizante promovido pelo regime militar. Destaca-se, contudo, o valor do livro, que é aqui relembrado, junto com o nome do seu autor.<br>The commentary made at the time of its publication about the important book by the recently deceased political scientist René Armand Dreifuss on the role of an "organic elite" in the overthrowing of the pre-1964 Brazilian regime aiming at an "entrepreneurial order" after the "class putsch" of 1964 is here republished. It is argued that the idea of "class putsch" is too narrow to cover the political and economic dynamics of the epoch, and that the efforts to constitute an "entrepreneurial order" were frustrated by the impulse toward a growth of State functions promoted by the military regime. However, the review emphasizes the merits of the book, which is here brought to memory along with the name of its author