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

• Main Author: Dreifuss, René Armand
• Published: University of Glasgow 1980
• Subjects: 330; H Social Sciences (General)
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.354919

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.