O que é este blog?

Este blog trata basicamente de ideias, se possível inteligentes, para pessoas inteligentes. Ele também se ocupa de ideias aplicadas à política, em especial à política econômica. Ele constitui uma tentativa de manter um pensamento crítico e independente sobre livros, sobre questões culturais em geral, focando numa discussão bem informada sobre temas de relações internacionais e de política externa do Brasil. Para meus livros e ensaios ver o website: www.pralmeida.org. Para a maior parte de meus textos, ver minha página na plataforma Academia.edu, link: https://itamaraty.academia.edu/PauloRobertodeAlmeida;

Meu Twitter: https://twitter.com/PauloAlmeida53

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Mostrando postagens com marcador Ted Goertzel. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Ted Goertzel. Mostrar todas as postagens

sexta-feira, 10 de janeiro de 2020

The Drama of Brazilian Politics, 1815 to 2015 - Book by Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida

The Drama of Brazilian Politics: From 1814 to 2015 (English Edition) eBook Kindle


Karl Marx once observed that “all great world-historic facts and personages in world history occur, as it were, twice: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Brazilian history includes several tragedies and a good deal of farce, as well as some heroics, a few mysteries, and a little romance.

No Brazilian king, emperor or president has ever been assassinated, but our drama includes one dramatic suicide (Getúlio Vargas in 1954), four leaders who resigned out of frustration or pressed by grave political upheavals (Dom João VI in 1821, Dom Pedro I in 1831, Deodoro da Fonseca in 1891, and Jânio Quadros in 1961), while many others were forced out of office by coups or conspiracies (among them Dom Pedro II in 1889, Washington Luís in 1930, Getúlio Vargas in 1945, and João Goulart in 1964), and one forced from office in an impeachment process (Fernando Collor in 1992). Characters include the world's first sociologist president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the world's second labor leader president (after Lech Walesa), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Brazil's first woman president, Dilma Rousseff. It ends with an exciting electoral struggle in 2014 between Dilma Rousseff and Marina Silva, a woman from the Amazon who fought with the martyred Chico Mendes to defend the environment and the rights of rubber trappers.

This book is suitable for students of Latin American history, politics and economics, as well as for journalists, diplomats, activists, business people, or anyone interested in Brazil. It is up-to-date, but also deeply rooted in Brazilian history and in a concern with lasting social problems. The authors vary widely in their ideological and political dispositions, and we have made no effort to homogenize the content. Each essay has a clear authorial voice. The chapters can be read separately, although readers without much familiarity with Brazilian history would probably do best to begin with the first chapter. That chapter, by Ted Goertzel, introduces the fascinating characters who played and are playing the leading roles in the drama of Brazilian politics.

The chapters are:

1. The Drama of Brazilian Politics: from 1815 to 2015, by Ted Goertzel
2.The Politics of Economic Regime Changes in Brazilian History by Paulo Roberto Almeida
3.The Brazilian Presidency from the Military Regime to the Workers’ Party by João Paulo M. Peixoto
4. A Woman’s Place is in the Presidency: Dilma, Marina and Women’s Representation in Brazil by Farida Jalalzai and Pedro G. dos Santos.
5.A Brazilian ex-President’s Public Speech: A Threat to the Existing Order? By Inês Signorini
6. Life without Turnstiles by Alipio de Sousa Filho
7.The Changing Face of Brazilian Politics by Sue Branford and Jan Rocha
8.Political Leadership and Protest in Brazil: The Social Protests of 2013 in Comparative Perspective by Guy Burton
9. Presidential Leadership and Regime Change in Brazil with Comparisons to the United States and Spanish America by Ted Goertzel

This book takes advantage of e-book technology to bring the reader a volume that is both timelier and less expensive than traditionally published volumes. We have updated our work to be released at the end of September, 2014, when interest should be high because of the Brazilian presidential election. We also plan to use the e-book technology to update the volume after the elections, and we invite readers to email us with comments and suggestions, as well as with corrections for any errors they may find.

  • Formato: eBook Kindle
  • Tamanho do arquivo: 1497 KB
  • Número de páginas: 301 páginas
  • Quantidade de dispositivos em que é possível ler este eBook ao mesmo tempo: Ilimitado
  • Editora: Author's edition (26 de setembro de 2014)
  • Vendido por: Amazon Servicos de Varejo do Brasil Ltda
  • Idioma: Inglês
  • ASIN: B00NZBPX8A

quarta-feira, 18 de maio de 2016

Ted Goertzel on Brazilian crisis and the impeachment - Brazil.com (May 16, 2016)

Meu amigo Ted Goertzel apresenta para o público americano uma interpretação mais sofisticada do que as teses simplistas do golpismo de direita que andaram circulando na imprensa internacional.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

The Ritual Sacrifice of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was sacrificed as a scapegoat for sins and shortcomings widely shared by her accusers. In a nationally televised session of the Chamber of Deputies on April 16, 2016, each deputy had ten seconds to defend his or her vote. Few bothered to mention the technical legal reason for seeking her removal, borrowing money from state banks in violation of the fiscal responsibility laws.
Instead, the 367 deputies who supported impeachment said they were saving their families, their communities and their nation from the abyss into which Brazil had fallen. The 137 who defended her mostly argued that the sanctity of the presidential term should be respected, and that she wasn't as bad as a lot of the others.
The deputies fumed righteous anger, but many also seemed fearful, not just for their country but for themselves. This fear was understandable since many are under investigation by the Federal Police for corruption. Eduardo Cunha, the Leader of the Chamber who orchestrated the session, was himself removed from office by the Supreme Court a few days after the impeachment vote.
The mass psychology driving the spectacle in Brasilia has been little explored. Psychoanalyst Tales Ab'Sáber recently published a short volume about Dilma Rousseff and one about her patron, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Ab'Sáber's extended essays are works of cultural criticism and historical commentary with only occasional psychoanalytic insights. But they are a beginning.
Lula and Dilma are polar opposites in terms of popularity. Lula was the most popular president in the history of Brazilian public opinion research and Dilma was the least popular. They are also opposites in personality type: Lula is gregarious, outgoing and charismatic. Dilma is stern, lacking in charisma, and prone to lashing out angrily at signs of disagreement.
Together with Lula, Dilma Rousseff says goodbye to presidency
Dilma had never run for political office but had served in several appointed positions in state and federal government. Lula selected her as his chief of staff when José Dirceu, his longtime close associate, was forced to resign and take the rap for corruption scandals. Dilma and the whole country were surprised when Lula decided he wanted her to be the Workers Party candidate for the presidency in 2010.
Lula had served two terms and was ineligible to serve again, so he nominated Dilma as a place-holder. This avoided an intraparty struggle over succession, and the possibility that a new charismatic leader might emerge to take Lula's place. At the time, Lula was so popular that journalists observed he could have elected a post to the presidency. This observation was repeated so frequently that Dilma found it necessary to publicly assert that she was not a post.
Lula's popularity had much to do with the economic boom during his presidency, sustained by high commodity prices. But there was more to it than that. Ab'Sáber describes Lula's role in the Brazilian national psyche as "a leader chosen by destiny whose ultimate strength comes from a transcendent, divine source…. In generic psychoanalytic terms it is the magical thinking of a child who does not understand the realistic constraints of his parents' thinking."
In Ab'Sáber's view, Lula's "first charismatic imaginary, the object of the transference from the heterogeneous and socially significant public that sustained him was that of the good savage, civilized and civilizing, antibourgeois because of his position in the class structure, but with the practical social, economic and political knowledge lost to the theoretical left locked in the ivory tower of the university." (All translations are my own.)
Lula was raised by an impoverished single mother, became a lathe mechanic and union leader and the first Brazilian president from the working class. But once he put aside strident socialist rhetoric to get elected, he was warmly welcomed by all social classes as a transformational leader who would bring Brazil into the modern age. His slogan was "Lula: Peace and Love."
Ab'Sáber uses Lacanian psychoanalytic terminology to describe the process by which Lula softened the harsh slogans of his neo-Marxist past. Ab'Sáber's jargon is too difficult for a direct translation, but as best I understand it he says that in a process Lacanians call foreclosure (forclusion in French), problems are not repressed outright but reframed to be less threatening. Thus, misery becomes poverty, the proletariat becomes the middle class, and mammoth fortunes become income inequality.
In other words, Lula rephrased problems so they were less threatening. This worked well as long as the economy was booming. Brazil did especially well during the global financial crisis of 2008 because its large state sector protected it from the worst of the downturn. But a Keynesian stimulus has to be followed by a cutback when the crisis subsides.
Dilma and the Workers Party didn't accept that. They were smug and overconfident, they thought they could continue to run up debt and fill the bulging bureaucracy with their minions. Their profligate spending and mismanagement led to massive street demonstrations by youth frustrated by high prices and lack of opportunity.
Dilma got narrowly re-elected in 2014 by denying the seriousness of the crisis caused by the fall of commodity prices and by borrowing massive funds from state banks in violation of the fiscal responsibility laws. As soon as she was re-elected she effectively admitted that the opposition had been right and that cutbacks were needed. People were angry at having been deceived by an unfeeling bureaucrat
The economic crash that followed would have taxed the popularity of any president, but Dilma was especially vulnerable. In Ab'Sáber's view, on a psychological level Lula had much in common with his social democratic predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Both are conciliatory leaders who seek consensus. Dilma is more authoritarian, concerned with projecting strength.
Ab'Sáber believes she is more similar, as a psychological type, to the military president Ernesto Geisel. He says she also had something in common psychologically with José Serra, the social democrat who ran against her 2010. Serra is more of a technocrat than a schmoozer. But as a technocrat Serra has the great virtue of being highly competent with much stronger qualifications in economics than Dilma. Serra has also proven himself politically as a mayor and governor in São Paulo.
This raises the question of why Lula selected Dilma in the first place, when so many more experienced politicians were available. At the time it was suspected that he planned to run things from behind the scenes, using her essentially as a chief of staff. But that didn't happen; he left her on her own to run things and went traveling around the world, even before he had to be treated for throat cancer.
Ab'Sáber speculates that Dilma may have been a mother image to Lula whose own mother had taken care of him so well when his father abandoned the family. Perhaps he felt that the country would be safe in her hands. The experienced Workers Party politicians Lula might have chosen were mostly men. But Ab'Sáber concedes that "it is difficult, even for an analyst, to believe that such traditional and prosaic psychoanalytic motives could have had such an impact on public history."
Dilma herself has remarked that she was a strong woman surrounded by fluffy (fofos) men. But if so, this was her choice, since there are certainly plenty of strong men she could have selected to work with her. Perhaps, as a woman insecure in a role beyond her level of experience or competence, she compensated by being authoritarian and dismissive of others. At the end, she tried to save herself by bringing Lula back into the government, appointing him to the role she had held, chief of staff. But the Supreme Court blocked the appointment on the grounds that Lula was under investigation for personal corruption related to his beach house.
The impeachment of Dilma was a sorry spectacle because she is apparently personally honest and many of her persecutors certainly are not. But Dilma's cheating on the fiscal responsibility laws is actually worse for the country than accepting personal payoffs or "tips" as the Brazilians call them.
Without fiscal responsibility, Brazil could easily slide back into the quagmire of hyperinflation and dysfunctionality. As President of Brazil, and as former president of the national oil company, Dilma has a heavy burden of responsibility for the massive corruption uncovered by the Federal Police and the courts.
Lula could also have been impeached for the systematic payoffs to congresspersons during his administration. But he was popular and his chief of staff, José Dirceu, took the rap for him. For Lula, the buck stopped with Dirceu. The leaders of the Dilma impeachment, many of whom were former allies abandoning a sinking ship, hope it will stop with Dilma.

References:
Tales Ab'Saber, Lulismo: carisma pop e cultura anticrítica. Amazon Kindle Edition, 2015.
Tales Ab'Saber, Dilma Rousseff e o ódio político. Amazon Kindle Edition, 2015.
Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida, eds., The Drama of Brazilian Politics from 1815 to 2015. Amazon Kindle Edition, 2015.

Ted Goertzel, Ph.D., has retired as professor in the Sociology Department at Rutgers University in Camden, N.J. He is the author of a biography of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, available in English and in Portuguese. He is best reached by email at tedgoertzel@gmail.com and his WEB page can be found at http://crab.rutgers.edu/~goertzel/

The Ritual Sacrifice of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff:
http://brazzil.com/23942-the-ritual-sacrifice-of-brazilian-president-dilma-rousseff

quarta-feira, 5 de novembro de 2014

Blog Diplomatizzando ultrapassou 3 milhoes de visitas: tres velinhas para ele...

 Este blog, que começou aos trancos e barrancos -- basta ver a lista de blogs antecessores, aqui ao lado, numa verdadeira árvore genealógica que só demonstra a incompetência técnica deste blogueiro -- acaba de ultrapassar a barreira das 3 MILHÕES DE VISITAS!
 
 
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Palmas para ele, e um pouquinho para mim...
Claro, eu sei que muito disso é enganoso, simples adição de visitas feitas mecanicamente por robôs dos instrumentos de busca, tipo Google e outros.
Ainda assim, deve ter meia dúzia de gatos pingados no meio disso tudo, o que deve me assegurar pelo menos 18 leitores, como diria meu colega Alexandre Schwartsman.
Em todo caso, deve ter também esses outros instrumentos insidiosos, como podem ser o NSA, a CIA, o FSB, o Mossad, a nossa pobre ABIN (aparelhada, não sei se mentalmente também, pelos companheiros), e alguns acadêmicos que devem ter muita raiva do que escrevo, porque de vez em quando pinga um xingamento por aqui.
Aqui um exemplo dos interesses de todos esses espiões, alguns espiados, e outros curiosos e navegantes de várias tribos políticas:

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Bem, vou abrir um vinho novo hoje, com Carmen Lícia, ou até convidá-la a jantar fora.
Não sei bem o que vou comemorar, talvez o fato de ter lançado três livros eletrônicos de resenhas de livros, nos últimos tempos, e um quarto ainda ontem, de ensaios sobre nosso mundo conturbado.
Faço o resumo aqui abaixo, e deixo meu abraço a cada um dos meus 18 leitores.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida 


1149. Volta ao Mundo em 25 Ensaios: Relações Internacionais e Economia Mundial, Hartford, 5 novembro 2014, 110 p. Livro montado com base nos textos preparados para o site Ordem Livre em dezembro de 2009 e janeiro de 2010, e divulgados ao longo de 2010, e esporadicamente e aleatoriamente ulteriormente. Inserido na plataforma Academia.edu (link: https://www.academia.edu/9126863/26_Volta_ao_Mundo_em_25_Ensaios_Rela%C3%A7%C3%B5es_Internacionais_e_Economia_Mundial_2014_). Divulgado no blog Diplomatizzando (link: http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/2014/11/volta-ao-mundo-em-25-ensaios-relacoes.html). Relação de Originais n. 2712.

1148. Rompendo Fronteiras: a Academia pensa a Diplomacia”, Hartford, 4 novembro 2014, 414 p. Livro de resenhas de não-diplomatas, completando os dois anteriores na série de três derivados do Prata da Casa. Editado em formato Kindle (1202 KB, ASIN: B00P8JHT8Y; link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P8JHT8Y). Disponibilizado na plataforma Academia.edu (link: https://www.academia.edu/9108147/25_Rompendo_Fronteiras_a_academia_pensa_a_diplomacia_2014_). Informado no blog Diplomatizzando (link: http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/2014/11/rompendo-fronteiras-academia-pensa.html). Relação de Originais n. 2710.

1147. Codex Diplomaticus Brasiliensis: livros de diplomatas brasileiros, Hartford, Edição de Autor, 2014, 326 p. Livro digital, plataforma Academia.edu (link: https://www.academia.edu/9084111/24_Codex_Diplomaticus_Brasiliensis_livros_de_diplomatas_brasileiros_2014_). Kindle Edition (1117 KB; ASIN: B00P6261X2; link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P6261X2). Relação de Originais n. 2707.

1145. Polindo a Prata da Casa: mini-resenhas de livros de diplomatas (Amazon Digital Services: Kindle edition, 2014, 151 p. 484 KB; ASIN: B00OL05KYG; disponível na Amazon; link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OL05KYG; e na plataforma Academia.edu; link: https://www.academia.edu/8815100/23_Polindo_a_Prata_da_Casa_mini-resenhas_de_livros_de_diplomatas_2014_). Prefácio e Sumário disponíveis no blog Diplomatizzando (link: http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/2014/10/mini-resenhas-de-livros-de-diplomatas.html). Relação de Originais n. 2693.

E mais um editado com meu amigo brazilianista Ted Goertzel:


1141. Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida (eds.), The Drama of Brazilian Politics: From Dom João to Marina Silva (Amazon Digital Services; Kindle Book, 2014, 278 p.; ISBN: 978-1-4951-2981-0; ASIN: B00NZBPX8A; book length: 1199 KB; Sales Price: $ 2.99; available at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NZBPX8A), com a participação de outros colaboradores, mais Prefácio e trabalho de revisão e de formatação do livro. Relação de Originais n. 2681.

segunda-feira, 29 de setembro de 2014

New Book: The Drama of Brazilian Politics: From Dom João to Marina Silva - Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida (eds.)

The Drama of Brazilian Politics: 
From Dom João to Marina Silva
Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida (eds.)
 A Kindle edition book, 2014


Online publishing makes this brand new book both more timely and less expensive than conventional texts. It is available in Kindle format, and can be read on any tablet, computer or smart phone. The price is only $2.99 including free shipping.  Or you can borrow it for free if you belong to Amazon Prime.
It is appropriate for classes in Brazilian or Latin American history or politics and could be added in the middle of the semester. 

Here are the details:

Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida (eds.):
The Drama of Brazilian Politics: From Dom João to Marina Silva

(Amazon Digital Services; Kindle Book, 2014, 278 p.; ISBN: 978-1-4951-2981-0;ASIN: B00NZBPX8A; book length: 1199 KB; Sales Price: $ 2.99)
available at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NZBPX8A

Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction, by Ted Goertzel
1. The Drama of Brazilian Politics: from Dom João to Marina Silva, by Ted Goertzel
2. The Politics of Economic Regime Change in Brazilian History, by Paulo Roberto de Almeida
3. The Brazilian Presidency: From the Military Regime to the Workers’ Party, by João Paulo M. Peixoto
4. A Woman’s Place is in the Presidency: Dilma, Marina and Women’s Representation in Brazil, by Farida Jalalzai and Pedro G. dos Santos
5. A Brazilian ex-President’s Public Speech: A Threat to the Existing Order?, by Inês Signorini
6. Life Without Turnstiles, by Alipio de Sousa Filho
7. The Changing Face of Brazilian Politics: Lessons of the 2013 Protests, by Sue Branford and Jan Rocha
8. Political Leadership and Protest in Brazil: The 2013 Vinegar Revolt in Comparative Perspective, by Guy Burton
9. Presidential Leadership and Regime Change in Brazil with Comparisons to the United States and Spanish America, by Ted Goertzel

Preface:

This book was conceived by Ted Goertzel in the summer of 2012 as part of his life-long interest in Brazil and “elective affinity” with things Brazilian, going back to his days as a participant observer in the Brazilian student protests of 1966 to 1968. After publishing biographies of two of Brazil’s presidents, he found that there was very little scholarly literature on the role of the presidency in Brazilian politics and society. Rather than undertake such a comprehensive study on his own, he decided to consult some members of the Brazilian Studies Association to find colleagues who shared an interest in putting the Brazilian presidency in an historical perspective and a comparative context.
The experts who responded came from different countries – Brazil, England and the United States – and varied widely in their ideological and dispositions and professional backgrounds. We have made no effort to homogenize the chapters; each has a clear authorial voice. Paulo Roberto de Almeida, a diplomat doublé as academic, responded very enthusiastically to this project, and was able to contribute with his life-long acquaintance of all-things Brazilian and as well as a deep knowledge of American Brazilianists, a by-product of his “elective affinities” with this community of scholars.
The Brazilian Protests of mid-2013 took place as we were working on this project and stimulated us to think as much about Brazil’s future as its past. While the protests were largely unexpected in Brazil, they fitted into theories of presidential leadership and regime change. We wanted to use our historical and comparative research to offer what insight we could into the future.
We also wanted to make our work available in October, 2014, when interest would be high because of the Brazilian presidential elections. So we took advantage of e-book technology to bring the reader a volume that is both timelier and less expensive than traditionally published volumes. We plan to use the same technology to update the volume after the elections, and we invite readers to contact us with comments and suggestions, as well as with corrections for any errors they may find.
We expect this work to offer, both for scholars and for the general public, a comprehensive understanding of the Brazilian political system in its contemporary developments and challenges.

Ted Goertzel
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
September 2014

sábado, 27 de setembro de 2014

The Drama of Brazilian Politics: From Dom Joao to Marina Silva - Ted Goertzel and Paulo Roberto de Almeida (eds); Kindle ebook

Um novo livro quase saíndo do forno, minha gente, bem a tempo de ser lido ainda antes do primeiro turno das eleições presidenciais.
Qualquer que seja o resultado dessas eleições, no primeiro ou no segundo turno, o livro se sustenta, pelo seu caráter menos conjunturalista, e mais estrutural e analítico.
Eis o esquema do livro, e o seu Prefácio e a Introdução.
Estou revisando algumas coisas, preparando o expediente, providenciando um ISBN e escolhendo a capa, com meu amigo Ted Goertzel, um brasilianista da velha escola (como eu, aliás).
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
 
The Drama of Brazilian Politics:

From Dom João to Marina Silva


Edited by:

Ted Goertzel and

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Dedicated to all Brazilians and their Foreign friends who are actively engaged in the building up of a modern democratic nation.


Table of Contents


Introduction, by Ted Goertzel
1.        The Drama of Brazilian Politics: from Dom Pedro to Marina Silva, by Ted Goertzel
2.        The Politics of Economic Regime Change in Brazilian History, by Paulo Roberto Almeida
3.        The Brazilian Presidency from the Military Regime to the Workers’ Party by João Paulo M. Peixoto
4.        A Woman’s Place is in the Presidency: Dilma, Marina and Women’s Representation in Brazil by Farida Jalalzai and Pedro G. dos Santos. 
5.        A Brazilian ex-President’s Public Speech: A Threat to the Existing Order? By Inês Signorini          
6.        Life without Turnstiles by Alipio de Sousa Filho
7.        The Changing Face of Brazilian Politics by Sue Branford and Jan Rocha
8.        Political Leadership and Protest in Brazil: The 2013 Vinegar Revolt in Comparative Perspective by Guy Burton
9.        Presidential Leadership and Regime Change in Brazil with Comparisons to the United States and Spanish America by Ted Goertzel
Authors

 
Preface
            This book was conceived by Ted Goertzel in the summer of 2012 as part of his life-long interest in Brazil and “elective affinity” with things Brazilian, going back to his days as a participant observer in the Brazilian student protests of 1966 to 1968. After publishing biographies of two of Brazil’s presidents, he found that there was very little scholarly literature on the role of the presidency in Brazilian politics and society. Rather than undertake such a comprehensive study on his own, he decided to consult some members of the Brazilian Studies Association to find colleagues who shared an interest in putting the Brazilian presidency in an historical perspective and a comparative context.
The experts who responded came from different countries – Brazil, England and the United States – and varied widely in their ideological and dispositions and professional backgrounds. We have made no effort to homogenize the chapters; each has a clear authorial voice. Paulo Roberto de Almeida, a diplomat doublé as academic, responded very enthusiastically to this project, and was able to contribute with his life-long acquaintance of all-things Brazilian and as well as a deep knowledge of American Brazilianists, a by-product of his “elective affinities” with this community of scholars.
The Brazilian Protests of mid-2013 took place as we were working on this project and stimulated us to think as much about Brazil’s future as its past. While the protests were largely unexpected in Brazil, they fitted into theories of presidential leadership and regime change. We wanted to use our historical and comparative research to offer what insight we could into the future.
We also wanted to make our work available in October, 2014, when interest would be high because of the Brazilian presidential elections. So we took advantage of e-book technology to bring the reader a volume that is both timelier and less expensive than traditionally published volumes. We plan to use the same technology to update the volume after the elections, and we invite readers to contact us with comments and suggestions, as well as with corrections for any errors they may find.
We expect this work to offer, both for scholars and for the general public, a comprehensive understanding of the Brazilian political system in its contemporary developments and challenges.
Ted Goertzel
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
September 2014


Introduction

By Ted Goertzel


This book is suitable for students of Latin American history, politics and economics, as well as for journalists, diplomats, activists, business people, and anyone interested in Brazil. It is up-to-date, but also deeply rooted in Brazilian history and in a concern with lasting social problems. The chapters can be read separately, although readers sketchy on Brazilian history might do best to begin with the first chapter, by ted Goertzel, which introduces the fascinating characters who played and are playing the leading roles in the drama of Brazilian politics.
The second chapter, by Paulo Roberto Almeida, covers Brazilian economic history from the time of the Empire to the present day. It is eminently readable with no economic abstractions, but with some statistical information. It focuses on major changes in the economic regime, not on day-to-day fluctuations in economic indicators, but on major trends. The first two chapters, taken together, give a substantial introduction to Brazil’s political economy.
Chapter three, by João Paulo M. Peixoto, gives a more detailed description of the politics and administrative practices of each of the Brazilian presidencies since 1964. Brazil was ruled by military governments from 1964 to 1985, but new presidents were installed regularly and there were important differences between their administrations. There are also many continuities, on both the political and the administrative level, between the military governments and the civilian governments that followed them. This chapter covers much of what is distinctively Brazilian about Brazilian government, as distinct from other Latin American countries.
Chapter four, by Farida Jalalzai and Pedro G. dos Santos, brings a distinctly feminist perspective to a discussion of the Dilma Rousseff government, as well as to the accomplishments and promise of Marina Silva, her leading opponent in the 2014 presidential election. Dilma Rousseff was Brazil’s first female president, and the fact that her leading opponent for the presidency is also a woman shows the remarkable progress that Brazil has made on gender issues.
In Chapter five, Inês Signorini introduces a linguistic perspective in examining the controversy over the speech patterns of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula was Brazil’s first president without a university or military academy education, and his speech patterns reflect a working class background that appealed to many of his supporters but disturbed some middle class voters. Inês Signorini’s discussion highlights some important issues in Brazilian political culture.
Chapter six, by Alipio de Sousa Filho, gives a sympathetic account of the Brazilian protests of 2013, emphasizing the goals of the Free Pass movement and of the anarchist activists.
 Chapter seven, by Sue Branford and Jan Rocha looks at the political impact of the 2013 protests from the perspective of partisan politics and social movements, and especially on the 2014 presidential election campaigns. It concludes with a discussion of the reaction of the Workers Party and others on the left to the Marina Silva campaign.
The last two chapters place the Brazilian drama in theoretical perspective, drawing on concepts from political science.
Chapter eight, by Guy Burton, looks at the role of popular uprisings in Brazilian history, placing the protest movements of 2013 in a historical perspective that includes the monarchist revolts, peasant mobilization in the Canudos in the Northeast and the Contestado revolt in the south, the Vaccine Revolt of 1904, the Constitutionalist Rebellion of 1932, the pro and anti-military intervention demonstrations of 1964, the Diretas Já movement to restore democracy, and the movement to impeach Fernando Collor. Burton uses theories of presidential leadership to explain governmental responses to these movements.
The last chapter, by Ted Goertzel, uses a theory of presidential leadership taken from the work of political scientist Stephen Skowronek to compare Brazilian patterns of regime change to those in the United States and in Spanish America. It offers some insight into the alternatives for Brazil’s future.
  ============

Wait for the pizza...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida