The Brazilian Developmentalist State in Historical Perspective: Revisiting the 1950s in Light of Today's Challenges

Abstract

The paper assesses the debates between influential writers and decision makers involved in the fast-paced industrialization Brazil embarked upon in the 1950s. Although the period was shaped by high rates of economic growth championed by charismatic nationalist leaders, disagreements pertaining to the role and configuration of the developmental state gave rise to a hybrid agenda of development which combined both liberalizing and interventionist strategies. Through precarious political compromises, persuasion, and a high degree of demiurgic ambition, the federal Brazilian state advanced a bold project of material and symbolic modernization of important sectors of the national society. In the end, however, a combination of internal disputes and a long legacy of socio-spatial inequalities prevented the achievement of a sustainable course of national development, thus bequeathing the country several unanswered issues which gain further relevance today as Brazil assumes a relevant position within the realms of an ever more complex and interdependent global economy.

Keywords:

• national developmentalism
• Vargas
• Kubitschek
• industrialization
• economic growth
• ISEB
• Neo-liberalism
• Brazil
• Latin America

Notes

 1. Vargas first becomes Brazil's president in 1930 in a military movement that revamped the institutional bases of the country. In 1951 he is elected president on an ambitious platform of industrial promotion, but his term in office is curtailed by a dramatic suicide in August, 1954. Juscelino Kubitschek (known by the initials JK) served as the country's president between 1956 and 1961. JK built upon Vargas' earlier institutional reforms to pursue an even bolder agenda of fast-paced industrialization. In the more recent period (which will be discussed later in this text), Fernando Henrique Cardoso governed the country from 1995 to 2003 while Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva served between 2003 and 2011 and was eventually succeeded by Dilma Rousseff.

 2. Célia M. L. Costa (ed.), Impasse na Democracia Brasileira, 1951–1954: Coletânea de Documentos, Rio de Janeiro, Editora de Fundação Getúlio Vargas, 1983; and Maria C. D'Araújo, O Segundo Governo Vargas 1951–1954: Democracia, Partidos e Crise Política, Rio de Janeiro, J. Zahar, 1982.

 3. Of special relevance, see Joseph Smith, Brazil and the United States: Convergence and Divergence, Athens, University of Georgia Press, 2010; Margarita López-Maya, ‘The Change in the Discourse of US–Latin American Relations from the End of the Second World War to the Beginning of the Cold War,’ In Review of International Political Economy, vol. 2, No.1 (Winter, 1995), pp. 135–149; Pedro Malan, ‘Relações Econômicas Internacionais do Brasil (1945–1964),’ in Bóris Fausto, ed., História Geral da Civilização Brasileira, Tomo III, Vol. 4, no. 11, (São Paulo, Difel, 1984), p. 60–64; and Monica Hirst, ‘O Pragmatismo Impossível: A Política Externa do Segundo Governo Vargas (1951–1954),’ in Cena Internacional, Ano 1, No. 3, 2003, pp. 1–33.

 4. On details of Kubitschek's foreign policy goals and projects, see Gerson Moura, ‘Avanços e Recuos: A Política Externa de JK,’ in Angela de Castro Gomes (ed.), O Brasil de JK. Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 1991, pp. 23–42; and Pio Penna Filho, ‘A Política Externa Brasileira do Governo Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–1961),’ in Cena Internacional, Ano 1. No. 1, 1999, pp. 121–140.

 5. Joseph L. Love, A Construção do Terceiro Mundo: Teorias do Subdesenvolvimento na Romênia e no Brasil, São Paulo, Paz e Terra, 1998.

 6. On this path of ever autonomous mobilization on the part of industrial labour, see Rafael R. Ioris, ‘Fifty Years in Five and What is in it for us? Development Promotion, Populism, Industrial Workers and the Case of Carestia in 1950s Brazil’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 44:2, May 2012, pp. 261–284.

 7. Clóvis Faro and Salomão L. Q. Silva, ‘A Década de 50 e o Programa de Metas’, in Ângela. C. Gomes (ed.), O Brasil de JK, Rio de Janeiro, FGV, 1991, pp. 44–70.

 8. Fundo Conselho do Desenvolvimento. 1Q, SDE, Box 3157, available at the National Archive in Rio de Janeiro.

 9. Maria C. Tavares, Da Substituição de Importações ao Capitalismo Financeiro, 9th edition, Rio de Janeiro, J. Zahar, 1981.

10. Fundo Conselho do Desenvolvimento. 1Q, SDE, Boxes 3149 and 3150, available at the National Archive in Rio de Janeiro.

11. Conselho do Desenvolvimento, Relatório sobre a Meta 27: Indústria Automobilística, Rio de Janeiro, Presidência da República, 1959, p. 22.

12. Werner Baer, Brazilian Economy: Growth and Development, 5th edition, Westport, Greenwood Press, 2001.

13. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Estatísticas Históricas do Brasil. Séries Econômicas, Demográficas e Sociais–de 1950 a 1988. Fundação IBGE, 1990, 2 ed., p. 177.

14. In addition to the works already cited above, see: Luiz C. Bresser–Pereira, ‘De la CEPAL y el ISEB a la Teoría de la Dependencia’, Desarrollo Economico, 46:183, 2006, pp. 419–439; Renato P. Colistete, ‘Productivity, Wages, and Labor Politics in Brazil, 19451962’, The Journal of Economic History, 67:1, 2007, pp. 93–127; Carlos Lessa, ‘Fifteen Years of Economic Policy in Brazil’, Economic Bulletin for Latin America, 9:2, 1964, pp. 153–214; and Cliff Welch, ‘Keeping Communism Down on the Farm: The Brazilian Rural Labor Movement During the Cold War’, Latin American Perspectives, 33:3, 2006, pp. 28–50.

15. On the format of this so–called ‘state of compromise’ which would perform the role of leading the process of Import Substitute Industrialization in Brazil see Octávio Ianni, Industrialização e Desenvolvimento Social no Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira, 1963; Octávio Ianni, Estado e Planejamento Econômico no Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira, 1986; and especially Franciso C. Weffort, O Populismo na Política Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, Paz e Terra, 1978.

16. Timothy King, Mexico: Industrialization and Trade Policies since 1940, London & New York, Oxford University Press, 1970; Barbara Stallings, Class Conflict and Economic Development in Chile, 1958–1973, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1978; Marie–Ange Veganzones with Carlos Winograd, Argentina in the 20th Century: An Account of Long-awaited Growth, Paris, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1997; and Carlos Wise, Reinventing the State: Economic Strategy and Institutional Change in Peru, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2003.

17. Brazil grew threefold in the decade and annual growth in the area of capital goods averaged 23 per cent between 1955 and 1960. For detailed figures, see Presidência da República, Relatório Geral do Conselho do Desenvolvimento, vol. 4, p. 5, Brasilia, Presidência da República, 1960; and Ministério do Planejamento, Índices de Crescimento Econômico: Médio do Produto Real na Indústria, tab. 1, vol. 1, p. 32, Brasilia, Ministério do Planejamento, 1967. The most important works advancing this position include: Maria V. M Benevides, O Governo Kubitschek: Desenvolvimento Econômico e Establidade Política,1956–1961, Rio de Janeiro, Paz e Terra, 1976; Edgard Carone, A República Liberal, 1945–1964, São Paulo, DIFEL, 1985; Sonia Draibe, Rumos e Metamorfoses: Um Estudo sobre a Constituição do Estado e as Alternativas da Industrialização no Brasil, 1930–1960, Rio de Janeiro, Paz e Terra, 1985; Celso Lafer, JK e o Programa de Metas (1956–1961): Processo de Planejamento e Sistema Político no Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, FGV Editora, 2002; Luciano Martins, Industrialização, Burguesia Nacional e Desenvolvimento, Rio de Janeiro, Saga, 1968; Aluísio Napoleão, Juscelino Kubitschek: Audácia, Energia, Confiança, Rio de Janeiro, Bloch, 1988; José A. de Oliveira, JK: O Estadista do Desenvolvimento, Brasília, Memorial JK, 1991; Marly Rodrigues, A Década de 50: Populismo e Metas Desenvolvimentistas no Brasil, São Paulo, Atica, 1994; Hélio Silva and Maria C. R. Carneiro, Juscelino, o Desenvolvimento, 1956–61, São Paulo, Editora Três, 1983; and Thomas E. Skidmore, Politics in Brazil, 1930–1964: An Experiment in Democracy, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1967.

18. Leslie E. Armijo, ‘Public Policymaking in a Semi-Autonomous State: Brazilian Financial Modernization, 1950 to 1987’, Ph.D. Diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1989; and Barbara Geddes, Politician's Dilemma: Building State Capacity in Latin America, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996.

19. Lourdes Sola, Idéias Econômicas, Decisões Políticas: Desenvolvimento, Estabilidades, Populismo, São Paulo, Edusp, 1998.

20. Detailed information on the structures of the ISEB are very scarce as its records were destroyed (or made unavailable) by the military forces following the coup of 1964. ISEB was one of the first governmental agencies to be shut by the military regime installed in the coup of March 31, 1964. See Presidential Decree No. 53,884 of April 13, 1964, which extinguished the Institute. Some works on the history of the institution, however, do exist. Particularly important are: Alzira A. de Abreu, Nationalism et Action Politique au Brésil: Une Étude sur L'ISEB, Ph.D. Diss., Université René-Descartes, Paris V, 1975; Maria S. C. Franco, “O Tempo das Ilusões,” in Marilena Chauí and Maria S. C. Franco (eds), Ideologia e Mobilização Popular, São Paulo, Paz e Terra/Cedec, 1978; Simon Schwartzman, O Pensamento Nacionalista e os Cadernos de Nosso Tempo, Brasília, UnB, 1981; Caio N. de Toledo, ISEB: Fábrica de Ideologias, São Paulo: Ática, 1977; and Caio N. de Toledo (ed.), Intelectuais e Política no Brasil: A Experiência do ISEB, São Paulo, Revan, 2005.

21. Hélio Jaguaribe, ‘A Crise Brasileira’, Cadernos do Nosso Tempo, 1:1, 1953, pp. 120–160; Hélio Jaguaribe, Condições Institucionais do Desenvolvimento, Rio de Janeiro, ISEB, 1958; and Hélio Jaguaribe, O Nacionalismo na Atualidade Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, ISEB, 1958.

22. See Georges Balandier, “Sociologie de la Dependance,” in: Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie, vol. XIII, 1952; and Jean Paul Sartre, “Le Colonialisme est un Systhéme,” in: Les Temps Modernes, no. 123, 1953, pp. 273–1374.

23. In addition to the works by Jaguaribe already cited, see also Cândido Mendes de Almeida, Nacionalismo e Desenvolvimento. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos Afro-Asiáticos, 1963; Roland Corbisier, Formação e Problema da Cultura Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: ISEB, 1959, Alvaro Vieira Pinto, Ideologia e Desenvolvimento Nacional. Rio de Janeiro: ISEB, 1960; and Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, A Redução Sociológica. Rio de Janeiro: ISEB, 1958.

24. Roland Corbisier, Formação e Problema da Cultura Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, ISEB, 1959.

25. Álvaro V. Pinto, Ideologia e Desenvolvimento Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, ISEB, 1960, p. 74.

26. Álvaro V. Pinto, Consciência e Realidade Nacional, Rio de Janeiro: ISEB, 1962, p. 112.

27. Hélio Jaguaribe, Desenvolvimento Econômico e Desenvolvimento Político, Rio de Janeiro, Fundo de Cultura, 1962.

28. Luiz C. Bresser-Pereira, ‘O Conceito de Desenvolvimento do ISEB Rediscutido’, Dados, 47:1, 2004, pp. 49–84.

29. In this regard, see Campos' letter sent to Lucas Lopes, commenting on a draft version of the Candidate's Message that Lopes composed in May 1955; Campos' comments were sent to Lopes on June 2nd 1955 in Fundo Roberto Campos, RC.e.ag.1955.05.02, available at CPDOC, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro.

30. Roberto Campos, speech pronounced at ISEB's Inaugural Lecture on December 21 1955, RC.e.bnde.1955.06.30, p 51, available at CPDOC, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro.

31. Fundo Lucas Lopes: LL. pi.Lopes,L. 1962.0000, available at CPDOC, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, in Rio de Janeiro.

32. Ricardo Bielchowsky, O Pensamento Econômico Brasileiro: O Ciclo Ideológico do Desenvolvimentismo, Rio de Janeiro, Contraponto, 2004.

33. Florestan Fernandes, A Revolução Burguesa no Brasil: Ensaio de Interpretação Sociológica, São Paulo, Globo, 2005.

34. Fernando H. Cardoso and Enzo Falleto, Dependency and Development in Latin America, University of California Press, Berkley, 1979.

35. Fernando H. Cardoso, ‘Associated-dependent Development: Theoretical and Practical Implications,’ in Alfred Stepan (ed.), Authoritarian Brazil, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 142–176.

36. For a synthetic analysis of the convoluted path towards economic stability; see Alfredo Saad-Filho and Maria L. R. Mollo, ‘Inflation and Stabilization in Brazil: A Political Economy Analysis’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 34:2, spring 2002, pp. 109–135.

37. Celso Furtado, Economic Development of Latin America, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1970.

38. João C. Oliveira, ‘Trade Policy, Market “Distortions’’, and Agriculture in the Process of Economic Development—Brazil, 1950–1974’, Journal of Development Economics, 24:1, November 1986, pp. 91–109.

39. Adalmir Marquetti, Eduardo Maldonado Filho, and Vladimir Lautert, ‘The Profit Rate in Brazil, 1953–2003’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 42:4, December 2010, pp. 485–504.

40. Paulo O. Rocha de Aragão, and Reeve Vanneman, ‘Technology Transfers and Managerial–Professional Employment: Brazilian Manufacturing, 1960–1975’, Latin American Research Review, 25:1, 1990, pp. 87–101.

41. Diana Alarcon and Terry McKinley, ‘Beyond Import Substitution: The Restructuring Projects of Brazil and Mexico’, Latin American Perspectives, 19:2, 1992, pp. 72–87.

42. Antonio A. R. Ioris, ‘The Political Nexus between Water and Economics in Brazil: A Critique of Recent Policy Reforms’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 42:2, 2010, pp. 231–250.

43. Eli Diniz, ‘Democracy, State, and Industry Continuity and Change between the Cardoso and Lula Administrations’, Latin American Perspectives, 38:3, May 2011, pp. 59–77.

44. Francisco Oliveira, ‘A Clonagem’, Piauí 61, 2011, p. 34.

45. Gabriel Palma, ‘Por que a América Latina Não Cresce como a Ásia?’ Carta Maior, http://www.cartamaior.com.br/templates/materiaMostrar.cfm?materia_id = 19522, accessed 02 February 2012.

46. Paulo R. Almeida, ‘Uma Política Externa Engajada: A Diplomacia do Governo Lula’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 47:1, January–June 2004, pp. 162–184; Brazil as a Regional Player and an Emerging Global Player, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Briefing Papers, No. 8, July 2007, São Paulo; Adriano de Freixo, Adriano, et. al., Política Externa Brasileira na Era Lula: um Balanço, Rio de Janeiro, Apicuri, 2011; and Tullo Vigevani and Gabriel Cepaluni, ‘Lula's Foreign Policy and the Quest for Autonomy through Diversification’, Third World Quarterly, 28:7, 2007, pp. 1309–1326.