" Sociological works by Fernando Henrique Cardoso return to bookstores.
The Construction of Democracy: Studies on Politics seeks to understand Brazil after the establishment of the civil-military dictatorship in 1964. It discusses fundamental questions about the nature of the regime, its strengths, which enabled it to survive, and its weaknesses, through which problems crept in. As these problems grew, the theme of the transition to democracy and the dilemmas of consolidating a bureaucratic order gained prominence.
By seeking to understand new situations, the author enriched political sociology not only with a new discussion of development on the periphery of the capitalist system, but also with the formulation of original concepts. The "bureaucratic rings," for example, allowed us to understand, as early as the early 1970s, how the decision-making process took place and how the concrete interests of the ruling classes were felt within the state. The illusion of the socialism-or-fascism dilemma presented as inevitable for Latin America was also discussed and debated by the author.
The final chapters of *The Construction of Democracy* reflect FHC's growing political involvement before becoming president. His analysis addresses individual and collective political actors, and his style becomes lighter. A major question, however, continues to instigate his reflection and guide his political action: what are the indispensable conditions for democratizing society and democratically institutionalizing public life?
