The Republic in transition

A generous collection of texts by Raymundo Faoro on the political transition at the end of the military dictatorship.

Raymundo Faoro was one of the most important Brazilian social scientists, a must-read reference in the study of contemporary Brazilian political theory. In these 61 articles—published in his weekly column in IstoÉ Senhor magazine between 1982 and 1988—it is inevitable to note a certain degree of permanence in his patrimonialist interpretation of Brazil. Analyzing these texts beyond the political context of redemocratization that stimulated them and bringing them to the present not only reveals the contingency of the transition from authoritarianism to the current regime: it also reveals the essential content of Brazilian politics. Are there still remnants of the pact we inherited? Thirty years have passed since 1988; ample time to assess, through this reading, whether Faoro was correct in his fears.