Having experienced a period of crisis, the young scholars included in this anthology provide evidence that critical periods can be favorable to the flourishing of the social sciences and that crises in society and the polity may provide new incentives for the profession. The authors have used the most critical period of Brazil's change from a liberal to an authoritarian government to further their training in Europe and the United States, returning to their country to shed new light on past and current events. They have adapted their training to a non-liberal environment and combined local research with a universalistic orientation in their analyses of Brazilian social structure. This book investigates the roles of the peasantry in Brazilian society, past and present. It describes the pact established between traditional rural elites and the central government, which favored the previous populistic style of urban politics but left unaltered the rural social structure. In addition to analyzing the political trade-offs between the traditional elite and the central government, the authors focus on the class structure within which peasant leagues emerged. The country's political development is analyzed through a bi-polar political structure wherein populist and authoritarian regimes alternate in power. Other aspects of the military government's impact are discussed through the use of public policy models aimed at analyzing the output of both liberal and authoritarian regimes. Continuity between the current administration and previous authoritarian governments is shown as well as new developments, such as changes in municipal taxation, which allow for the emergence of new technical elites. The increase in authoritarian legislation is discussed within this analytical framework, as is the expansion of entrepreneurial activities. This book brings together the analytical result of recent research by a distinguished group of young Brazilian social scientists. It is ... the first book written in English about Brazil by Brazilians and, as such, represents an extremely important contribution to the literature ... An up-to-date selected bibliography on* social science research in Brazil from 1960-77 is an essential reference point for all future undertakings. Shepard Forman, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Originally published: Monthly Review Press, 1967.

The first social history examining all aspects of Brazil's radical transition from a predominantly rural society to an urban one.

There is an increasing awareness that access to financial services can contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction. This study focuses on the delivery of financial services in Brazil, one of the world's most important emerging financial markets. It examines different aspects of financial service provision, and explores approaches to address problems of financial exclusion. Topics discussed include: microfinance schemes; private banking; rural finance systems; institutional infrastructure; and the role of government policy.

After decades of stagnation, the size of Latin America's middle class recently expanded to the point where, for the first time ever, the number of people in poverty is equal to the size of the middle class. This volume investigates the nature, determinants and possible consequences of this remarkable process of social transformation. We propose an original definition of the middle class, tailor-made for Latin America, centered on the concept of economic security and thus a low probability of falling into poverty. Given our definition of the middle class, there are four, not three, classes in Latin America. Sandwiched between the poor and the middle class there lies a large group of people who appear to make ends meet well enough, but do not enjoy the economic security that would be required for membership of the middle class. We call this group the 'vulnerable'. In an almost mechanical sense, these transformations in Latin America reflect both economic growth and declining inequality in over the period. We adopt a measure of mobility that decomposes the 'gainers' and 'losers' in society by social class of each household. The continent has experienced a large amount of churning over the last 15 years, at least 43% of all Latin Americans changed social classes between the mid 1990s and the end of the 2000s. Despite the upward mobility trend, intergenerational mobility, a better proxy for inequality of opportunity, remains stagnant. Educational achievement and attainment remain to be strongly dependent upon parental education levels. Despite the recent growth in pro-poor programs, the middle class has benefited disproportionally from social security transfers and are increasingly opting out from government services. Central to the region's prospects of continued progress will be its ability to harness the new middle class into a new, more inclusive social contract, where the better-off pay their fair share of taxes, and demand improved public services.

This second edition offers an unparallelled look at Brazil in the twentieth century, including in-depth coverage of the 1930 revolution and Vargas's rise to power; the ensuing unstable democratic period and the military coups that followed; and the reemergence of democracy in 1985. It concludes with the recent presidency of Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, covering such economic successes as record-setting exports, dramatic foreign debt reduction, and improved income distribution. The second edition features numerous new images and a new bibliographic guide to recent works on Brazilian history for use by both instructors and students. Informed by the most recent scholarship available, Brazil: Five Centuries of Change, Second Edition, explores the country's many blessings--ethnic diversity, racial democracy, a vibrant cultural life, and a wealth of natural resources.

This book analyzes the contribution of financial market institutions—banks and the stock and bond exchange—to São Paulo's economic modernization at the turn of the twentieth century.

A multi-disciplinary team of authors analyze the economics of Brazilian deforestation using a large data set of ecological and economic variables. They survey the most up to date work in this field and present their own dynamic and spatial econometric analysis based on municipality level panel data spanning the entire Brazilian Amazon from 1970 to 1996. By observing the dynamics of land use change over such a long period the team is able to provide quantitative estimates of the long-run economic costs and benefits of both land clearing and government policies such as road building. The authors find that some government policies, such as road paving in already highly settled areas, are beneficial both for economic development and for the preservation of forest, while other policies, such as the construction of unpaved roads through virgin areas, stimulate wasteful land uses to the detriment of both economic growth and forest cover.

This book explores the philanthropy of Brazilian elites during a key period in recent Brazilian history, from Workers Party president Lula's last term in office through to the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Against this backdrop of political upheaval, the book asks what philanthropy can reveal about the role of corporate and wealth elites in upholding the structures of socioeconomic inequality that continue to define Brazilian society. The book argues that around the world the private sector's growing engagement in international development has led to the emergence of a global philanthropic project centred on practices of "philanthrocapitalism" and "social finance," which ultimately seeks to legitimise global capitalism and the elite interests it serves. Drawing on an in-depth and wide-ranging ethnographic study among philanthropists and their advisors in over 30 Brazilian foundations and intermediary organisations, the book combines a structural critique of the capitalist ideologies underlying philanthropic practice with a robust exploration into the ways in which wealthy Brazilians appropriate philanthropy directly to legitimise elite reproduction and the accumulation of wealth. Researchers across Latin American studies, development studies and the anthropology of development will find this book a timely contribution to the under-researched areas of elite studies and the study of philanthropy.