UNBREAKABLE: DEVELOPMENTALISM AND MILITARY RULE IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This is a study of developmentalism as the ideology that guides economic policy in Brazil. The focus is the military regime that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. The main argument is that, contrary to what most of the literature says, the military coup did not represent a fatal blow to developmentalism. This work summarizes the history of developmentalism and its consolidation to show that, by the time General Castelo Branco took over in 1964, developmentalism was so deep-seated in the Brazilian economic thinking that even a president with ample access to coercive instruments could not eliminate it. This thesis demonstrates that developmentalism resisted and returned much stronger in the subsequent military governments.