Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation

The peaceful transfer of power to a civilian president in Brazil in March 1985 marked the end of one of Latin America's most enduring and--until the economic crisis of the 1980s--economically dynamic military regimes. In this companion volume to the classicAuthoritarian Brazil, a distinguished group of Brazilian and American scholars--Albert Fishlow, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Thomas Skidmore among them--analyzes the tortuous, decade-long process, known asabertura, by which dictatorship gave way to civilian rule. As the first volume on Brazil to address the crucial theoretical and practical questions of both democratic transition and consolidation,Democratizing Brazil focuses specifically on the severe problems that the country now faces as a fledgling democracy.
Based on a wealth of information, the contributors provide a penetrating and comprehensive examination of the 1974-88 period in Brazilian history, exploring not only the larger political struggles between government and opposition but also the role played by economic policy, the debt crisis, and community-based movements led by the Church, neighborhood associations, women, and trade unions.