Abstract

Schwartzman, Simon "Political Representation and Political Co-optation in Brazil; Representacion y Cooptación Politica en el Brasil. Desarrollo Economico; 1971, 11, 41, Apr-Jun, 15-53. Tr by Quinteros de Rusquellas, M.H.

A theoretical framework to analyze the structure & the transformations of the Brazilian pol'al system is advanced from the study of the relationships between State & society in Brazil from the end of the Colonial period to the Revolution of 1930. The existence of a patrimonialist State which is not destroyed by the country's separation from Portugal, emphasized the need to consider the policial processes arising from the State as oftentimes autonomous & capable of influencing the development & transformations of the productive & of the social stratification systems. This view challenges the more usual interpretative model which considers the pol'al system as a consequence of a given level & distributuion of the means of production & of the related forms of soc stratification. From this is derived the distinction between systems of pol'al representation, which approximate this model, & systems of pol'al co-optation, which are more similar to the former model. Analysis of Brazilian pol'al history seem, first, to substantiate the view that these 2 systems of pol'al participation tend to coexist; second, that while the system of pol'al representation develops itself in the São Paulo area, the system of pol'al co-optation is based on the Central & Northeastern states of less dynamic econ life. Finally, historical evidence seems to support the view that the system of pol'al cooptation tends to be the dominant system, therefore explaining the pol'al marginalization of the state of Sao Paulo within the Federation, one of the outstanding charactericts of the Brazilian pol'al system. HA (Copyright 1974, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) <