The “Portugalization” of Brazil under debate: the times of the Brazilian political transition (1973-1988)

Abstract

This article analyzes one of the intellectual debates surrounding the possibilities of political transition in Brazil between the 1970s and 1980s, which connected the Brazilian and Portuguese contexts. The notion of the “Portugalization” of Brazil, formulated by Philippe C. Schmitter between 1971 and 1973, is taken as an historical evidence and analytical axis to understand some of the expectations about the political transition, highlighting that academic and political debates in the 1970s involved an attempt to synchronize the temporality of political disputes in Brazil with other processes of transformation in authoritarian regimes. Initially, the idea of ​​“Portugalization” was formulated as a perspective for the institutionalization of the dictatorship, ensuring developments analogous to the Portuguese regime, then under the so-called “spring” of Marcello Caetano. The Carnation Revolution in 1974 would give rise to new uses for this formulation, which was criticized and reinterpreted in political debates, in the Brazilian press, and in intellectual elaborations. On the other hand, the electoral victories of the opposition from that year onwards accentuated the perception, which gained traction in the 1980s, of a specific temporality for the Brazilian transition, distinct from international models. The forgotten debate about the “Portugalization” of Brazil is an indication of the expansion of the sphere of political discussions in the country regarding the political transition, affirming its asynchronies and singularities, even if traversed by references and disputes on an international scale.