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The Rise of Middle Class and Middle Management in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

L. C. Bresser Pereira
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Brazil, during the past thirty years, has undergone extensive social and economic change, amounting to a Brazilian “Industrial Revolution”. It is always somewhat arbitrary to assign dates to broad historical events, but, if establishment of a starting point for the Industrial Revolution would aid in its understanding, the best date is probably 1930. In the economic field, it is true, World War One represented a first step; in the cultural field, the Week of Modern Art (1922 in Sao Paulo) was the first significant manifestation of a really Brazilian culture. But in both cultural and economic fields, and especially in the political field, the Revolution of 1930 (when Getúlio Vargas came to power), and the world depression beginning in 1929, are the most important events. The phase that many sociologists, economists, and historians call either the National Revolution or the Industrial Revolution, the stage that W. W. Rostow prefers to call the take-off period, began at that time in Brazil.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 1962 , pp. 313 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1962

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References

1 Rostow, W. W., The Stages of Economic Growth — A Non-Communist Manifesto, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1961 Google Scholar.

2 From 1949 to 1960, the rate of growth of the national income was between 5 and 6 per cent a year. From 1945 to 1954, it was exactly 6.2 per cent; income per capita increased at the rate of 3.8 per cent during this period. While the participation of agriculture in the gross national product decreased, the participation of industry increased from 13 per cent in 1939 to about 20 per cent in recent years. (Source: Equipe da Renda Nacional da Fundação Getúlio Vargas).

3 Nelson Werneck Sodré, A Revolução Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, Livraria José. Olimpio, 1958, p. 46.

4 Hélio Jaguaribe, O ‘Nacionalismo na Atualidade Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, Instituto Superior de Estudos Brasileiros, 1958, p. 41.

5 Census of 1940 and 1950.

6 These social and economic changes occurred throughout Brazil, but they varied very much in intensity, depending upon the region. The center-west and the north continued to be nearly deserted. Brasília, among other things, is an attempt to solve this problem. The Industrial Revolution occurred in the south, particularly in the triangle formed by the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte. The northeast, which presents a relatively-high density of population, did not industrialize; it has remained basically agricultural and semi-feudal. According to the Equipe da Renda Nacional da Fundação Getúlio Vargas, in 1956, the per capita income in the south was 18,431.60 cruzeiros against 5,132.60 cruzeiros in the northeast.

7 Lambert, Jacques, The Brésil, Structure Sociale et Institutions Politiques, Paris, Colin, 1953 Google Scholar.

8 Quoted by Guerreiro Ramos, A Redução Sociológica, Rio de Janeiro, ISEB, Ministerio da Educação, 1958, p. 38.

9 Source: 1950 Census.

10 Hélio Jaguaribe, op. cit., p. 83.

11 Drucker, Peter F., The New Society, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1949, p. 2 Google Scholar.

12 Mills, C. Wright, White Collar, New York, Oxford University Press, 1953, p. 65 Google Scholar.

13 This school of business administration is the result of a joint effort by a Brazilian foundation (Fundação Getúlio Vargas), which owns and controls it, the U. S. Government through the International Cooperation Administration, and the Graduate School of Business Administration of Michigan State University.

14 Berle, Adolf A. Jr., and Means, Gardiner C., The Modern Corporation and Private Property, New York, Macmillan, 1932, 1950 edition, p. 70 Google Scholar.