Quando o Brasil era moderno: o Estado antes da crise do Estado

This article proposes and develops an analytical scheme based on historical neo-institutionalism to explain the genesis of State capacities through exclusively political variables. Taking the case of the exponential growth of State power during the Brazilian “Estado Novo” regime (1937-1945) as my problem, I seek to reflect on the empirical determinants and, as deriving from them, the theoretical criteria that are responsible for accounting for three simultaneous occurrences: decision-making centralization at the head of the Federal Executive, influence of formal government institutions on processes of recruitment and selection of political personnel and unequal sharing of decision-making power among different elite groups. These three processes lie at the base of the building of State authority over society (“sovereignty”) and of the nationalization of structures of domination. They function as a pre-condition for shifting models of economic development during the first half of the 20th century. Through comparisons, these variables may enable us to think about the opposite movement that characterizes the late 20th century, in which – given the crisis of the “national- developmentalist State” – there is a resulting erosion of State capacities and constitution of a new economic dependence