Planters and the State: the Pursuit of Hegemony in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1889-1930). (Volumes I and II).

This study provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the collective actions of coffee producers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 1920 and 1930. Its main goal is to clarify the conditions under which export sector elites mobilize and act cohesively to promote their political leadership and hegemony, and how this may condition the transition to industrialization and the deepening of a capitalist social order in dependent societies. Elite collective action is gauged here in terms of the extent of associational mobilization and differentiation and of active agreement or disagreement with respect to major issues. The centerpiece of the evidence is a sample of collective action events culled largely from the three most important newspapers of the period and analyzed by computer. The examination of the claims and participants in these events made possible the detection and assessment of factionalism and cleavages within the coffee export elite. The analyses show increasing levels of associational and political action by traditional coffee elites. These aimed largely at the state government and involved repeated dem and s of immigration programs, tax reform and control of regulatory mechanisms affecting the export sector. The data also show increasing levels of rancor with the government and factionalism within and between the planter organizations. The durability of these claims and cleavages was corroborated by the distribution of claim-making across the coffee zone and their continuity through time. By mid-decade, a veritable rupture was brewing between a group of traditional planters and statemakers. From that point on there took shape a generalized offensive to reaffirm traditional coffee elite dominance and hegemony in which Paulista economic elites conspired, organized or supported dissident political organizations antagonistic to the ruling party and the regime. The findings from the Sao Paulo case show that export sector expansion may lead to processes of differentiation which hamper, rather than promote, planter political capacity; and which may create political conflict rather than integration and consolidation. They also challenge the notion that large estate owners can easily maintain their hold over the export economy and subsequent processes of development and industrialization.PhDSocial structureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159547/1/8324180.pd