From bureaucratic mediation to mediation party: political aspects of center-periphery relations in Brazil

Abstract

This article deals with political resources and linkages in intergovernamental relations in Brazil, defined as wider than party to include also public opinion and bureaucratic mediaton. A crucial argument is that political resources and linkages have been determining the other resources and linkages leading to a process of bargaining and negotiation and restraining the capacity of the National State to penetrate all aspects of every-day life and simply to control functional and territorial

powers from above. Contrary to what has now become almost conventional wisdom in Brazil, the centre has faced increasing countervailing powers and the regime has been less consistent and strong than it looked at first glance.

Joining those few works, such as Cardoso's and Sarle's, wich have recently shifted the emphasis from the coercive to the coalitional aspects of authoritarianism, the article thus contributes to alter the mainstream of political analysis on Brazil.